Hegseth Is The New Dem Campaign Trail Villain

Democratic candidates have found a new bogeyman on the campaign trail: Pete Hegseth.

Aspiring lawmakers focused on defense issues are planning to shift their attacks from President Donald Trump to the Pentagon chief in coming months, using stump speeches and campaign videos to highlight the controversial way he has run the department and engaged the military.

The strategy is simple. Hegseth’s public persona, shaped by his years on TV, make him a well-known, highly visible target. And the controversies that have trailed him — from an embarrassing use of sensitive military information on a commercial app to an initial attack on Iran that has dragged into a monthslong war — set him up as a convenient foil.

“The more Hegseth puts himself out there, the more he does the work for us,” said Matt Corridoni, a Democratic strategist who advises election advocacy groups such as The Bench and VoteVets. “Normally the secretary of Defense is not such a politically focused position, but he has pushed it into hyper politics. So you’re going to see candidates using him as a foil more and more.”

Congressional hopefuls have already started testing out the effort in social media posts on overseas military operations and the ballooning defense budget. Hegseth frequently draws pointed attacks from both first-time candidates and established incumbents.

Campaign planners said they expect candidates to call out Hegseth even more as the war against Iran continues. Trump has repeatedly said the Defense secretary was among the first and most vocal proponents of the fight, which has now lasted more than five months and led to a spike in global energy prices.

“You see people like Pete Hegseth who treat conflict and war like a video game or movie, and it's not,” said Cait Conley, an Iraq war veteran running for New York’s 17th Congressional District. She has blasted Hegseth as unqualified and incompetent in numerous recent television appearances, and quipped that Hegseth knows “more about botox than bombs.”

The Pentagon declined to comment.

Hegseth has not avoided involvement in politics. He has already injected himself into the 2026 races, campaigning in May for Ed Gallrein in Kentucky's 4th Congressional District primary against Republican incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie. The move broke long-standing precedent of the Pentagon’s top civilian leader staying out of election fights, and helped oust Massie — a frequent Trump critic — from his seat.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, a senior adviser for the defense-focused political action campaign VoteVets, said the emphasis of Hegseth on the campaign trail also comes from his outsized role in the administration.

“He is personally responsible for many of the really bad military policy decisions that we’ll be dealing with for a long time,” Eaton said. “He’s in the president’s ear, and he's a guy who wants to take America to war to solve all of our problems.”

Eaton insisted stories about the politicization of the military — including Hegseth's firing of senior leaders who disagreed with Trump policies — are resonating with voters concerned about the direction of the country.

Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot who is running for New Jersey's 7th Congressional District, said her decision to name-drop Hegseth in campaign appearances comes from concerns about the corruption of traditionally apolitical military institutions. She has called for Hegseth’s resignation during election stops and TV appearances.

“Pete Hegseth is a disgrace to the office that he holds, and the reason why I believe he is deeply dangerous is partially because of the polarization,” she said. “We have an obligation to call those things out when we see it, and to make sure that we are standing up for our service members who do not have the ability to speak out about these things.”

She added that voters have already connected with her messaging against Hegseth, especially over his role in directing U.S. military operations in the Iran war.

“I've definitely heard about this on the campaign trail from people, and what I will say is that people are really upset with the Iran war,” Bennett said.

Bennett and Conley are part of a group of four female Democratic military veterans running for the House — along with JoAnna Mendoza and Maura Sullivan — who have dubbed themselves The Hell Cats. A major driving force for their group has been their opposition to Hegseth.

“We believe that this country is not on the right track,” Conley said. “And to get it on the right track is going to take leaders of character to step up and fight for it.”

For Nancy Lacore, a Democrat running for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, the issue is personal. The 35-year veteran was Chief of Navy Reserve before Hegseth fired her last year, three years ahead of her term’s end, as part of an unexplained purge of senior military leadership.

“I'm running because I'm no longer in uniform because of Pete Hegseth,” she said. “But voters bring him up, not necessarily in relation to me, but just wanting to talk about him and the damage he's doing to our country.”

She said she still hears from colleagues in uniform about Hegseth’s “very concerning and very damaging” moves, which she believes are harming national security. But, unlike them, she can speak out against her former boss without any more fear or retribution.

Corridoni said he doesn’t think Hegseth will supplant Trump as the main focus of candidates' ire, but will help reinforce that point to voters.

“Hegseth represents the betrayal of the administration,” he said. “No matter what party, voters don’t want to see the military politicized or weakened. But that’s exactly what he’s doing.”