There is a version of this story where Pete Hegseth doesn’t make the news. In the Pentagon, he keeps things pretty quiet, stays away from Sunday shows, and doesn’t campaign for congressional candidates in Kentucky primaries. There is no such thing as that version of Hegseth. And Democrats who have been paying close attention have begun to notice.
Across the country, Democratic candidates with military experience are using Hegseth’s name a lot in their stump speeches, campaign videos, and TV appearances. For any previous secretary of Defense, this would have seemed strange, and maybe even risky. In the past, this job has been one of the least politically exposed in any government. That has changed because of Hegseth, in part because he has caused enough scandals that they make the news every day. “The more he puts himself out there, the more he does the work for us,” said Matt Corridoni, a Democratic strategist who works with VoteVets and The Bench. It’s an honest evaluation. Plus, it’s hard to argue with sense.
The issues at stake are not vague. There was the embarrassing time when private military data was sent through a commercial messaging app. Trump has said that Hegseth pushed for the war with Iran more passionately than almost everyone else in the room. The war has been going on for more than five months and is putting a strain on energy prices around the world. Also, senior military officers who didn’t agree with the administration’s direction were fired one by one, which many people in the defense community saw as a purge rather than a personnel decision.
This year, Cait Conley is running for the 17th Congressional District in New York. She served in Iraq. She’s also not afraid to say what she thinks. She has recently said on TV that Hegseth is not qualified and is not good at his job. She also joked that he knows “more about Botox than bombs.” It’s a line that sticks, in part because it’s funny and in part because it shows a real worry. Conley and people like her aren’t just using Hegseth as an issue to talk about. They really do look scared.
At campaign stops, Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot running for the 7th District in New Jersey, has asked him to step down. She says the problem isn’t a partisan one, but an institutional one: she says Hegseth is weakening systems that have worked well without politics for decades. She pointed to service members who want to speak out but can’t. “We have an obligation to call those things out,” she said.
After that there’s Nancy Lacore. Her case is unique because it is more personal and harder to brush off as political opportunism. After 35 years in the Navy, Lacore became Chief of Navy Reserve. However, Hegseth fired her last year, three years before the end of her term. There was no reason given. She is now running for the 1st Congressional District in South Carolina. “I’m running because I’m no longer in uniform because of Pete Hegseth,” she said. People do talk about him on the campaign trail, she says, but it’s usually not about her story. They only want to talk about how bad they think he is being.
Hegseth, on the other hand, hasn’t acted like he wants to stay out of politics. He ran an ad earlier this year for a candidate in a Republican primary in Kentucky. The candidate was running against a sitting GOP incumbent. A Pentagon chief used to never be able to do something like that. Now it’s just part of the record.
Corridoni doesn’t believe that Hegseth will take Trump’s place as the main target for Democratic campaigns. He might not have to, though. He supports the main point Democrats want to make because he is a supporting character in the administration’s story who is well-known, controversial, and deeply interested in the direction of the military. “Voters don’t want to see the military politicized or weakened,” Corridoni said. “But that’s exactly what he’s doing.”
It’s still not clear if the focus on Hegseth will change votes in the districts that matter. It’s easier to talk about a campaign strategy than to put it into action. However, he is proving to be very helpful for a group of Democratic veterans who want to make their credentials seem more important and urgent. The other team will sometimes give you exactly what you need.
