As she launches a bid to reclaim her House seat, former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) said that she wants to help lead the effort to push back against anti-Israel voices in the Democratic Party.

During her time in the House, from 2019-2023, Luria brought pro-Israel colleagues together to stand in support of the Jewish state in the face of others who were critical of it. She told Jewish Insider in an interview last week that those critics are loud and are “drowning out the fact that the support for Israel remains strong.”

“Having more people like me who are willing to speak up on that issue, in support of maintaining security assistance through the memorandum of understanding and continuing to maintain a strong relationship with Israel is important,” Luria said, adding that she wants to be a “leader” among new members and former colleagues “to show that the support [for Israel] remains strong.”

Luria said she continues to view Israel as the U.S.’ “strongest ally” in the Middle East and “key to our national security,” and that she continues to oppose any effort to condition U.S. aid to the Jewish state.

Luria said that Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 was “unconscionable” and that Israel “has a right to defend themselves and respond to that kind of security threat.” She said she was glad to see the ceasefire deal and the release of hostages, but said that the path forward remains difficult, and will require the involvement of the U.S. and the world community, with the removal of Hamas from Gaza as the key first step.

The former congresswoman, a prominent Democratic Iran hawk during her time in office who was skeptical of efforts to reenter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, said that the Trump administration’s military action against Iran last summer, done in conjunction with Israel, appears to have “slowed … and delayed” Iran’s capacity to develop a nuclear weapon.

But she argued that the administration, in claiming that the nuclear program had been effectively ended, had “overblown” the effect of the strikes. She also criticized the administration for its extensive use of U.S. military power, in Iran and elsewhere, without consultation with or approval by Congress.

“I’ve said over and over again that anything that needs to be done to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon needs to be done,” she added. “I think that the president made that decision to act in that moment because it was an imperative to stop them from having it. I just think it’s disingenuous to the American people to do a victory lap and say we were successful. Because the fact is, the threat is still there. They’re going to build it back, and we’re going to continue to be faced with this issue.”

Asked about the prospect of renewed strikes on the Islamic Republic in support of Iranian protesters, Luria said that such action could be contingent on who or what the targets are, who would come to power in the aftermath and whether the end state would actually improve the situation for Iranians.

“I think there’s so many unanswered questions, and it’s hard to say what way to go forward with the little amount of information that we’re able to receive” given the Iranian internet blackout, she explained. “I think that international diplomatic pressure, including very strongly from the U.S., to end the violence by the government against protesters is important.”

Luria said that she’s been concerned by the rise in violent rhetoric and actual violence against both the Jewish community and other communities  — which she connected in part to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. 

Luria was a member of the House select committee that investigated the attack. She noted that one of the rioters, pardoned by President Donald Trump, wore a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt to the riot.

“The kind of activity that is both violent rhetorically and in action has somehow become acceptable in our political discourse,” Luria said. “You have the president, who is trying to act like Jan. 6 didn’t happen. He’s trying to whitewash it. … When vitriol and hate and division is sown from the top, it filters down, and then whatever lens people see that through — if someone’s lens is that they want to take that out in a way that’s antisemitic and towards the Jewish community, they’ve been emboldened to do that.”

She said it’s critical to speak up against antisemitism, and for truth, and to prevent people from trying to rewrite history, vowing to continue to “stand up and speak out directly against antisemitism.”

Asked about antisemitism on the left, and efforts to rewrite the history of Israel, the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and the Jewish people, Luria affirmed that she sees similar trends on the far left, and that she believes extremist anti-Israel rhetoric by leaders can normalize antisemitic violence.

“Everyone in leadership, everyone in government, everyone in the faith community, needs to stand up and say that this is unacceptable,” Luria said. “And I think that I have done that at every occasion that it was necessary and every opportunity that I had while serving in that kind of role, both in Congress and — smaller scale — when serving in the military.”

After leaving office, Luria spent a semester as a fellow at the Georgetown University Institute of Public Policy focusing on bipartisanship, and worked in the maritime defense industry. She also grappled with multiple deaths in her family, including her son-in-law, who was 28, and her father.

Luria said she decided to make a new bid for Congress because of the “the polarization, the fact that Congress is not doing their job, the Republicans in the House, in my mind, have no backbone, no ability to show any independent thought.” She said that Democrats retaking the House will be the best way to check the Trump administration’s power.

She acknowledged that the race, in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, centered in the Tidewater area, may be difficult, but emphasized she has won tough races in the district before.

“I think people are looking for change and looking for Congress to do more for them, and so, I’ve thrown my hat back in,” Luria said. “Listening to people on the ground, everybody is really focused on, you know, that high cost of living, access to health care, the cost of health care.”

One other major Democratic candidate remains in the primary against Luria, but she is strongly favored as the frontrunner.

The seat is currently held by Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA), who unseated Luria in 2022.

Luria sees the results of the November 2025 statewide elections, in which Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger and scandal-tarnished Attorney General Jay Jones, also a Democrat, both won the district, as a sign that “the political tide has turned.”

Luria said that affordability will be a major priority for her, including healthcare prices, and that she’ll maintain the focus she had in office on the military and the Navy — the district being home to the Norfolk naval station, the Navy’s headquarters. Overall, she said, she wants to tamp down on the “chaos” coming out of the Trump administration.

“I think Congress has a role in this, and they have not stood up and done their role,” she said, referring to Trump’s tariff policies, threats against Greenland, antagonism toward NATO and military action against Venezuela and alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean.

Former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), who was an outspoken voice in support of Israel and against antisemitism during her time in the House, announced a bid on Wednesday to reclaim the congressional seat she lost in 2022. 

In her announcement, Luria said that she “cannot sit back and watch as Republicans in Congress create chaos while failing to address the rising cost of living and the issues that matter to Coastal Virginians,” highlighting a focus on affordability, economic growth, lowering healthcare costs and supporting the military.

“Service to our country means putting the interests of the people above all else–including political parties,” Luria added, accusing Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA), her GOP opponent, of placing loyalty to Trump and the Republican Party over her constituents.

Luria, a military veteran, represented a swing seat in the Tidewater region of Virginia with a large military population from 2018 to 2022, when she lost her seat to Kiggans. Kiggans, like Luria, served in the Navy.  

Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger carried the perennial swing district in her election last week and possible Democratic redistricting efforts in the state would make the district more favorable to Democrats, giving them a stronger chance of flipping it in next year’s midterms.

Luria, who is Jewish, was a leading moderate voice in the House in support of Israel and against antisemitism, at times criticizing members of her own party and breaking with the Biden administration on its Israel policy.

She was one of the relatively few House Democrats who consistently opposed efforts by the Biden administration to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, arguing that any deal must permanently prevent Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon. She repeatedly led groups of House Democrats to speak out in opposition to deals that were reportedly in formation.

During Israel’s 2021 conflict with Hamas in Gaza, Luria organized and led a group of pro-Israel House Democrats to speak on the House floor in support of Israel and its military operations, responding to a competing effort by far-left Democrats in opposition.

Luria’s first speech on the House floor after her election in 2019 was responding to antisemitic comments by Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Throughout her term, she continued to call out Democratic colleagues who engaged in antisemitism, as well as Democratic leadership and members of her party for not taking a stronger and clearer stance on the issue.

She also accused some Democratic colleagues of believing that Israel does not have a right to exist, and she helped lead efforts pushing back on the United Nations’ targeting of Israel.

Luria, during her time in Congress, expressed a willingness to support actions by the first Trump administration that she agreed with, including attending the signing ceremonies for President Donald Trump’s executive order on campus antisemitism and the Abraham Accords.

Luria, the former vice chair of the House Armed Services Committee, also served on the select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, acknowledging at the time she joined that it might cost her her seat in the House.

Several other Democrats candidates have already declared campaigns against Kiggans, including James Osyf, a Lockheed Martin employee and Navy reservist, and Mike Williamson, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel. As of the end of September, Osyf had raised $383,000 and Williamson had raised $229,000.

Osyf said in a statement that he does not plan to drop out, saying, “this moment demands new leaders who know democracy is at a breaking point and are ready to fight for it. … I’m in this race because we need a new generation of patriotic leaders who are tired of the corruption, tired of incrementalism, and not afraid to be bold.”

The final lines in the district remain uncertain, but Kyle Kondik, the managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said that Democrats will likely aim to make the district “significantly more Democratic,” though the district is already “certainly a very viable Democratic target, without new lines.”

The district is bordered by Virginia’s 3rd and 4th congressional districts, held by Reps. Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Jennifer McClellan (D-VA). Both of those seats are “landslide Democratic districts,” and redistricting could shift some of those voters into the 2nd District.

Given her profile from having represented the seat previously, Kondik said that Luria will likely enter the race as the front-runner. The entry by a “quality recruit and a proven recruit” like Luria into the race is also a sign of Democratic confidence, he said.

He added that if the district is redrawn to be more safely Democratic, the moderate Luria could face a wider field of primary challengers, potentially some from her left, though he said she would still enter the race as the favorite.

One of the most frequent questions Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) receives from constituents in Virginia’s 2nd congressional district is: “Is it as crazy in Washington as we see on TV?” 

Her typical answer, Luria told Jewish Insider,_,is that while it might seem like there is no real opportunity for positive change in Congress, she has managed to find common ground with members across the political spectrum to pass legislation that matters to all. 

And while she is only a freshman member in Congress, Luria had the third highest number of bills signed into law by President Donald Trump among her colleagues on Capitol Hill last year. “It kind of shows that the process can work, and that there are lots of things that we can do that are not controversial where we can find common ground,” Luria told JI in a recent interview. “So when I talk to people about that, the bipartisan work I’ve done is hopefully somewhat reassuring.” 

Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Luria spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy, ultimately rising to the rank of commander. She served on six different ships and was deployed six times, operating nuclear reactors and on aircraft carriers. 

Luria, 45, was first elected in 2018 as part of a blue wave that flipped districts that had voted for President Donald Trump in 2016, beating first-term incumbent Republican Rep. Scott Taylor with 51% of the vote. This year, her district is considered a toss-up, according to the Cook Political Report, and she will once again face Taylor. 

While Luria voted for Trump’s impeachment last year, she has aligned herself with the president when it comes to his policy on Israel and — as a member of the House Bipartisan Task Force For Combating Anti-Semitism — she has been an outspoken critic of the far-left wing of the Democratic Party. Luria was one of 12 House Democrats who broke party ranks last year to vote in favor of a Republican motion to recommit on anti-BDS legislation that would allow state and local governments to adopt laws to divest public funds from entities that boycott Israel. 

She is also only one of a handful of Democrats who have attended Trump White House events, including the signing of Trump’s executive order to combat antisemitism on campus, and more recently, the Abraham Accords signing ceremony between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, along with Bahrain. “I was honored to join President Trump at the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords, marking a new era in regional security and cooperation in the Middle East,” Luria told JI after the event. “I commend President Trump on his leadership to make this milestone a reality,” she added. 

While Luria claims she does not agree with everything Trump has done, she noted she is “willing to literally stand behind him on the stage while he does support an effort that I do agree with.” Luria added she would love “to see more bipartisanship and more opportunity to work together to get the things done that we all agree on.” 

Rep. Elaine Luria

In an interview last year, Luria told The Washington Post that her Jewish faith inspired her to take a position on impeachment and to speak up in defense of Israel and against antisemitism. 

“I did not necessarily anticipate going in to be a representative in the House that I would need to be as vocal about these things,” Luria told JI. Her debut speech on the House floor was during a debate over a resolution against hate, widely considered to be watered-down, following Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) comments regarding lawmakers’ support for Israel. Luria quipped that her remarks, decrying the dual loyalty label by pointing to her faith and past experience, sounded like an adapted version of the Passover song “Dayenu.” While she felt “discouraged” that the measure was diluted in the process, Luria said she felt it was important for her to use that opportunity to “speak up against antisemitism.” 

Luria maintained that with the retirement of longtime Democratic members like Reps. Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel of New York, and the addition of some newly successful far-left candidates, “I think that it’s much more important that I stay and come back to Congress as a strong voice to counter people who certainly speak up with different views than mine.” 

Last year, Luria reached out to Omar to discuss Israel and antisemitism. And while those meetings were not “as productive as I hoped for, I will always continue to try to do that,” Luria said, adding that she will “redouble” her efforts to engage with new members about issues of importance to the Jewish community. 

Luria is also one of the few House Democrats who didn’t sign on to letters expressing opposition to possible Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank. A House letter sent to Israeli leaders, signed by 191 House Democrats and backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), warned that annexation would undermine the two-state solution. Luria told JI she “deliberately chose to not sign on to that letter,” because she believes it’s not the job of a member of Congress to be weighing in on Israeli government decisions, or to be “doing anything that would erode the very strong relationship that we have between the U.S. and Israel.” 

Luria was an early supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, endorsing the now-Democratic nominee back in January. “I know that Joe Biden is a very strong supporter of Israel. He stood up to antisemitism during his very long career serving in the Senate and he believes in standing up against the BDS movement,” she said. The only place she differs with her party’s standard-bearer is on his commitment to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. “I know that that is something that I’m not 100% aligned with him on, but I think that overwhelmingly his positions, both for domestic policy and support of the U.S.-Israel relationship, [are] something I do align with.” 

Luria, along with fellow freshmen Reps. Max Rose (D-NY) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), are part of the “Gang of Nine,” moderate Democrats with national security backgrounds. 

In 2018, during a campaign stop, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced Luria and expressed in amazement how “this Jewish girl from Alabama,” who served 20 years in the Navy, commanding a combat unit of 400 sailors, was going to be a congresswoman. Recalling that moment, Luria laughed that she might indeed be an unusual candidate for office. “I guess there are not many Jewish girls from Alabama who go to the Naval Academy and then end up in Congress,” she said. “But I feel it’s just a continuation of my service, and I feel a great responsibility to preserve my heritage and serve my constituents well.”