Nancy Lacore wins Democratic runoff in South Carolina's 1st District

Nancy Lacore won the Democratic runoff in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District on June 23, defeating Charleston attorney Mac Deford with about 52% of the vote as 19,000 ballots were counted. Her victory set up an all-female general election against Charleston County Councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt, who won the Republican runoff over state Rep. Mark Smith.

The seat is open because Nancy Mace left it behind to run for governor and finished fifth in the June 9 Republican primary. That exit has given Democrats a rare opening in a district that covers all of Beaufort and Berkeley counties and most of Charleston County, and that remains South Carolina’s most competitive congressional district.

Lacore enters the race with a biography Democrats are trying to use as a governing argument as much as a campaign credential. She served 35 years in the Navy and rose to chief of the Navy Reserve, a record that gives her military stature in a district that Donald Trump carried in both 2020 and 2024. Her campaign also centers on independence: she was removed from her post by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in August 2025, and she said she was taken out “without cause” before announcing her congressional run in January 2026.

That profile fits a Democratic recruitment strategy that has become more common in hard-to-win places, where the party has leaned on candidates with national security backgrounds, local roots and crossover appeal rather than ideologues. Lacore has also drawn support from EMILYs List, The Bench and New Politics, signaling that outside groups see value in a candidate who can talk to swing voters in the Lowcountry without abandoning the party’s base.

The district’s recent history explains why Democrats are investing in it. Joe Cunningham flipped the seat for Democrats in 2018. Mace won it back in 2020 by just over 1 percentage point, then widened her margins to nearly 14 points in 2022 and nearly 17 points in 2024. Cook Political Report moved the district from solid Republican to likely Republican on June 18, underscoring that Democrats still face an uphill climb even with an open seat.

The June runoffs drew more than 72,000 early voters statewide, a sign of how much attention the nominating contests attracted. For Democrats, the November question is whether Lacore’s military résumé and outsider image can stretch the map in a district that has swung before, but has also repeatedly returned to Republican hands.