First-term Republican US Rep. Jen Kiggans has already drawn a 2024 challenger in Virginia’s 2nd congressional district.
Democrat Missy Cotter Smasal introduced this week that she’s working for the seat at present held by Kiggans, who’s not even midway by her first time period in Congress.
Cotter Smasal is a Navy veteran and government director of Valor Run, an area nonprofit group that hosts working occasions to honor ladies who serve within the army. She additionally serves as a citizen consultant on the Chesapeake Bay Fee and is an adjunct professor at Previous Dominion College. She’s by no means held elected workplace, though she did run for the Virginia state Senate in 2019.
In her announcement, Cotter Smasal particularly known as out Kiggans’ document on veterans points.
“She voted to chop veterans’ well being advantages after which lied about it,” Cotter Smasal mentioned, referencing Kiggans’ assist for Home Republicans’ plan to boost the debt ceiling this previous spring. “Virginia’s veterans deserve a member of Congress who will honor our guarantees, not ones, like Kiggans, who vote to remove their advantages, threaten army readiness, and use servicemembers as political leverage.”
Cotter Smasal already boasts endorsements from former Gov. Ralph Northam and US Rep. Jennifer McClellan (VA-04).
Whereas Republican-leaning, VA-02 is taken into account extremely aggressive. President Joe Biden gained this district 50-48% in 2020, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin flipped it for the GOP the next yr 55-44%. Kiggans defeated incumbent Rep. Elaine Luria 52-48% in 2022.
