Former Representative Elaine Luria defeated Representative Jen Kiggans in Virginia on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, flipping a Republican-held seat in a district considered important to the battle for control of Congress.
Luria, a Democrat and former Navy commander, won back the seat representing Virginia’s tidewater region after losing to Kiggans in 2022. The district includes Virginia Beach and borders Naval Station Norfolk. Kiggans, a former state senator and Navy helicopter pilot, had previously tied Luria to President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s agenda, including the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In their rematch, Luria focused on Kiggans’s support for President Trump and her position on the Iran war. Luria criticized her opponent for voting against resolutions calling for Trump to end the conflict and for initially dismissing reports of unsafe conditions aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.
Kiggans sought to present herself as a moderate, common-sense lawmaker. She also criticized Luria over stock trades made during her time in Congress from 2019 to 2023 and over living in neighboring Norfolk, outside the district.
The district has changed hands between the parties four times since 2008. Kiggans was unable to overcome the political consequences of her association with Trump and the war, as well as the conflict’s economic effects, according to the report.
Sources: The New York Times Politics.