For a bit of positive news, I’ve taken this from the “A Mighty Girl” page on Facebook:
Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore one of the senior military leaders fired without cause by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last summer just finished first in a crowded Democratic primary in her bid to flip a Republican House seat in South Carolina. On Tuesday, she led a field of candidates in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, and now heads to a June 23 runoff against former Hilton Head town attorney Mac Deford to decide who carries the Democratic banner this fall.
"I am so proud of what we've accomplished in just over 4 months of campaigning," Lacore said after the race was called. "In that short amount of time, we've gathered so many volunteers and grassroots supporters. It's been truly humbling. And most importantly, we've earned more votes than any other candidate." The seat is open because its current occupant, Republican Nancy Mace, gave it up to run for governor -- a bid she lost in this week's GOP primary.
"After decades of service to our country, a career that started as a Navy pilot and finished as a three-star admiral, I was removed from my position without cause," Lacore declared in her campaign announcement. "I still have more to give, more to fight for, more work to do -- and I am not done serving."
As she told Reserve & National Guard Magazine, "I spent 35 years defending the Constitution and upholding the rights and freedoms that are in it. I'm concerned that is at risk right now."
Lacore is a trailblazer in every sense: a Navy veteran who began her career as a helicopter pilot and rose to become a three-star admiral and the 16th Chief of the Navy Reserve, where she led more than 60,000 sailors. A native of Albany, New York, she followed in her father's footsteps by accepting an ROTC scholarship to the College of the Holy Cross, earning her naval aviator wings in 1993.
Over three and a half decades, she accumulated approximately 1,300 flight hours in military aircraft, deployed to Afghanistan in 2011, commanded Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, and served as the 93rd Commandant of Naval District Washington before ascending to lead the Navy Reserve. Her awards include the Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, four Meritorious Service Medals, and four Navy Commendation Medals.
Her firing on August 22, 2025 exactly one year after taking command of the Navy Reserve came alongside Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Rear Adm. Milton Sands, who commanded the Navy SEALs. The Pentagon offered no explanation for her dismissal -- the same lack of transparency Hegseth has shown in firing dozens of America's most senior military leaders, some citing only a vague "loss of confidence."
Ironically, this unprecedented purge has been conducted by the least qualified Defense Secretary in modern history -- a former Fox News TV host with no senior military command experience, no experience managing large organizations, and no previous government service at any level.
This systematic dismantling of military leadership has alarmed national security experts across the political spectrum. Five former defense secretaries including retired Gen. Jim Mattis, Trump's own first defense secretary condemned the firings as "reckless" in a joint letter to Congress, asking for "immediate hearings to assess the national security implications" of the dismissals.
Former National Security Council member Kori Schake, a George W. Bush adviser, said the Trump administration is "squandering an enormous amount of talent." Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, a Marine officer who served in Iraq and now sits on the House Armed Services Committee, was blunter: "That's a recipe not just for a politicized military, but an authoritarian military. That's the way militaries work in Russia and China and North Korea."
In Lacore's case, her extensive military record and broader community service show the high caliber of leader that Hegseth has dismissed without cause. After returning from Afghanistan in 2012, she visited the Women in Military Service for America Memorial for the first time and found herself paging through a book devoted to the stories of women who died in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and realized that even after 24 years in the Navy and her own deployment to a war zone, she had no idea how many women had been killed.
"As a woman who had just served in Afghanistan, I really had no idea who had been killed, how many, what services," she said. "And so, I was like, 'You know what, I can do something about this.'"
So she did. In 2014, Lacore founded Valor Run, running 160 miles in 160 hours one mile for each of the 160 American servicewomen who died in Iraq and Afghanistan from Chesapeake, Virginia to the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, raising $33,000 for military charities.
Lacore's campaign is centered on putting people first affordability, opportunity, and honoring service. "Hard work should result in a stable life," she said. "Americans deserve a lower cost of living housing, healthcare, childcare, and daily essentials -- so families, seniors, veterans, and young Americans can build secure futures." With four of her six children now in the workforce, she knows the challenges young people, in particular, are facing firsthand.
The fall race will be a steep climb -- by design. South Carolina's 1st District, which includes Charleston, Beaufort, and the surrounding Lowcountry, was redrawn by Republican lawmakers in 2021 to be far more reliably Republican.
A federal three-judge panel unanimously found that the new map was a racial gerrymander, ruling that mapmakers had moved tens of thousands of Black voters out of the district -- the panel said the plan had "bleached" Black voters out of the seat and made a "mockery" of traditional districting principles. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that finding in a 6-3 decision split along ideological lines, allowing the map to stand. Mace went on to win re-election by double digits under those lines, and Trump carried the district by 13 points in 2024.
But Democrats see Lacore as a uniquely strong candidate for difficult terrain. She has proven to be a prolific fundraiser, raising $500,000 in her first two weeks and more than $1.4 million by late spring, and she's one of just 12 House candidates nationwide this cycle backed by the Bench, a group led by veteran Democratic strategists that recruits and advises contenders in both battleground districts and races seen as harder to win. Combined with the backing of veterans' groups like VoteVets, it's a bet that her record and her story can reach across party lines in a way a typical challenger couldn't.
Nancy Lacore a decorated combat veteran, a three-star admiral, a mother of six, and the founder of a nonprofit to honor fallen servicewomen may be exactly that candidate. As she declared: "I've served my whole life, and I'm not done yet."
To learn more about Nancy Lacore's campaign and how to get involved, visit https://www.nancylacore.com/