Nancy Lacore, a former Navy admiral who was fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, advanced to a Democratic primary runoff for the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina, according to The Associated Press.

Also advancing to a runoff against Lacore is Mac Deford, a Coast Guard veteran who was previously the general counsel for the town of Hilton Head Island.

Whoever wins the runoff on June 23 will face a daunting task in the fall: flipping a seat held by a Republican, Rep. Nancy Mace, who ran unsuccessfully for governor instead of seeking reelection. The coastal district was redrawn in 2021 to be more reliably Republican. Mace won reelection by double digits in each of her past two elections.

But Lacore has a higher-than-average profile for a political newcomer. Last August, she was fired by Hegseth after 35 years in the Navy. She has said she was given no cause for the firing, which came at a time when Hegseth was removing military officials who had delivered intelligence assessments that angered President Donald Trump.

From the start of her campaign, Lacore has proved to be a prolific fundraiser. She raised $500,000 in her first two weeks as a candidate and raised more than $1.4 million through late May, according to federal campaign finance records.

Lacore is also one of 12 House candidates nationwide this cycle who are backed by the Bench, a group led by longtime Democratic strategists that recruits and advises candidates in both traditional battleground districts and contests that are seen as harder to win.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Nick Corasaniti and Bayliss Wagner
c. 2026 The New York Times Company