Elaine Luria helped investigate Jan. 6 and lost her House seat. Now she’s attempting a comeback

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Virginia Democrat who helped investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is making a comeback bid after last week’s sweeping election wins as her party looks to break President Donald Trump’s grip on federal power in the 2026 midterms.

Former U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria, a military veteran who co-presented the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s findings after Trump’s first term, told The Associated Press she will seek the Democratic nomination in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District. Her bid sets up a potential rematch with Republican Rep. Jennifer Kiggans, another military veteran who ousted her in 2022.

The Hampton Roads district, racially diverse and with a notable military population, is among the several dozen nationally that will determine House control. Luria’s candidacy, in particular, highlights what’s at stake for Democrats’ overall identity and for Trump in the final years of his second term in the White House.

The country, Luria said in an interview, is “in very tenuous times” with “a leader who I think … really is not much of a leader at all and very untrustworthy.”

The 50-year-old Naval Academy graduate pledged to improve economic opportunities and work with anyone on Capitol Hill. But she offered no apology for her desire to hold Trump accountable. That includes her role investigating Trump and his supporters, who ransacked the Capitol and tried to help the Republican president overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

“People said to me at the time, ‘You might not get reelected,’” said Luria, who twice voted to impeach Trump and publicly detailed the 187 minutes Trump made no public statement to stop the riots. “You know, I said, ‘I don’t care,’ essentially. ‘I’m doing the right thing. The American people need to know what happened that day.’”

Trump has said the sentences handed down to his supporters for their actions on Jan . 6, 2021, were “ridiculous and excessive” and has defended his decision to grant clemency to people convicted of assaulting police officers during the attack.

As Luria’s first congressional campaign did in 2018, her announcement boosts Democrats who want center-left candidates to run in competitive districts — figures like her House freshman classmates, Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill, who just won gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively.

The Democratic Party’s sweep in Virginia, Luria told the AP, “definitely showed enthusiasm and support for the policies and the values that I represent.”

She stopped short of taking sides in the intraparty tussle between center-left moderates and progressives like New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist.

“The right kind of profile for Democrats is someone who can speak to and match the interests of their district,” Luria said, later adding, “I couldn’t care less who the mayor of New York City is.”

Asked about the Senate’s Democratic caucus members who voted this week to end the federal government shutdown without guaranteeing an extension of Affordable Care Act benefits, Luria played the question forward rather than acknowledging widespread anger at the lawmakers from across the Democratic spectrum.

“The fact is that there wouldn’t have been a shutdown” with Democratic majorities, Luria argued. “And we would have absolutely ensured that people continue to have the ACA subsidies to make their health care affordable.”

Beyond domestic policy differences, Luria’s bid serves as a reminder of how a Democratic House majority could use congressional subpoena and investigatory power with Trump still in office. Trump has continued flouting democratic standards in his second presidency, Luria said, while breaking his 2024 campaign promises to cut consumer costs.

“‘The violation of norms is really — it’s almost like an understatement,” she said. “Every single day, there’s some new thing as a distraction for the fact that the administration is not doing what they told voters they were going to do.”

Noting rising costs for housing, groceries and utilities, Luria argued, “All of those really are caused by chaos, uncertainty created by this administration, and truly by the Republicans in Congress who have been sitting on their hands and just following along, waiting for their orders, essentially, from the White House.”

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Barrow reported from Atlanta.