The Virginia Democrat is having her defining moment in the committee as she faces her toughest election to date
July 20, 2022 at 9:39 pm EDT Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va), leaves after speaking at a Nuclear Fuel Supply Forum on July 19 in Washington. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) He couldn’t forget the time: 1:46 p.m It was the moment Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) evacuated her office on Jan. 6, 2021, after police found pipe bombs in the Capitol. A year later, on January 6, 2022, it was precisely at this time that Luria announced her re-election campaign — arguably tying up her bid for a third term representing a swing district on the Virginia coast in her service on the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. Now, Luria is preparing for her most defining moment on the committee yet: In the committee’s finale of its summer hearing series, she and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) will detail what former President Donald Trump did and didn’t do. it takes over 187 minutes as the US Capitol was attacked and Luria and hundreds of his colleagues took cover. Their presentation is expected to squarely pin the blame for the violence on Trump after months of false allegations of voter fraud and will examine his reluctance to condemn the attack — culminating in what the panel intends to describe as a dereliction of duty and breach of oath . Of A mission that people involved in the committee’s work say Luria specifically sought — even as she prepares for her toughest re-election campaign in a district that has turned redder after redistricting. Trump’s picks escalated tensions and set US on course for Jan. 6, panel says But with an air of defiance, the former Navy commander said she was unconcerned about any potential political ramifications her own political future could have on her role in ending the former president’s January 6 inaction — a message that, instead of confidants whispered, has made it front and center in her campaign. “Getting it right, putting the facts out there and making some change in the future so it doesn’t happen again, is much bigger than whether or not you get re-elected,” Luria said in an interview. “I don’t want to make my re-election bid look trivial, but this is trivial. Does that make sense? And if I win, it will be a very strong statement about the commission’s work.” In a sense, Luria has positioned her campaign as a referendum on the committee’s work, almost daring Republicans to attack her for it — even though it’s not clear that’s a motivation for many voters in her district. This year’s midterm elections are more often seen as a referendum on Democrats and President Biden, a political environment that bodes well for Luria’s Republican challenger, state Sen. Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia Beach) — who has sought to characterize Luria as ” out of touch’ with voters to focus on the January 6 survey. That dynamic makes Luria somewhat of the Democratic version of fellow committee member Dem. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — at least without the abuse of her own party or national star power. Congresswoman Liz Cheney tells Americans why January 6th should terrify them With the exception of her looming prime-time role, Luria, by contrast, has largely done the committee’s pivotal work behind the scenes. Luria, who spent 20 years in the Navy, is best known in Congress for her tough questions to Defense Department leaders on the House Armed Services Committee and her vast — at times incredible — knowledge of shipbuilding and capabilities, often joining Republicans in demanding more top military spending. She was one of the first women in the Navy’s nuclear power program, a military career Luria used to win a race against former Republican congressman and Navy SEAL Scott Taylor to flip the blue seat in 2018. Since then, Luria has largely stayed out of high-profile political fights, known as a lawmaker who avoids the kind of partisanship that has turned other lawmakers into viral sensations. In fact, her former two-time political opponent, Taylor, described her personality as “soft” – and said that’s partly what made her a tougher competitor. “You are, why are you attacking her?” he said, recalling his first fight against her in 2018. He lost a rematch in 2020. “Elaine—how shall I say it? — He’s not going to go on TV and say crazy things. It’s not like this. She is quiet. He doesn’t get into trouble,” he said, taking exception to when he called a proposed ban on stock trading pushed by bipartisan lawmakers “bulls—” earlier this year. But usually, “it’s fine. So I think that can be a strength for her.” It was the same reserved demeanor that Luria’s colleagues, friends, and acquaintances had Others said they believed they made Luria an ideal member of the committee investigating Jan. 6. “He’s the soul of sanity and moderation in all things, and I think he’s someone the committee looks to as a voice for how what we’re doing is going to be experienced outside of major metropolitan areas,” said Representative Jamie B. Raskin (D- Md.), fellow committee member. “Of course he has this distinguished military background and just a very quiet but fierce sense of patriotism and duty about what he does.” Even a day after Jan. 6, Trump refrained from condemning the violence Luria’s interest in serving on the committee is rooted in her service in the Navy, and she often links her role to her military and congressional oath. It’s something she and her audition co-pilot, Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran, share in common. After the attack, as she considered seeking a commission seat, Luria said, “I thought to myself, you know, I was in the Navy for 20 years and you think about the oath, and it’s against all enemies foreign and domestic. And you think to yourself, you never really think that the domestic part — you never really think that you’d have something like this on our own borders within our own country.” On the committee, Luria has become known for exhibiting one of the most aggressive attitudes toward Trump. And he has repeatedly pointed out that the committee has a responsibility to refer criminal activity to the Justice Department if the evidence supports charges. Ruskin said he was wary at first of exposing the possibility of criminality activity, noting that the commission is not a prosecutorial agency, which Luria echoes. But he began to be “convinced by Elaine’s view that we should not be ashamed to state the obvious when crimes are uncovered in our investigation – by anyone”. “She was one of the first, really, to be so open about it – as the weight of the evidence has become overwhelming, I think more and more of us have been speaking out,” he said. Rosalin Mandelberg, Luria’s rabbi at Ohef Sholom Temple, said Luria’s decision to join the Jan. 6 panel reminded her of the stance Luria took in supporting Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, despite the potential political fallout — which Luria said was partly due to her Jewish faith. Luria had joined a group of national security-minded Democratic women to write an op-ed calling for Trump’s impeachment. At the time, few Democrats — let alone Democrats in competitive districts — went that far. Soon after, Luria appeared at a town hall in Virginia Beach and faced scrutiny for her decision, especially from Republicans in her district. “People might say, ‘Why do that?’ You may not get re-elected,” Luria told the audience. “I do not care. Because I did the right thing.” Luria’s similar approach to joining the Jan. 6 committee “didn’t surprise me at all,” Mandelberg said. “She’s a true leader, but she’s also very, very informed by her Jewish values. Her motto was something like, work hard, do the right thing – her whole being is like that.” Rep. Mikie Sherrill (DN.J.), who attended the Naval Academy with Luria and joined the 2019 article, said her colleague “feels strongly that they are doing good work that will keep this nation strong and make our democracy more resilient, and it’s really her duty, really, under the Constitution to do just that does”. But Republicans in her district aren’t likely to all see it that way — if they’re even watching the hearings. Despite her starring role, Luria has yet to draw Trump’s ire, which political strategists say would not necessarily help the GOP in the military-heavy district filled with independents and swing voters. The Virginia Beach district now leans two points in favor of the Democratic Party after redrawing its boundaries late last year, according to an analysis by the Cook Political Report. Biden just managed a victory in 2020, while Gov. Glenn Youngin (D) won by double digits last year. Like Youngkin, Luria’s opponent, Kiggans, appeared to toe the line between appeasing Trump’s base — she was among a handful of state Senate Republicans who supported a $70 million filibuster for the 2020 election, for example — but it wasn’t over the The “stolen election” sounds like Trump’s most vociferous allies, including the GOP primary opponent he trounced. However, Keegans refuses to recognize Biden as the legitimate president, which Luria has taken advantage of to attack Keegans as an “election denier.” When The Post first asked Kiggans in July 2021 if she believed Biden was legitimately elected, a spokesperson called the question “offensive” and said Kiggans had acknowledged he was legitimately elected. More recently Kiggans said Biden “lives in the White House and I wish he didn’t” — a statement she repeated when asked in an interview to clarify whether she believed Biden was legitimate…
