A Democrat in a hotly contested House district in Colorado ridiculed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s workout routine in a social media post promoting his congressional campaign.

Another Democratic candidate in California invoked his name as she excoriated her Republican opponent for his support for the war with Iran — which she blames for higher prices Americans are paying at the pump.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who is in line to be speaker should his party win control of Congress, has repeatedly called for Hegseth to resign or to be fired. “One of the first things we’re going to do in the majority,” Jeffries said during a rally last week, “we’re going to run Pete Hegseth out of town.”

In the final weeks of a midterm congressional battle in which voters’ opposition to the war with Iran has become a major issue, Democrats are increasingly making Hegseth a main character in their campaign messaging.

It is an effort to turn one of President Donald Trump’s most recognizable Cabinet officials — and one who has been an unapologetic and visible cheerleader for a war that polls show is deeply unpopular — into a liability for Republicans’ fighting to keep their seats.

In a recent video he posted online, Manny Rutinel, a Democrat and former state legislator who is challenging Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., in one of the most competitive races in the country, featured unflattering footage of Hegseth working out with troops.

“This man is letting Trump raise your gas prices,” reads the type stamped on the video of a sweaty Hegseth seeming to struggle as he lifts weights alongside military personnel. “I’m going to put a stop to it,” it reads, as the video cuts to Rutinel doing pullups and lifting much bigger weights at the gym.

“Pete Hegseth is helping Trump start an unplanned forever war while Americans struggle here at home,” Rutinel wrote in a post circulating the video, which does not show Evans. “I’m running for Congress to stop them.”

More recently in San Diego, Marni von Wilpert, a city council member running for an open House seat against Jim Desmond, a Trump-endorsed Republican, used an appearance by Hegseth to call for an independent investigation into conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier that recently returned after a deployment of nearly 11 months amid reports of deteriorating morale and suicide attempts.

Hegseth had sailed back to port with the ship and praised the sailors for their performance in combat, presenting the carrier strike group with a Presidential Unit Citation as he pushed back against criticism of the deployment. But von Wilpert took the defense secretary to task, accusing her opponent of supporting a war that had exacted a heavy toll on military families.

“Secretary Hegseth owes their families answers about the deplorable conditions on board, not a photo op,” von Wilpert said.

Hegseth’s bravado, bellicose statements and dismissiveness toward members of Congress have generated an uncommon level of hostility even among members of his own party on Capitol Hill. The focus on him comes as Democrats work to force Republicans to pay a political price for the war.

It is an attempt to employ a strategy that both parties have long used to gain a political advantage in elections: turning prominent and divisive figures who are not on the ballot into a liability for candidates who are.

Cabinet officials are seldom the focus, but there is historical precedent for a defense secretary becoming a symbol of an unpopular war during a midterm election.

In 2006, Democrats in Congress singled out Donald Rumsfeld as they made President George W. Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq the main line of campaign attacks on Republicans. Bush repeatedly defended him, even declaring shortly before the midterm elections that he intended to keep him in office.

The day after voters handed Democrats control of Congress in what Bush called “a thumping” for Republicans, the president announced that Rumsfeld was stepping down, saying the Pentagon needed new leadership. The decision had been made before the election, though the White House had kept it private.

Trump has stood by Hegseth through repeated controversies. There is no public indication that he intends to replace him, though his decision this past week to overrule the secretary’s plan to livestream a military execution by firing squad raised new questions about Hegseth’s standing.

Republicans argue that Democrats who attack Hegseth are misjudging what motivates voters.

“Going after Secretary Hegseth — a decorated combat veteran — won’t move the needle outside of D.C.,” said Natalie Baldassarre, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.

White House officials said Hegseth is one of the administration’s most sought-after Cabinet secretaries for official appearances with Republican lawmakers in their districts.

“Secretary Hegseth is doing an incredible job leading the Pentagon, while Democrats have no agenda to improve the lives of the American people, just baseless targeting and obstruction,” said Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson.

Hegseth has sought out the political spotlight in ways few of his predecessors ever did.

He campaigned in May for Ed Gallrein, a Trump-backed Republican who went on to oust Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., an outspoken opponent of the war, in a primary. And he appeared in August at the Iowa State Fair with Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, who is facing one of the most competitive reelection races in the nation.

Those appearances drew criticism from some veterans who said he violated the long-standing tradition of defense secretaries’ avoiding partisan campaigning to preserve the military’s political neutrality.

“That line of the military as an institution — you know, that military loyalty is to the Constitution, not to a political party — and that line getting blurred, I think, is concerning,” said Jessica Finucan, a retired Air Force veteran and director of policy for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Hegseth’s defenders have emphasized that his campaign appearances were undertaken in his personal capacity.

There is evidence to suggest that Hegseth presents a tempting target. A Quinnipiac University poll last month found that just 32% of registered voters approved of his performance as defense secretary, while 57% disapproved. Among independents, 65% disapproved, and 56% of voters expressed little or no confidence in his military leadership.

Still, focus-group testing conducted by campaign consultants has not found that Hegseth evokes strong reactions among voters, according to people familiar with the research. That may help explain why the attacks have largely remained on social media and the campaign trail, rather than becoming the focus of paid television ads.

At the same time, Democrats have shown considerably less hesitation about discussing Hegseth’s removal from office than they have about the prospect of impeaching Trump. Jeffries has raised the idea several times, though removing Hegseth by impeachment would require a majority of the House and a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Robert Jimison
c. 2026 The New York Times Company