In 2 narrow races, Jenny Costa Honeycutt, Nancy Lacore won their parties’ nominations to replace Nancy Mace
By Skyler Laird
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — In the state’s most competitive congressional race, a former chief of the Navy Reserve and a Charleston County councilwoman will face off for the coastal 1st District in November.
In Tuesday’s runoff election, Jenny Costa Honeycutt, an attorney, clinched the Republican nomination over state Rep. Mark Smith. Honeycutt had 54% of the vote when The Associated Press called the race at 9:43 p.m., with 82% of votes counted.
She will face Democrat Nancy Lacore, a Navy veteran, who fended off Charleston attorney Mac Deford in a tight race. As of 9:53 p.m., when The Associated Press called the winner, Lacore had 52% of the vote, with 90% of ballots counted.
Their wins mean the 1st District will continue to be represented by a woman.
The primary election two weeks ago narrowed a crowded field, which included 10 Republicans and seven Democrats vying to replace U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace.
Rather than seek a fourth term in Congress, Mace ran for governor. She lost that bid June 9, when she finished fifth among five remaining candidates.
In a state where most elections are determined in the primaries, the 1st District could draw national attention for the November mid-terms.
The district that spans the lower part of South Carolina’s coastline — including all of Beaufort and Berkeley counties and most of Charleston County — is the only congressional seat among the seven in South Carolina with a recent history of switching parties.
Democrat Joe Cunningham flipped the seat in 2018 for the first time in nearly 40 years. (Republicans had held the seat since voters elected then-state Sen. Thomas Hartnett in 1980 to replace Democrat Mendel Davis.)
In 2020, Mace defeated Cunningham by just over 1 percentage point, before cruising to re-election wins after legislators redrew the district to more heavily favor Republicans.
Mace won a second term in 2022 by nearly 14 percentage points against Democrat Annie Andrews. And in 2024, Mace won by nearly 17 points.
But a recent analysis from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report showed the area shifting from solidly Republican to likely Republican in the November general election.
That’s still several positions removed from what the think tank considers a true tossup, but “the GOP can’t take the race for granted,” as analyst Erin Covey wrote.
Covey pointed to Lacore’s strong fundraising for the primary as the reason for the shift.
Lacore raised more than $1.6 million, far more than either of the Republicans candidates who reached the runoff. She spent about $1.3 million of that during the primary, but the fundraising suggests she could give her competitor a run for her money, Covey wrote.
Lacore, a retired vice admiral who spent 35 years in the Navy, moved to South Carolina last October after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed her from her leadership role several months prior. She officially retired from the Navy last December.
She previously told the Daily Gazette she was given no reason why she was fired, though The Associated Press reported the move was part of a larger pattern targeting perceived critics of President Donald Trump.
As chief of the Navy Reserve, an appointed position, Lacore oversaw about 59,000 sailors. She began her career as a Navy pilot but joined the part-time reserve to raise her six children and work as a defense contractor.
She also spent the last decade overseeing nonprofit Valor Run, which organized races to honor women killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This campaign has always been about earning support across the Lowcountry and proving that voters are ready for a new kind of leadership,” Lacore said in a statement. “We’re building a broad coalition focused on lowering costs, protecting our freedoms, and delivering results for South Carolina families.”
“Independent observers are recognizing what we’re seeing on the ground every day: this race is competitive, and voters are ready for change,” Lacore continued.
She will face Honeycutt, a lifelong South Carolina resident. As a law student at the University of South Carolina, Honeycutt worked as a clerk for then-Gov. Mark Sanford, who was briefly one of her opponents in the race for the 1st District but dropped out a month after announcing his bid.
Honeycutt runs a James Island law firm, where she specializes in representing construction companies, including resolving contract and payment disputes, as well as navigating government regulations. The mother of three has been on Charleston County Council since 2018.
Her campaign also focused on affordability, with promises to cut government spending and reduce the national debt. She previously told the Daily Gazette she saw herself as non-polarizing, saying she wasn’t like politicians who “chase headlines instead of fixing real problems.”
Honeycutt triumphed over Smith, who replaced Mace in the state House in 2020.
Democrats’ runoff ballot featured two military veterans. Lacore defeated Deford, a Coast Guard veteran who has worked as an attorney for the towns of Mount Pleasant and Hilton Head Island.
Deford also lost a bid for the 1st District two years ago, when he fell 3 percentage points behind Michael Moore.
Skylar Laird covers the South Carolina Legislature and criminal justice issues. Originally from Missouri, she previously worked for The Post and Courier’s Columbia bureau.
The S.C. Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.