NORFOLK, Va. — U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria announced Thursday she will seek reelection in Virginia's redrawn 2nd Congressional District.
Luria, a Democrat elected in 2018, linked her reelection bid to last year’s violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, detailing the experience of evacuating her office amid a pipe bomb threat.
“Today I know that my continued service is not a choice, but a duty to our nation and our values as Americans,” she said in a statement. “We cannot allow those who seek to destroy out country from within to prevail.”
Under new redistricting maps crafted by party-nominated special masters and approved by the state Supreme Court last month, Norfolk — where Luria lives — is no longer included in the 2nd District. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are not required to live in the district they represent.
The new district retains Virginia Beach and curves from the Eastern Shore southwest into Suffolk and Isle of Wight, among other localities.
Luria said in an email statement that she owns a home in Virginia Beach and will “be working out the logistics to move there later this year.”
“I have deep ties across the newly drawn district, which is home to over half a million of the same constituents I proudly represent today,” Luria said. “I culminated my Navy career of 20 years by commanding a unit based in the district and grew a successful family business at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.”
Luria started the Mermaid Factory, which manufactures and sells miniature clay mermaids modeled after Norfolk’s city symbol and has locations in Virginia Beach, Cape Charles and Norfolk, according to its website.
Redrawn boundaries make the 2nd District — already a battleground — Virginia’s most competitive. In a memo to the court, special masters wrote the redrawn 2nd District would favor Democrats by a margin of 49.6% to 48.4%, based on statewide election results from 2016 and 2020.
One Democrat, Neil Smith, has mounted a primary challenge in the 2nd District. Four Republicans — State Sen. Jen Kiggans, Jarome Bell, Tommy Altman and Andy Baan — are vying for the GOP nomination, according to the Federal Elections Commission.
The election will be Nov. 8.
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