Thirst for the 1st: Honeycutt, Lacore want to serve in Congress

It’s hard for Democrats not to hear the hopeful echoes of 2018 in this year’s 1st Congressional District race between Republican Charleston County Council member Jenny Costa Honeycutt and retired Admiral Nancy Lacore.

Once again, the coastal Lowcountry seat is open, and Democrats have nominated a moderate candidate who can raise money and connect with voters. Once again, President Donald Trump is struggling in the polls. And once again, a blue wave appears to be gaining sufficient force to wash away a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The last time those stars aligned, Joe Cunningham won a nailbiter to become the first Democrat to represent the district since Jimmy Carter was in the White House.

But as Winthrop University political scientist Scott Huffmon told the Charleston City Paper this week, this year’s anticipated blue wave is facing a significantly higher Republican seawall along the Palmetto State coast following the GOP-controlled 2022 redistricting.

“Joe Cunningham won the seat in 2018, but the district lines changed after that,” Huffmon said. “And the two elections since then have been Republican blowouts.”

The size of those blowouts? Fourteen points in 2022 and 17 points in 2024, though Democrats argue that the natural Republican lean of the district is more like six-to-eight points by registration. Either way, Democrats would have to make up real ground to take the seat.

“Gerrymandering is amazing insulation against waves,” Huffmon noted dryly.

Nevertheless, Huffmon said, midterm elections are famously treacherous for the party in power, and Trump’s current political problems are real.

“People are very concerned about affordability, and we’re seeing real concerns about the Iran War as well,” Huffmon said. “So Honeycutt definitely has the advantage, but a lower probability for Lacore doesn’t mean no probability. And ‘lightning in a bottle’ happens somewhere in every election season.”

Still, elections aren’t just about structural forces like waves and gerrymanders. They’re also about people — specifically, the people running for the office.

And with that in mind, the City Paper asked both major party candidates to share their stories — who they are, what shaped them and what they hope to do if elected.

Here’s what they had to say.

Honeycutt: A ‘Lowcountry girl’

Jenny Honeycutt describes herself as an attorney, a small businesswoman, a wife and a mom. And very much a child of the Lowcountry.

“I’ve been down on James Island all my life,” Honeycutt said. “It’s the community I love — where I’ve raised my kids, started a business and served on county council. It shaped my values and who I am.”

She emphasized: “I always tell people that my husband’s mother rode the school bus with my dad. I’m a Lowcountry girl. And being from here really matters to me.”

Asked to name the three issues that matter most to her, she quickly ticked off the economy and national debt, securing the border and improving the Lowcountry’s quality-of-life, particularly in terms of infrastructure.

And while she offered specific policy proposals to address each issue — for instance, directing the income from federal assets toward deficit reduction — she also emphasized the importance of making political friends.

“For too long, this seat has been occupied by members who weren’t focused on building relationships with their colleagues in the people’s house,” she said. “But that’s what it takes to get things done.”

In keeping with that approach, Honeycutt said one of her first priorities would be to win a seat on the House Appropriations Committee, where most federal dollars originate.

“That’s an important place, and it’s been ignored by the anti-earmark candidates who’ve held this seat,” she said, name-checking several local infrastructure projects that need federal funding. “It’s time for the residents of the 1st District to start getting back what they’re paying in.”

And while Honeycutt makes it clear she shares many of the president’s goals, she seemed to reject President Trump’s recent request that voters pretend he’s on the ballot.

“For me, this race is about Jenny Honeycutt, not any other personality,” she said. “It’s about the experience I bring and what I’ve done to serve my community over the past eight years. My message is about serving the Lowcountry with common-sense values.”

Lacore: Service still important

When a line on your resume reads “Admiral, United States Navy,” a lot of other things can fade into the background. But when you ask Nancy Lacore of Mount Pleasant about her life, she talks about her family.

“We have six kids,” she said, a note of pride evident in her voice. “I have a son in the Marine Corps, a daughter who’s a police officer, other daughters studying nursing in college. We’re a very service-oriented family.”

It was that spirit of service, she said, that first led her to become a Navy chopper pilot and now, a candidate for Congress.

“I was 18 when I went into ROTC and then spent 35 years in the Navy,” she said. “So when my career got cut short, I just realized I’m not ready to stop serving.”

Lacore is one of more than 20 high-ranking U.S. military officers who’ve been forced out by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for reasons the Trump administration has never made clear.

“I was never given a reason,” Lacore said simply. “In fact, he didn’t even tell me directly.”

As a result, Lacore found herself executing her retirement plan early, relocating to the Lowcountry to live near family that was already here.

Since then, she said, she’s been listening carefully to Lowcountry residents, and her top three priorities if elected would be affordability, health care and protecting the Lowcountry’s environment.

“My number one issue is driving the cost of living down because that affects everybody,” Lacore said, using her own family as an example. “I have a daughter here who has a really good job and she can’t afford to buy a home.”

To get at all three of her issues, Lacore said several signature Trump policies would need to be reversed — high tariffs on imports, the $1 trillion in federal health care cuts and the broad administrative rollback of environmental protections.

But the one-time moderate Republican turned moderate Democrat made it clear that she’s still open to solutions from both sides of the aisle, noting that she opposes defunding or abolishing police or immigration enforcement.

“My background just fits well with the district,” she said. “I can talk to independents and Republicans — the kind of people who wouldn’t otherwise consider voting for a Democrat.”

Voters head to the polls Nov. 3.