Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Today, March 27, 2026, Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) Chair Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-03), DWC Vice Chairs Emilia Sykes (OH-13) and Hillary Scholten (MI-03), DWC Servicewomen, Women Veterans, and Military Families Task Force Chair Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06), and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke (NY–09) released the following statement on United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s outrageous and unprecedented move to strike two women and two Black officers from a list recommending their promotion to one-star generals. This action is just the latest of numerous attacks on women by Secretary Hegseth, President Trump, and the Department of Defense. 

“Secretary Hegseth’s unprecedented removal of two women and two Black officers—who each have literal decades of exemplary service—from the one-star promotion list is outrageous and wrong. The claim that Hegseth’s Chief of Staff told the Army Secretary ‘Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events’ is racist, sexist, and extremely concerning. Our country needs qualified leadership to keep us safe at home and abroad. We stand with these distinguished officers being targeted by Trump. Time and time again, Trump and his administration have shown us exactly who they are—attacking and undermining Black people and women in the military, public servants, and women in power. 

It is clear they are trying to erase Black and women’s leadership and history. At the Department of Defense specifically, Secretary Hegseth has launched countless attacks against our servicewomen and women veterans since day one. Hegseth has wrongly claimed that women don’t meet the standards to serve in combat roles, ripped away resources to help integrate women servicemembers, and disrespected women in uniform at every turn. Today’s news isn’t an anomaly, it is a part of a coordinated and sustained strategy to undermine and erase women and people of color. Servicewomen have sacrificed their safety, security, and even their lives, for our country. We are outraged and deeply alarmed by Secretary Hegseth and this Administration’s continuous attempts to attack their merits.  

We've long known that Pete Hegseth is an unfit and unqualified Secretary of Defense appointed by Trump. So it is absurd, ironic, and beyond inappropriate that he of all people would deny these promotions to officers with records of exemplary service. America's servicemembers deserve so much better.”

Background: 

United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is blocking two women and two Black Army officers from becoming one-star generals in a highly unusual move. The New York Times reported that Hegseth had spent months asking senior military leaders to remove these four officers from the promotion list, but Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, “citing the officers’ decades-long records of exemplary service, had repeatedly refused.” The remainder of the promotion list, which has about three dozen officers, is made up of mostly white men. 

Since he was nominated to be Secretary, the DWC has led the charge in holding Pete Hegseth accountable for his countless attacks on women, failures, and incompetence. DWC members have demanded he reinstate programs he cut that support women in combat, condemned his view that women shouldn’t work, vote, or serve in combat, and called out his alarming lack of experience. Hegseth has also proposed eliminating the Defense Department’s Women, Peace, and Security Program and removed several women in top military leadership positions throughout his disastrous tenure.

DWC Members do critical work to support our servicewomen and veterans. DWC members and veterans Rep. Houlahan and Rep. Goodlander are leading an effort to codify the role of women in the military. Rep. Browley leads the work to protect women veterans’ access to reproductive care. Every single day, DWC members fight for the health care, sexual assault reporting resources, and other support for our servicewomen and veterans.

Outside of the Department of Defense, the Trump administration has also attacked women, leaders, and communities of color by firing qualified government leaders, stripping away workplace protections and services, and attacking civil rights at every turn.

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