Fired under Trump, former military officers launch Democratic bids for Congress

Two officers who had been kicked out of the navy throughout President Donald Trump’s first 12 months within the White Home launched a brand new mission this week: working for Congress as Democrats.

A retired U.S. House Drive colonel who was pressured out of the navy over the Trump administration’s ban on transgender service members has introduced a run for Congress in Northern Virginia.

And a senior Navy official who was fired from her place final 12 months by Conflict Secretary Pete Hegseth launched a congressional bid in South Carolina.

Their candidacies spotlight a rising political backlash in opposition to Trump-era navy insurance policies as former officers faraway from the service search to reenter public life by Congress.

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Bree Fram was expelled from the Navy in December by Secretary of Conflict Pete Hegseth, pictured right here at a NATO assembly in Brussels, Belgium, June 5, 2025. (Omar Havana/Getty Pictures)

Bree Fram joined the US House Drive in August 2021, the place she rose to the rank of colonel.

President Donald Trump signed an government order and the Pentagon, beneath Hegseth’s management, issued tips barring most transgender folks — together with these with a analysis or historical past of gender dysphoria — from navy service. A federal choose issued a preliminary injunction in March 2025 blocking enforcement, however courts later allowed the coverage to proceed whereas lawsuits continued. Based on Fram, she was positioned on administrative go away in June 2025 pending the divorce, and was pressured to retire on the finish of 2025 attributable to presidential coverage.

Fram promised that “I cannot stroll away from my oath to the Structure.”

In a marketing campaign launch video posted Tuesday, Fram mentioned, “I served 23 years with the flag on my shoulder, rising to the rank of colonel. However then Donald Trump fired me, not due to my efficiency, however due to who I’m.”

Fram mentioned she is working for Congress “as a result of too many People are afraid of what the federal authorities will do to them, as a substitute of getting confidence in what it may possibly do for them.”

Virginia is more likely to redraw its congressional map forward of November’s midterm elections, as a part of Trump’s Republican-versus-Democratic redistricting battle. And Fram plans to run for workplace in whichever district she lives in as soon as the brand new congressional traces are finalized.

Fram’s hometown of Reston, Virginia, is at the moment within the state’s eleventh Congressional District, which is represented by Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw, who received a particular election in a landslide final 12 months to succeed the late Rep. Gerry Connolly, who died of most cancers in Could. Walkinshaw was a former chief of workers to Connolly.

Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., received a particular election to switch the late Rep. Gerry Connolly to succeed. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox Information)

In South Carolina, former three-star Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore entered the open-seat race within the state’s 1st Congressional District on Tuesday.

Lacore, a 35-year navy veteran who served as a Navy helicopter pilot and later as chief of the Navy Reserve, a 60,000-man power, was eliminated final August. The rationale for her dismissal was not made clear, but it surely occurred as a part of a high-profile management purge led by Hegseth, which included the firing of Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, the top of the U.S. Protection Intelligence Company, and Admiral Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversees the Naval Particular Warfare Command.

“After a long time of service to our nation, a profession that began as a Navy pilot and ended as a three-star admiral, I used to be faraway from my place with out trigger,” Lacore claimed in her marketing campaign launch video.

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And he or she emphasised, “I’ve extra to provide, extra to battle for, extra work to do – and I am not accomplished serving but.”

The Conflict Division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark when requested about Lacore’s declare.

Lacore joins a crowded discipline of Democrats and Republicans working to switch Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who’s working for governor of South Carolina.

A large discipline of Republicans and Democrats are working to switch Republican Nancy Mace in South Carolina’s 1st congressional district. Mace is working for governor this 12 months as a substitute of in search of re-election. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Pictures)

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Democrats are aiming to flip the state’s right-wing coastal congressional district within the Lowcountry.

“South Carolina First shouldn’t be a district that Democrats can concede if we wish to construct a long-lasting and successful coalition, and Nancy is the one candidate positioned to win,” mentioned Matt Corridoni, a spokesman for The Bench, a Democratic-focused group that emphasizes that it’s “constructing the following era of Democratic leaders by recruiting and supporting nice candidates in powerful districts.”