A Democrat in a hotly contested House district in Colorado ridiculed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s workout routine in a social media post promoting his congressional campaign.
Another Democratic candidate in California invoked his name as she excoriated her Republican opponent for his support for the war with Iran — which she blames for higher prices Americans are paying at the pump.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat in line to be speaker should his party win control of Congress, has said repeatedly that one of their first orders of business will be to impeach Mr. Hegseth.
In the final weeks of a midterm congressional battle in which voters’ opposition to the war with Iran has become a major issue, Democrats are increasingly making Mr. Hegseth a main character in their campaign messaging.
It is an effort to turn one of President Trump’s most recognizable cabinet officials — and one who has been an unapologetic and visible cheerleader for a war that polls show is deeply unpopular — into a liability for Republicans’ fighting to keep their seats.
In a recent video he posted online, Manny Rutinel, the Democrat and former state legislator who is challenging Representative Gabe Evans of Colorado in one of the most competitive races in the country, featured unflattering footage of Mr. Hegseth working out with troops.
“This man is letting Trump raise your gas prices,” reads the type stamped on the video of a sweaty Mr. Hegseth seeming to struggle as he lifts weights alongside military personnel. “I’m going to put a stop to it,” it reads, as the video cuts to Mr. Rutinel doing pull-ups and lifting much bigger weights at the gym.
“Pete Hegseth is helping Trump start an unplanned forever war while Americans struggle here at home,” Mr. Rutinel wrote in a post circulating the video, which does not show Mr. Evans. “I’m running for Congress to stop them.”
More recently in San Diego, Marni von Wilpert, a city councilwoman running for an open House seat against Jim Desmond, a Trump-endorsed Republican, used an appearance by Mr. Hegseth to call for an independent investigation into conditions aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier that recently returned after a deployment of nearly 11 months amid reports of deteriorating morale and suicide attempts.
Mr. Hegseth had sailed back to port with the ship and praised the sailors for their performance in combat, presenting the carrier strike group with a Presidential Unit Citation as he pushed back against criticism of the deployment. But Ms. von Wilpert took the defense secretary to task, accusing her opponent of supporting a war that had exacted a heavy toll on military families.
“Secretary Hegseth owes their families answers about the deplorable conditions on board, not a photo op,” Ms. von Wilpert said.
The focus on Mr. Hegseth, the former Fox News host whose bravado, bellicose statements and dismissiveness toward members of Congress has generated an uncommon level of hostility even among members of his own party on Capitol Hill comes as Democrats work to force Republicans to pay a political price for the war.
It is an attempt to employ a strategy that both parties have long used to gain a political advantage in elections: turning prominent and divisive figures who are not on the ballot into a liability for candidates who are.
Cabinet officials are seldom the focus, but there is historical precedent for a defense secretary becoming a symbol of an unpopular war during a midterm election.
In 2006, Democrats in Congress singled out Donald Rumsfeld as they made President George W. Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq the main line of campaign attacks on Republicans. Mr. Bush repeatedly defended him, even declaring shortly before the midterm elections that he intended to keep him in office.
The day after voters handed Democrats control of Congress in what Mr. Bush called “a thumping” for Republicans, the president announced that Mr. Rumsfeld was stepping down, saying the Pentagon needed new leadership. The decision had been made before the election, though the White House had kept it private.
Mr. Trump has stood by Mr. Hegseth through repeated controversies. There is no public indication that he intends to replace him, though his decision this week to overrule the secretary’s plan to livestream a military execution by firing squad raised fresh questions about Mr. Hegseth’s standing.
Republicans argue that Democrats who attack Mr. Hegseth are misjudging what motivates voters.
“Going after Secretary Hegseth — a decorated combat veteran — won’t move the needle outside of D.C.,” said Natalie Baldassarre, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.
And White House officials said Mr. Hegseth is one of the administration’s most sought-after cabinet secretaries for official appearances with Republican lawmakers in their districts.
“Secretary Hegseth is doing an incredible job leading the Pentagon, while Democrats have no agenda to improve the lives of the American people, just baseless targeting and obstruction,” Olivia Wales, a White House spokeswoman, said.
Mr. Hegseth has sought out the political spotlight in ways few of his predecessors ever did.
He campaigned in May for Ed Gallrein, the Trump-backed Republican who went on to oust Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, an outspoken opponent of the war, in a primary. And he appeared in August at the Iowa State Fair with Representative Zach Nunn, a Republican who is facing one of the most competitive re-election races in the nation.
Those appearances drew criticism from some veterans who said he violated the longstanding tradition of defense secretaries’ avoiding partisan campaigning to preserve the military’s political neutrality.
“That line of the military as an institution — you know, that military loyalty is to the Constitution, not to a political party — and that line getting blurred, I think, is concerning,” Jessica Finucan, a retired Air Force veteran and director of policy for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said.
Mr. Hegseth’s defenders have emphasized that his campaign appearances were undertaken in his personal capacity.
The targeting of Mr. Hegseth has been particularly pronounced among Democratic candidates with military backgrounds seeking office in districts with deep ties to the armed forces.
Leela Gray, a retired Army brigadier general challenging Representative Anna Paulina Luna in Florida, has called Mr. Hegseth an “unqualified frat boy.” Cait Conley, an Army combat veteran challenging Representative Mike Lawler in a competitive New York district, has called him a “disgrace.” And JoAnna Mendoza, a retired Marine running against Representative Juan Ciscomani in Arizona, has criticized his treatment of women in the military.
In South Carolina, Nancy Lacore, a retired three-star Navy admiral whom Mr. Hegseth removed as chief of the Navy Reserve last year without publicly explaining why, has made his leadership of the Pentagon an issue in her congressional campaign.
Eileen Laubacher, a Democrat challenging Representative Lauren Boebert in Colorado, has also invoked the conditions aboard the Lincoln in criticizing Mr. Hegseth.
There is evidence to suggest Mr. Hegseth presents a tempting target. A Quinnipiac University poll last month found that just 32 percent of registered voters approved of his performance as defense secretary, while 57 percent disapproved. Among independents, 65 percent disapproved, and 56 percent of voters expressed little or no confidence in his military leadership.
Still, focus-group testing conducted by campaign consultants has not found that Mr. Hegseth evokes strong reactions among voters, according to people familiar with the research. That may help explain why the attacks have largely remained on social media and the campaign trail, rather than becoming the focus of paid television ads.
At the same time, Democrats have shown considerably less hesitation about discussing Mr. Hegseth’s removal from office than they have about the prospect of impeaching Mr. Trump. Mr. Jeffries has raised the idea several times, though removing Mr. Hegseth would require both a majority of the House and a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Hegseth’s presence has posed a dilemma for some Republicans struggling to keep their jobs amid voter backlash over the war.
The defense secretary had initially been scheduled to appear with Mr. Nunn in March at a “Top Gun”-themed fund-raiser called “Top Nunn,” a nod to the congressman’s time serving as an Air Force intelligence officer. But the joint appearance was scrapped days after the first deaths from the war were announced. Two of the dead were service members from Iowa.
Mr. Hegseth made the trip in August instead, and he praised Mr. Nunn as a loyal member of Congress.
“When we need an ally to call who understands why it’s important to fund our military in the way we need to fund it, but also do so in a fiscally responsible way, we call Congressman Zach Nunn,” Mr. Hegseth said.
Weeks later, Mr. Nunn returned to Capitol Hill, where he broke with the administration on the war with Iran.
After repeatedly opposing efforts to restrict Mr. Trump’s war powers, he joined Democrats and a handful of Republicans in voting to direct the president to end hostilities with Iran unless Congress authorized them.
“Having deployed multiple times and flown over 700 combat hours in the Middle East, I will not support another open-ended war,” Mr. Nunn said.
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