Former Democratic Virginia congresswoman Elaine Luria is launching a bid to win back her seat in Congress, she announced Wednesday, seeking a rematch next year with Rep. Jen Kiggans (R) for a bellwether district that could be redrawn to become a safer blue seat.
Luria, a retired Navy commander who represented the state’s 2nd Congressional District for two terms, carved out a path on Capitol Hill as an understated but independent-minded moderate — bucking her party on military-spending issues but taking unusually vocal stances against President Donald Trump.
Former Democratic Virginia congresswoman Elaine Luria is launching a bid to win back her seat in Congress, she announced Wednesday, seeking a rematch next year with Rep. Jen Kiggans (R) for a bellwether district that could be redrawn to become a safer blue seat.
Luria, a retired Navy commander who represented the state’s 2nd Congressional District for two terms, carved out a path on Capitol Hill as an understated but independent-minded moderate — bucking her party on military-spending issues but taking unusually vocal stances against President Donald Trump.
Her entry into a contested Democratic primary in this Hampton Roads swing district appears to signal Democrats flexing some muscles given the current political winds, showing their optimism of flipping back control of the House as Trump’s unpopularity boosts the party.
The military-heavy 2nd District is among the most consistently divided in the country, flipping between parties four times since 2008 and voting for Trump last fall but for Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D) in last week’s statewide elections.
An effort by Democratic state lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional maps — the latest entry in a national redistricting arms race — could turn the Virginia Beach-anchored seat a shade bluer.
“Service to our country means putting the interests of the people above all else — including political parties,” Luria said in a statement announcing her bid. “That’s why I cannot sit back and watch as Republicans in Congress create chaos while failing to address the rising cost of living and the issues that matter to Coastal Virginians.”
Luria, 50, spent two decades working as a nuclear engineer on deployed Navy ships before flipping her seat in 2018. She and Spanberger were among the handful of Democratic women with national security backgrounds who helped take control of the House that year.
Virginia’s 2nd District includes the country’s largest naval base as well as one of its largest populations of veterans and active-duty military, and Luria pushed bills to boost health care for service members exposed to toxic chemicals in addition to advocating for increased military spending.
But she also took on a starring role on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, saying she did not care if it cost her the election and putting it front and center in a campaign that would end with her losing to Kiggans.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm for House Republicans, was quick to attack Luria after she announced her candidacy, labeling her a “an out of touch liberal who rubber-stamped Biden’s destructive cost-raising, open borders agenda” in a statement Tuesday.
“If Luria moves even further left than she already is to win a messy Democrat primary, she’ll have the honor of conceding to Jen Kiggans twice,” NRCC spokesman Reilly Richardson said.
At least two other Democrats are also seeking the party’s nomination for the 2nd Congressional District: James Osyf, a Navy reserve commander and Lockheed Martin executive; and Matt Strickler, a former Interior Department official and the Virginia Cabinet secretary under Gov. Ralph Northam.
The 2nd District had already been viewed by Democrats as their most competitive opportunity to flip a Virginia seat from red to blue, but a surprise redistricting effort has fueled hopes — and speculation — that Kiggans could be easily ousted in next year’s congressional midterms.
To move ahead with the plan to redraw congressional maps, Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly must again push legislation through both sides of the state Capitol next year and then seek approval from voters in a statewide referendum to change the Virginia constitution.
The change would allow state lawmakers to redraw Virginia’s maps outside the usual process every 10 years only if other states are doing so and not under court order — as they are with the current redistricting frenzy sparked by Trump.
The state’s 11 congressional seats are held by six Democrats and five Republicans. It is expected that any redrawn map would shift at least two or three districts from red to blue, though at least one prominent state lawmaker has expressed support on social media for shifting four GOP seats in Democrats’ favor.
State Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) has repeatedly said that no maps have been drawn yet.
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