TAMPA, Fla. — Retired Army Brig. Gen. Leela Gray said Pete Hegseth is an “unqualified frat boy,” that “he should never have been hired, and he needs to be fired,” and that his actions are “making our country less safe,” in a clip she posted while running against Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in Florida’s 13th Congressional District.
Gray posted the remarks on X on Sept. 24 with video from an appearance on MS NOW with Nicolle Wallace. A longer cut of the same interview is posted on YouTube as “Part 2: Leela Gray Joins Nicolle Wallace on MS NOW.” The written post was two sentences. The video carried the fuller line.
I say this as a retired Brigadier General with 30 years of service: Pete Hegseth is an unqualified frat boy.
In the clip she said Hegseth “is a disaster for the Department of Defense,” that “he should never have been hired, and he needs to be fired,” and that people in her community were “worried about their own economic ability to survive this cost of living crisis.” She said voters want people “with actual leadership experience” who “know how to problem solve.”
A U.S. Army Reserve biography posted when she assumed command lists her as Brig. Gen. Lee J. Gray, commanding general of the 86th Training Division at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, a post she took in July 2015. The page says she then had more than 17 years of active duty in a 27-year career and had commanded at company, battalion, and brigade level, including the 151st Theater Information Operations Group at Fort Totten, New York, and the 314th Public Affairs Operations Center.
The same official bio says she served as deputy coordinator for plans and programs at the State Department’s Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications and as chief of legislative affairs for the Office of the Chief of Army Reserve. Earlier assignments include the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Ord, the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai, public affairs work on Operation Joint Endeavor in Taszar, Hungary, and a deployment as special technical operations chief and director of strategic plans in the J33 at United States Forces-Iraq in Baghdad. The page lists Defense Meritorious Service Medals, an Iraqi Campaign award, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Army Staff identification badges. It is a command biography from 2015, not a current assignment roster.
Gray’s campaign site says she served 30 years and retired in 2018. Ballotpedia lists Army service from 1988 to 2018 and degrees from Elon University, the U.S. Army War College, and Stetson University College of Law. Those pages do not use the phrase “frat boy.” That wording is Gray’s.
Gray won the Aug. 18 Democratic primary with 65.1 percent, or 32,033 votes, over Brandt Robinson and John Liccione, according to Ballotpedia’s tally of the certified return. Luna, a Republican, faced no primary. The general election is Nov. 3. Independent Tony D’Arrigo is also on the ballot.
Luna’s official House biography says she is in her second term for Florida’s 13th District, sits on Oversight and Government Reform and Foreign Affairs, and chairs the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. The page says she served in the Air Force, graduated from the University of West Florida, and lives in St. Petersburg. The district covers Pinellas County and part of Pasco County.
The Senate confirmed Hegseth as secretary of defense on Jan. 24, 2025. Congress.gov records nomination PN11-7 as confirmed 51-50 on roll-call vote 15. The Congressional Record for that day shows a 50-50 Senate, with Vice President JD Vance voting in the affirmative. Cloture had been invoked 51-49 the day before.
The department has described Operation Epic Fury and related actions as campaigns against Iran’s missile, naval, and nuclear capacity. Gray’s “unqualified,” “disaster,” and “less safe” lines are her characterizations. The clip does not cite the confirmation roll call, a statute, or a casualty table.
Gray told FOX 13 on Sept. 17 that the Iran conflict was a “reckless war of choice” and called for a halt and a return to diplomacy. That interview is separate from the MS NOW clip. On Sept. 25 she posted, “We have 39 days to beat Anna Paulina Luna.” The DCCC added her to its Red to Blue list after the primary. Florida’s 13th District votes Nov. 3.