As the nation confronts deepening political divisions and mounting foreign policy dilemmas, veterans in droves are gearing up once again to serve their country.
Only this time, they hope it will be in Congress.
A surprising number of Democrats running in competitive U.S. House races are veterans. They include decorated military officers who have criticized — and have even been targeted by — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his purge of women and minorities in high-ranking Pentagon roles, including Nancy Lacore, a retired three-star admiral.
Lacore rose through the ranks of the Navy starting as a helicopter pilot and eventually led 60,000 sailors as commander of the Navy Reserve Force. Her service to the United States in uniform abruptly ended when Hegseth fired her in August 2025 with no explanation, making Lacore one of almost three dozen senior military officers who were terminated or blocked from promotion as part of Hegseth’s anti-“woke” crusade.
Lacore is taking on what is arguably one of her most difficult missions yet: trying to flip South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District blue, despite its gerrymandered obstacles in a historically Republican area.
“I think people acknowledge and realize the fact that if you did well in the military as a woman, you’ve got something,” Lacore told MS NOW.
A new Gallup poll finds that 90% of adults over 50 trust elected leaders with military experience, regardless of party. More than half of all adults say they believe military service helps prepare someone for elected office.
Those views stand to benefit Democratic candidates like Lacore in a midterm election cycle in which President Donald Trump’s war with Iran has led to deteriorating support among his base.
Lacore’s fight won’t be an easy one. In 2024, Trump won the district by 13 percentage points, and Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who vacated the seat to run for governor — and lost her primary in June — won by more than 17 points. But amid Trump’s sagging approval ratings and an electorate yearning for change, Democrats have added the seat to their “districts in play” list. And Lacore is touting her military brass bona fides.
“I think that’s exactly the type of background that independents and some Republicans are looking for,” Lacore told MS NOW. “I think there’s a lot of people like that who don’t recognize the party anymore and are looking for some change.”
Former Army special operations officer Cait Conley also felt the call to service. She is running against a vulnerable Republican, Rep. Mike Lawler, in a swing district that could tilt the balance of power in Congress. The Hudson Valley’s 17th Congressional District was recently moved from “leans Republican” to “toss-up” by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, and the Cook Political Report lists the race as a toss-up.
“When I talk about what we’re fighting for, these aren’t Democratic or Republican values. They’re American values,” Conley told MS NOW.
“This is a purple district, right? I cannot win this district with just winning over Democrats alone,” she added. “I need to also win over people who may not share my party affiliation, but they share my values, and that is what this has been about.”
Conley, who served as a senior national security aide in the Biden administration, is part of a group of four female veterans running for Congress as Democrats who call themselves the “Hell Cats” after the first female Marines in World War I. They exchange ideas in a group chat, campaign together and liken themselves to the “Badass Caucus,” a group of five Democratic women with national security backgrounds who flipped GOP-held seats in 2018.
It’s not just Conley, the Hell Cats or Lacore stepping up to run. The nonpartisan veterans advocacy group With Honor Action released data in June showing an army of military veterans running for Congress this cycle — 752 of them across all 50 states, with the most dramatic growth among women. The group found that 95 female veterans are running or have run for federal office in 2026, up from 40 in 2024 — a 137% increase.
The many female veterans who are running in the 2026 midterm elections include former Army captain and paratrooper Jessica Killin, who will face Republican first-term GOP congressman Jeff Crank in Colorado, and retired Rear Adm. Eileen Laubacher, who has heavily outraised her GOP opponent, Rep. Lauren Boebert, in Colorado’s deep-red 4th District.
In a closely watched race in New Jersey, former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett is taking on Republican Rep. Tom Kean, who came under scrutiny while he was missing from Congress for four months without explanation before returning to announce he had been diagnosed with depression. JoAnna Mendoza, a Navy and Marine Corps veteran, is facing Trump-backed Rep. Juan Ciscomani in Arizona.
Democratic candidates with military backgrounds may have an edge in swing districts, according to Alex Cornell du Houx, the president of Elected Officials to Protect America, a bipartisan group of current and former elected officials.
“For the Democrats, being a veteran has the advantage of being able to reach out to middle-ground conservative voters, whereas for Republicans it might already be assumed,” du Houx told MS NOW. “It gives them an advantage to get the section of the population who can have the shared value sets of freedom, security and so forth that allow a conversation to happen that could lead to a vote.”
Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee, the GOP’s campaign arm, said Republicans also have “an outstanding class of military veterans running in competitive races across the country.” Echoing a leading Republican midterm talking point, he said the problem for Democrats “isn’t who they recruit, it’s that their party has been hijacked by radical socialists.”
As Republicans lean into anti-socialism, Democrats are touting the integrity of their candidates.
“Americans are looking for candidates who embody service and tell the truth,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Liam Buckley told MS NOW in a statement, adding, “While Republicans run on broken promises, voters will trust Democrats who are running on integrity and have the resume to prove it.”
Their lack of experience holding elected office is a selling point with some voters. “I think it’s refreshing. I don’t think anybody wants a career politician in the role,” Democrat Shauna Bishop told MS NOW at a campaign event for Lacore in Beaufort, South Carolina.
“She may not have been elected, but she understands enough how it works and understands how to represent her sailors and subsequently her people in Congressional District 1,” Annette Jussaume, a voter in South Carolina’s open 1st District, told MS NOW.
But in order to beat Republicans Jenny Honeycutt in South Carolina’s 1st District and Lawler in New York’s 17th, Lacore and Conley will need to woo Republican and independent voters. Not all are convinced that being a veteran makes a candidate electable, at least not in the New York district where Conley is running to unseat Lawler.
“What matters most to people — not necessarily your background so much, but what can you do? Can you actually listen to the people who live in your district?” voter Mike Hallinan, a Republican voter, told MS NOW at an event in Rockland, New York, where Conley campaigned.
The post Could 2026 be the Year of the Woman Veteran? Democrats think so. appeared first on MS NOW.
