Former Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria is launching a comeback bid for her former congressional seat in Virginia, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss her plans ahead of a formal announcement scheduled for Wednesday.
The Virginia Beach-based district is the most competitive GOP-held seat in the state. Luria flipped it in 2018 before being defeated by Republican incumbent Rep. Jen Kiggans in 2022. President Donald Trump narrowly won the seat in 2024. This time, Democrats are counting on a midterm backlash — and a potential mid-cycle boundary redraw — to flip the seat blue.
Virginia Democrats have kick-started a process to redraw the state’s maps that could target seats currently held by Kiggans and GOP Rep. Rob Wittman, and Democrats’ landslide victories this month will give them the state legislative majorities necessary to initiate their plans.
Luria rose to prominence as part of a group of lawmakers with national security backgrounds who helped power Democrats’ 2018 gains in the House, some of whom went on to higher offices themselves.
