Nancy Lacore, a Democrat and retired U.S. Navy vice admiral who served as Chief of Navy Reserve from 2024 to 2025, faces Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt for South Carolina's open 1st congressional district seat in 2026.
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- Birthplace
- Albany, New York
- Education
- College of the Holy Cross (Bachelor of Arts, 1990)
San Diego State University (Master of Arts)
Air Command and Staff College
Joint Forces Staff College, National Defense University
Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Nancy Lacore was born in Albany, New York. She graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts and received her commission through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program. She later earned a Master of Arts from San Diego State University and graduated from the Air Command and Staff College and from the National Defense University at the Joint Forces Staff College. Lacore is married to Patrick Lacore, and they have six children.
Career
Lacore was designated a Naval Aviator in 1993 and flew with Helicopter Combat Support Squadrons 8 in Norfolk, Virginia, and 3 in San Diego, California, before affiliating with the Navy Reserve in 2000.
Her assignments included mobilizing as chief of Key Leader Engagement at the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, Afghanistan, from 2011 to 2012, and later serving as commanding officer of Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.
She was promoted to rear admiral (lower half) in 2018 and to rear admiral on October 1, 2021, and she assumed command as the 93rd commandant of Naval District Washington on June 10, 2022.
Nominated in May 2024 for promotion to vice admiral and assignment as chief of Navy Reserve, she served as the 16th Chief of Navy Reserve from 2024 to 2025 and was relieved of her duties on August 22, 2025.
Outside her Navy assignments, Lacore volunteered with and later joined the board of Wounded Wear, a Chesapeake-based nonprofit that helps families of service members who were killed or seriously injured. In 2014 she established "Valor Knows No Gender: Run to Remember", a 160-mile run for the 160 female veterans who died while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2026 race
Nancy Lacore announced her candidacy in January 2026 for the Democratic nomination in South Carolina's 1st congressional district, which straddles the Atlantic coast of the state and includes most of Charleston.
The seat is open because Republican incumbent Nancy Mace ran for governor of South Carolina and was eliminated in that primary.
Lacore led the Democratic primary on June 9 with 36.5% of the vote and then defeated Mac Deford, a former Hilton Head Island general counsel, in the June 23 runoff, 52.1% to 47.9%.
In the general election on November 3, 2026, she faces Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt, a Charleston County councilor, along with Libertarian Bill Reeside Jr., a nuclear engineer, and Alliance Party nominee Margo Ellis, a comedian.