Former Virginia first lady Dorothy McAuliffe is running for Congress as a Democrat in the state’s newly drawn 7th District.
In an announcement Wednesday, McAuliffe — who’s married to Democratic former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe — said Virginians “need a leader who has a record of delivering and can finally bring down costs for families, who will increase access to affordable healthcare, and who will never back down from holding Donald Trump and ICE accountable.”
Terry McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has long been one of his party’s most prolific fundraisers, giving her a boost in the Northern Virginia seat.
Dorothy McAuliffe served as the state’s first lady from 2014 to 2018. During the Biden administration, she served as the State Department’s special representative for global partnerships and, before that, she worked in banking and as a lawyer. As first lady, McAuliffe led anti-hunger programs in Virginia, and her husband named her head of the state’s Commonwealth Council on Bridging the Nutritional Divide. The McAuliffes have been married for nearly 40 years and have five children.
On April 21, Virginia voters will decide on a constitutional amendment that would redraw the state’s districts in a way that would help Democrats win four more U.S. House seats. State courts are still weighing the legality of the mid-decade redistricting effort. If the amendment passes and the courts rule it legally sound, McAuliffe would be running in the state’s new 7th District, which includes parts of the heavily blue Arlington and Fairfax counties.
McAuliffe is running against another top state Democrat — Virginia Del. Dan Helmer, a statehouse member who chairs the Virginia House Democratic Caucus’s campaign arm, and who helped lead Democrats’ redistricting effort.
The primary will be held on Aug. 4.
The post Former Virginia first lady Dorothy McAuliffe launches congressional campaign appeared first on Washington Post.
