Thanks for this article. I'll definitely make a contribution to the Admiral's campaign. Let me mention another Democrat trying to unseat a Republican, in the 22nd CD in California. His name is Randy Villegas. He has a PhD in political science and is a professor at a local college. He is a son of farm workers. I live in a solidly blue district so our local Indivisible chapter wanted to focus on helping candidates in red districts and Randy is one of them. We had a meet and greet on zoom and everyone was totally blown by this guy! He is genuine and articulate and gave focussed intelligent and detailed answers to all our questions. In the June primary he is running against a "DINO". Please take a look and consider donating something to his campaign.
I wish the Admiral all the best in her endeavors and success in the election. We need more people like her in government, especially if we are going to survive the Trump regime as a country. I am sorry for what she had to go througn at the hands of Kegsbreath. I also appreciate her 35 years of service in the Navy. She is indeed an inspiration, unlike her former boss, who is a disgrace.
Good luck to her, and I hope there is a special place in hell for Kegsbreath, the DEI hire. Is "salt marsh" a code name for swamp? I lived in North Charleston on the naval base off and on for a year, and it was definitely a filled-in swamp. There are some lovely people in SC, and also some of the worst people in the country. The gated developments on Hilton Head have "plantation" in their names, like it's so charming. I just saw the vote on statues by the good old boy state legislature. I hope she can make a difference for the people in SC who are actually lovely and welcoming.
Firing someone like this is beyond appalling. Three-star admiral AND mother of six? Wow. I’d vote for her, and will send her a donation. Someone like her is truly the best of the best. And we have far too few of such people in Congress.
In a time when so many people dislike both parties and so many distrust politicians, choosing candidates who have achieved excellence outside of politics makes a lot of sense.
It might also mean more Members willing to back reforms since they haven’t gotten used to things like the amount of fundraising necessary to run a campaign.
You sure this is true? Remember that the author herself acknowledges the woman is at best less than fully comfortable running as a Democrat, and sidestepped the question of whether a Democrat controlled House should begin wholesale investigations against Trump and his acolytes next year, something which was endorsed by all her primary opponents without hesitation. And remember that, whilst she bragged about her Catholic faith, whatever that means to her does not mean she was also not immediately able to brag about her endorsement from Emily's List, a group which is not wishy-washy wrt its principal issue of importance, abortion rights.
Thing is, when you allow the sidestepping, you get what you get, which may well be that the sidestepper really would have told you what you did not want to hear, should you ignore the sidestepping and vote for her. Truth be told, Emily's List endorsement notwithstanding-- and I believe EL would never have given her their endorsement had she not been able to convince them her pro-abortion views were sincere, which I believe they certainly are-- otherwise Lacore really just does sound like an opportunistic DINO, and names like 'Kirsten Sinema' and 'Jeff Van Gundy' come to mind when I read this piece.
It will be a net to her credit thing, sure, though less than she thinks it will be, because, like it or not, many MAGA and MAGA-adjacent voters really think like Hegseth does, wrt women in the military. And even if the ultimate GOP nominee is not a veteran, Lacore's veteran status will not itself win her nearly as many vote-switchers, i.e,, voters who had voted GOP in the last election but will vote for Demo nominee Lacore in this one, to make much of a difference. And if there ends up being so tsunami-esque a Blue Wave this fall, so as to wash over SC-1, it would certainly be enough to elect whichever SC Democrat gets the nomination, and not just Lacore. We can of course debate just how likely any such wave would ever be....?
this is such a great piece, lauren. mt. pleasant/charleston is a remarkable part of the country that isn’t exactly what it seems. it’s ripe for this kind of change. thank you for the true journalism!!!!
The article was not bad, but she really should have named the other three Demo primary candidates and given us enough info about these candidates to decide whether Lacore would really be the best alternative for Demo primary voters there to choose.
Maybe, but the journalists writing these articles are the ones who have the time, access, resources, and professional skills to give us this sort of needed information in the first place, something we Bulwark+ members pay for, I, on the other hand, well the fact that my real name is 'Thomas P. Roche', which it is, is still something I am asking all comers here to take my word for, And if I posted a bio about myself, most of those details would be likely very hard for the average reader here to quickly and confidently verify as well. Anyone can appear here claiming to be whomever and to possess whatever 'in the know' info they present, claiming authority, IOW, and how would we know what to believe or why to believe it? At least, however, the Bulwark requires real names for posters, or at least, again, real names as in the name under which the member in question has signed up to the Bulwark under, however real that is, whereas a number of the newspapers and magazines I also have online subscriptions to, and which allow commenting on articles and columns, allow pseudonyms or chatroom-style monikers, which essentially everyone uses. Occasionally, on one such site, I will offer my opinion that the house should indeed start requiring real name posting, but I also always acknowledge I am not going to do this if no one else has to.
However personally he might have taken Hegseth's order to have him fire Lacore, Adm Kilby did not take it personally enough to tell Hegseth to pound sand and resign his own commission.
As to Lacore herself, there is a problem here, that this piece glosses over, not even deigning to name the other three Dems vying for the nomination for this seat-- she is obviously only at best a Democrat-of-convenience, and it is certainly the case that at least some of the Demo voters in that primary might care to choose a more authentic Democrat to be their nominee. Even in South Carolina, and esp since the Demo nominee willl still likely end up losing.
Sometimes the best candidate, is the one you can get elected. Would you want the perfect Democrat losing because they push the perfect Democrat agenda? Or win with someone that can get elected, and clearly has more integrity than anything MAGA can offer. I'm hoping primary voters have learned the problem with absolutism.
I am saying that the info we did get in this article, namely the candidate's occasionally obvious lack of comfort with her own choice to run here now AS a Democrat, coupled with her, alone amongst the D primary candidates running, sidestepping the what should be a no-brainer chance to commit to supporting vigorous House oversight investigations into Trump and Co. next year, should the Ds retake the majority, strongly suggests to me that she is not someone to be trusted, no.
As a veteran and an SC-1 constituent, I plan to support Admiral Lacore in the primary and the general election. We definitely need some real leadership after 6 years of Mace chaos! I’m hoping the admiral will appeal to a broad spectrum of our population here.
In my opinion, this is the best answer. Admiral Lacore could not have reached three star rank without showing real leadership and management ability. Both parties could use more members of Congress with those qualities.
The story is a great find. Nauseous and angry as I read of her termination from Navy Reserve leadership. On the edge of my seat with anticipation of where Lacoste can go. Thank you, Lauren!
One of the reasons why we have the best military in the world is because of our women, and yes, because of the diversity. Hitler thought America was a “mongrel” nation and believed that we were no match for the “master race”. The Japanese had similar views. Both the Germans and Japanese had the “Hegseth mentality” of total destruction of the enemy with no mercy. And yet, It was a diverse group of Allied armies (to include women) that crushed the Wehrmacht and Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. It made me so angry to read how ADM Lacore was treated. I am a member of VoteVets and I expect that they will be supporting her
Anyone who doubts the effectiveness of women in combat needs to read the history of women in the WWII Soviet forces. Hegseth is making the same mistake as the Axis leaders - dismissing the ability of people to fight because the idea is incompatible with his ideology.
Two things can be true at the same time: 1) Lacore was maltreated by Hegseth, which is likely the case both because of Hegseth's clear statements about his views on women serving in the military, and because neither he nor any of his spokescritters or other lackeys have ever attempted to offer a rationale for this action, but also 2) Lacore is at best a semi-Democrat, and it also almost certainly the case that the three unnamed individuals running against her for this nomination all have longer and ideologically purer commitment to the ideals of the Democratic party, which does matter to many primary voters, esp voters who come out to vote in primaries in districts, or even whole states, where their particular party is in the distinct minority. These people remain Aers in Ber districts because, ahem, they actually believe the views of A over those of B.
I posted this comment by accident as I was trying to edit it! In the first sentence, meant to say “of the diversity of our military.” Great article Lauren!
Thanks for this article. I'll definitely make a contribution to the Admiral's campaign. Let me mention another Democrat trying to unseat a Republican, in the 22nd CD in California. His name is Randy Villegas. He has a PhD in political science and is a professor at a local college. He is a son of farm workers. I live in a solidly blue district so our local Indivisible chapter wanted to focus on helping candidates in red districts and Randy is one of them. We had a meet and greet on zoom and everyone was totally blown by this guy! He is genuine and articulate and gave focussed intelligent and detailed answers to all our questions. In the June primary he is running against a "DINO". Please take a look and consider donating something to his campaign.
I wish the Admiral all the best in her endeavors and success in the election. We need more people like her in government, especially if we are going to survive the Trump regime as a country. I am sorry for what she had to go througn at the hands of Kegsbreath. I also appreciate her 35 years of service in the Navy. She is indeed an inspiration, unlike her former boss, who is a disgrace.
It is shamful what Pete Hegseth is doing to the military. Hopefully more of the fired ones can see their way into politics.
That should be an helpful item on their resume.
Good luck to her, and I hope there is a special place in hell for Kegsbreath, the DEI hire. Is "salt marsh" a code name for swamp? I lived in North Charleston on the naval base off and on for a year, and it was definitely a filled-in swamp. There are some lovely people in SC, and also some of the worst people in the country. The gated developments on Hilton Head have "plantation" in their names, like it's so charming. I just saw the vote on statues by the good old boy state legislature. I hope she can make a difference for the people in SC who are actually lovely and welcoming.
Firing someone like this is beyond appalling. Three-star admiral AND mother of six? Wow. I’d vote for her, and will send her a donation. Someone like her is truly the best of the best. And we have far too few of such people in Congress.
In a time when so many people dislike both parties and so many distrust politicians, choosing candidates who have achieved excellence outside of politics makes a lot of sense.
It might also mean more Members willing to back reforms since they haven’t gotten used to things like the amount of fundraising necessary to run a campaign.
It makes me sick to think of the people Hegseth has abused like this, particularly because of his blatant motives. Is there not any legal recourse?
Yeah, we throw their asses out ASAP.
Military promotion and retention policies are essentially just up to the military itself, per longstanding SCOTUS and Congressional policies.
So does the military not have the same discrimination protections that civilians do? I don't have any experience so I have no idea how it works.
This is a great candidate with wide appeal to independents, democrats and non MAGA republicans
You sure this is true? Remember that the author herself acknowledges the woman is at best less than fully comfortable running as a Democrat, and sidestepped the question of whether a Democrat controlled House should begin wholesale investigations against Trump and his acolytes next year, something which was endorsed by all her primary opponents without hesitation. And remember that, whilst she bragged about her Catholic faith, whatever that means to her does not mean she was also not immediately able to brag about her endorsement from Emily's List, a group which is not wishy-washy wrt its principal issue of importance, abortion rights.
I will gladly settle for a little sidestepping if it gives her more electability. Let's take a page from the say anything side.
"Would I overturn it? Roe v Wade is an established doctrine....." Blah blah blah.
Thing is, when you allow the sidestepping, you get what you get, which may well be that the sidestepper really would have told you what you did not want to hear, should you ignore the sidestepping and vote for her. Truth be told, Emily's List endorsement notwithstanding-- and I believe EL would never have given her their endorsement had she not been able to convince them her pro-abortion views were sincere, which I believe they certainly are-- otherwise Lacore really just does sound like an opportunistic DINO, and names like 'Kirsten Sinema' and 'Jeff Van Gundy' come to mind when I read this piece.
Her service in the Navy will go over well with many voters in this district.
It will be a net to her credit thing, sure, though less than she thinks it will be, because, like it or not, many MAGA and MAGA-adjacent voters really think like Hegseth does, wrt women in the military. And even if the ultimate GOP nominee is not a veteran, Lacore's veteran status will not itself win her nearly as many vote-switchers, i.e,, voters who had voted GOP in the last election but will vote for Demo nominee Lacore in this one, to make much of a difference. And if there ends up being so tsunami-esque a Blue Wave this fall, so as to wash over SC-1, it would certainly be enough to elect whichever SC Democrat gets the nomination, and not just Lacore. We can of course debate just how likely any such wave would ever be....?
this is such a great piece, lauren. mt. pleasant/charleston is a remarkable part of the country that isn’t exactly what it seems. it’s ripe for this kind of change. thank you for the true journalism!!!!
The article was not bad, but she really should have named the other three Demo primary candidates and given us enough info about these candidates to decide whether Lacore would really be the best alternative for Demo primary voters there to choose.
but isn’t the bulwark on this venue (substack) in order for that kind of feedback from those in the know?
Maybe, but the journalists writing these articles are the ones who have the time, access, resources, and professional skills to give us this sort of needed information in the first place, something we Bulwark+ members pay for, I, on the other hand, well the fact that my real name is 'Thomas P. Roche', which it is, is still something I am asking all comers here to take my word for, And if I posted a bio about myself, most of those details would be likely very hard for the average reader here to quickly and confidently verify as well. Anyone can appear here claiming to be whomever and to possess whatever 'in the know' info they present, claiming authority, IOW, and how would we know what to believe or why to believe it? At least, however, the Bulwark requires real names for posters, or at least, again, real names as in the name under which the member in question has signed up to the Bulwark under, however real that is, whereas a number of the newspapers and magazines I also have online subscriptions to, and which allow commenting on articles and columns, allow pseudonyms or chatroom-style monikers, which essentially everyone uses. Occasionally, on one such site, I will offer my opinion that the house should indeed start requiring real name posting, but I also always acknowledge I am not going to do this if no one else has to.
that should have been a part of sec 230 and a requirement of all social media accounts. 100% agree.
people would not be so reckless with their words- first off… but i have thought the same things.
However personally he might have taken Hegseth's order to have him fire Lacore, Adm Kilby did not take it personally enough to tell Hegseth to pound sand and resign his own commission.
As to Lacore herself, there is a problem here, that this piece glosses over, not even deigning to name the other three Dems vying for the nomination for this seat-- she is obviously only at best a Democrat-of-convenience, and it is certainly the case that at least some of the Demo voters in that primary might care to choose a more authentic Democrat to be their nominee. Even in South Carolina, and esp since the Demo nominee willl still likely end up losing.
Sometimes the best candidate, is the one you can get elected. Would you want the perfect Democrat losing because they push the perfect Democrat agenda? Or win with someone that can get elected, and clearly has more integrity than anything MAGA can offer. I'm hoping primary voters have learned the problem with absolutism.
I am saying that the info we did get in this article, namely the candidate's occasionally obvious lack of comfort with her own choice to run here now AS a Democrat, coupled with her, alone amongst the D primary candidates running, sidestepping the what should be a no-brainer chance to commit to supporting vigorous House oversight investigations into Trump and Co. next year, should the Ds retake the majority, strongly suggests to me that she is not someone to be trusted, no.
As a veteran and an SC-1 constituent, I plan to support Admiral Lacore in the primary and the general election. We definitely need some real leadership after 6 years of Mace chaos! I’m hoping the admiral will appeal to a broad spectrum of our population here.
In my opinion, this is the best answer. Admiral Lacore could not have reached three star rank without showing real leadership and management ability. Both parties could use more members of Congress with those qualities.
The story is a great find. Nauseous and angry as I read of her termination from Navy Reserve leadership. On the edge of my seat with anticipation of where Lacoste can go. Thank you, Lauren!
Appreciate the original reporting!
I think folks are mostly looking for fighters and authentic communicators, less so policy positions.
"I'll fight for you!" + that seems honest = winning message in 2026, imho.
Plus opposition to Trump, who I think is in for a fat L if gas and food prices get out of hand, which seems likely at this point.
One of the reasons why we have the best military in the world is because of our women, and yes, because of the diversity. Hitler thought America was a “mongrel” nation and believed that we were no match for the “master race”. The Japanese had similar views. Both the Germans and Japanese had the “Hegseth mentality” of total destruction of the enemy with no mercy. And yet, It was a diverse group of Allied armies (to include women) that crushed the Wehrmacht and Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. It made me so angry to read how ADM Lacore was treated. I am a member of VoteVets and I expect that they will be supporting her
Anyone who doubts the effectiveness of women in combat needs to read the history of women in the WWII Soviet forces. Hegseth is making the same mistake as the Axis leaders - dismissing the ability of people to fight because the idea is incompatible with his ideology.
Two things can be true at the same time: 1) Lacore was maltreated by Hegseth, which is likely the case both because of Hegseth's clear statements about his views on women serving in the military, and because neither he nor any of his spokescritters or other lackeys have ever attempted to offer a rationale for this action, but also 2) Lacore is at best a semi-Democrat, and it also almost certainly the case that the three unnamed individuals running against her for this nomination all have longer and ideologically purer commitment to the ideals of the Democratic party, which does matter to many primary voters, esp voters who come out to vote in primaries in districts, or even whole states, where their particular party is in the distinct minority. These people remain Aers in Ber districts because, ahem, they actually believe the views of A over those of B.
I posted this comment by accident as I was trying to edit it! In the first sentence, meant to say “of the diversity of our military.” Great article Lauren!
Good luck they need some honest leadership.