Jen Kiggans LIVES In The 2nd District. That’s A Big Deal.
Call me crazy, but I want my congressperson to actually LIVE in my congressional district.
Wild, I know.
While it’s perfectly legal for a member of Congress to live outside the district he or she represents (the Constitution only requires candidates to live in the state), it’s unusual for a candidate to swoop in from somewhere else and try to poach a seat. Voters tend to like the idea of their representatives actually being their neighbor.
Imagine that.
I am one of about 788,048 people who actually live in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District. The district encompasses all of Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Franklin, Accomack, Northampton, Isle of Wight, part of Chesapeake and part of Southampton County.
Know what isn’t in the 2nd District?
Norfolk.
And yet, it appears the Democrat who wants to represent the 2nd District doesn’t even live here.
Elaine Luria lives in Norfolk. Or at least she did and there's no sign she's moved. When the boundaries of the district were reconfigured, Norfolk was out.
According tp the Washington Examiner:
In 2022, Luria assured voters that she would be “working out the logistics” to move into a house she claimed to own in Virginia Beach because her Norfolk home was drawn out of the then-newly configured 2nd Congressional District…
According to Norfolk real estate records reviewed by the Washington Examiner, it appears Luria never moved…as she vowed to do… and later purchased another residential property down the street in the same Norfolk neighborhood…
In response to a Washington Examiner inquiry into Luria choosing to remain in Virginia’s solidly blue 3rd Congressional District, the Luria campaign said she was forced out of her home district due to the state’s 2021 redistricting process.
“After her four years in Congress,” a spokesperson for the Luria campaign said, “Elaine was deliberately drawn out of Virginia’s Second Congressional District after representing the majority of this district and delivering for her community.
The campaign spokesperson added that “Elaine is proud to call Hampton Roads home like so many other veterans and military families,” referring to a region comprising the greater Norfolk-Virginia Beach metropolitan area.
“This is yet another pathetic attempt by the Kiggans campaign to distract Virginians…
Oh, really? Looks to me like this is simply a statement of fact. By contrast, Rep. Jen Kiggans, who is running for a third term, actually lives in the district.
So let’s get this straight: Luria wants to represent nearly 788,000 people, but living among them is too much trouble?
Is there something wrong with us? Was it something we said?
Luria’s residence is in the Third District, which is represented by Rep. Bobby Scott. Wonder why she didn’t primary HIM to run for Congress. Or does the Third get TWO members of Congress?
Luria isn’t the first candidate to discover that a congressional seat looks appealing from the other side of a district line.
In 2016, Republican Randy Forbes, who had ably represented Virginia’s 4th District for 16 years, tried to run in the 2nd District’s GOP primary after redistricting left his old seat solidly Democratic.
Despite Forbes’ popularity and lengthy congressional record, 2nd District Republicans rejected him and nominated Scott Taylor instead.
The message was pretty clear: Voters weren’t necessarily interested in handing their seat to an established politician just because he needed a new place to run.
I wouldn’t vote for Elaine Luria if she lived next door to me. But anyone considering voting for her should ask a basic question before heading to the polls:
If she wants to represent the people of Virginia’s 2nd District, why doesn’t she live there?
