Congresswoman Luria on Taking Back Virginia House Seat
2/27/202617 mincomplete
0:00Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are crashing in the polls heading into the midterms, and
0:04now J .D. Vance has made things much, much worse.
0:08Vance throwing Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans under the bus with the most horrible speech
0:14imaginable in Wisconsin. But this is the national message that he's taking around, whether it's
0:20in Wisconsin, Michigan, Virginia, where there are a lot of Democratic flips that could be
0:26happening in the midterm. So take a look at the generic polling right here for
0:30the congressional ballot. Democrats up 50 to 42 percent right now.
0:35So what was J .D.
0:36Vance saying earlier today? He was saying that, and again, it's all projection.
0:40He's like describing the Trump regime, but trying to attack his political opponents.
0:45And he's like, when the government makes bad policy and destroys your life, that's what
0:51we need to protect against.
0:53That's literally what y 'all are doing.
0:54Watch what Vance said moments ago.
0:56Let's play it. But here's the thing about the American dream.
0:59The government cannot give it to you for you, but the government with bad policy
1:04and bad leadership, it can destroy that American dream, whatever shape it takes in the
1:09lives of you and your children.
1:11And then J .D. Vance says that when you go to the polls in November,
1:16I want you to think who will protect your money from the fraudsters.
1:21Literally, this is like a regime, the Epstein class fraudsters in the Oval Office.
1:26But go on, J .D., here, play this clip.
1:29...ferocity of spirit. And so I want you, when you go to the polls in
1:33November, I don't want you to just think about all the great things that we've
1:37accomplished, all the great things that we've talked about.
1:39I don't want you just to think about no taxes on tips and lower gas
1:42prices. I want you to think who is going to protect my money from fraudsters.
1:47And the simple answer is it's Derek Van Orden and congressional Republicans.
1:51It is not the Democrats who created this problem to begin with.
1:56And then his final message was, you got to stop the crazy Democrats.
2:01Stop the crazy Democrats. Y 'all are a bunch of pedo protectors in the Oval
2:05Office. You are the Epstein class.
2:06You are the cabal. Here, play this clip.
2:09I just want you to know that every single day I go to work and
2:13every single day Donald J.
2:15Trump goes to work and we fight for the American dream for you and your
2:19family, however you define it.
2:21We would really appreciate you not sending us a bunch of crazy Democrats in November.
2:26So please don't do that.
2:27God bless you all. Thank you.
2:28Additional data points I want to share with you right now.
2:30This broke my heart this morning.
2:32A call for Minnesota into C -SPAN.
2:35A 65 -year -old legally blind and disabled woman lost 28 pounds because she can't
2:41afford food under the Trump regime.
2:44She's starving to death. And this is an experience by millions of Americans or at
2:49least hundreds of thousands of Americans are experiencing this right now.
2:53Here, play this clip. And that's what my topic is.
2:57I had my annual physical yesterday.
2:59I'm 65 years old. I'm legally blind.
3:02I'm on disability. I went to my doc and I lost 28 pounds in the
3:10last year. I did not need to lose 28 pounds.
3:16I did not try to lose 28 pounds.
3:21I lost the 28 pounds because I cannot afford to afford to eat anymore.
3:27Under Biden, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
3:33Under Biden, I was able to put $100 a month away for food along with
3:40my snap. And I did okay.
3:43I could get fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and meat.
3:46It is just me. But now, with grocery prices so high, propane, electricity out of
3:54this world, I now only allow myself $65 a month for food.
4:01Sharon, are you on SNAP benefits?
4:04Let me tell you. Under Joe Biden, I received $80 a month for SNAP.
4:11That was taken away from me under Donald Trump.
4:14He took it away. He gave me $24 a month.
4:17I did receive that for a couple of months.
4:20Then he took it down to $12.
4:22$12 .50 a month. I said, screw you.
4:27So I'm not doing that no more.
4:29So now I get $65 a month, Mimi.
4:33And for them people out there, all these Republicans that are doing so flipping well
4:40right now, I have three potatoes.
4:43I have a half a tomato.
4:44I have three bananas, one apple, one can of soup, a half a loaf of
4:48bread, one egg, and one can of green beans.
4:52I do not get paid until the third.
4:55I am disability blind. I cannot drive a car.
4:58I'm 15 miles out of town.
5:00So I am not able to just, oh, trot my butt down to the food
5:04shelf. I used to volunteer at the food shelf.
5:07I can't even do that anymore.
5:08I don't understand. I'd like somebody to explain to me, why is it always the
5:11poor? People that are helping the poor people.
5:14I don't understand. But what I want to say, Mimi, is that it's really close
5:18to coming. Like that man said, the end is coming near and it can't be
5:22any more true for me.
5:24And next, I will share with you a Tony Gonzalez voter in Texas, right, right
5:30in Uvalde and a big Trump supporter.
5:32And you'll see that these Trump supporters, these ultra MAGA people are finally waking up
5:39here. Let's play this clip right here.
5:41For the man twice now.
5:44For Tony Gonzalez. Are you disappointed?
5:50Yes, ma 'am. You know, it's sort of like, you know, I'm disappointed in most
5:57of the Republicans. I'm not too pleased with the Democratic Party in San Antonio.
6:04And that's just me. I'm a Christian.
6:08I'm Catholic. Now, I asked him to describe with one word, Tony Gonzalez, and he
6:15said, sad. I asked him the same question about Donald Trump.
6:19He said, delusional. Chris, he says that he was a Trump supporter through and through.
6:26But he said that as Donald Trump started speaking without thinking about things, that's when
6:33he started changing his mind.
6:35And he says that that has happened over and over so many times.
6:38So one of the big questions for me was, wait, so would you vote for
6:43a Democrat? Is that how strongly you feel?
6:47And he said that going forward, he's going to look at the person, not the
6:51party. And now Democrats are looking to pick up seats, of course, in Virginia.
6:57And one of those districts that Democrats are eyeing is Virginia's second congressional district, where
7:04an incredible Democratic congresswoman used to be representing that district, actually fighting for the people
7:10of the district. Until this MAGA Republican congresswoman named Jen Kiggins came in and basically
7:16conned people and then didn't just vote against the people of her own district outright
7:22fighting against the people of the second every single day.
7:26So Virginia, too, was currently represented by someone named Congresswoman Jen Kiggins, who lied to
7:33Virginians when she said she literally lied to their faces.
7:36She goes, I will work to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, but then
7:40voted no. She promised to protect Medicaid and then voted to gut Medicaid.
7:45She promised to protect clean energy tax credits and then voted against that.
7:50Probably the biggest proponent of Doge destroying the people's jobs in Virginia.
7:55So basically right now, the people of the second are represented by someone who each
8:01and every single day is attacking them, not representing them.
8:05And so now I want to bring in Congresswoman Lurie.
8:09I'm not bringing in Congresswoman Kiggins.
8:11And so you represented that district, Virginia's second, from 2019 till about 2023.
8:19There was that 2022 election.
8:21And Kiggins came in and made all of these promises.
8:25And Youngkin came in and did the ads for her and said, we're going to
8:28be delivering for you. And it was a very close election.
8:32You lost that election in 2022.
8:34But now here we are heading into the midterms in 2026.
8:38And I think that people were like, damn, we got conned.
8:42We're now represented by someone who hates us.
8:45We need to get Luria back.
8:46So talk to us a little bit about this district and why you're confident you'll
8:51be able to flip it.
8:52Well, thanks for having me.
8:53And I would say that the folks definitely got conned by Kiggins.
8:58I think that's a good term.
8:59Like we should sort of start using that as a catchphrase.
9:02But here you have somebody.
9:04She's a health care professional.
9:05And she votes against access to health care by gutting Medicaid.
9:08She votes against affordable health care by, you know, doing a little charade that says
9:13she wants to extend the ACA tax credits.
9:15But in the end, when given the opportunity to vote for them, she votes against
9:19them. And her most recent prank or stunt is, you know, yesterday there was an
9:23Aviation Safety Act. The woman was a helicopter pilot in the Navy.
9:27And what did she do?
9:28She voted against aviation safety and votes with Trump 100 percent of the time.
9:33So, you know, everything she said she's going to do when she goes to Congress,
9:36she's actually done the exact opposite.
9:38So I think, you know, for my four years in Congress, I have a very
9:41good track record of representing and supporting the people of Virginia and their interests.
9:46And, you know, that's why I'm back in this again.
9:48We have to stand up for what's right.
9:50We have to have people in Congress who are going to do what they say
9:52they're going to do when they go to Washington and stand up for our democracy.
9:56You might recall in 2022, when I was running, I had just, you know, served
10:01on the January 6th committee, standing up for our democracy, for what's right, to get
10:05the facts out to people about what happened on January 6th, to hold those responsible,
10:09who had called the mob to the Capitol to storm the Capitol, stop the vote.
10:14And there was Jen Giggins.
10:16She wouldn't even say that Joe Biden had won the election.
10:19And she still won't. She's still perpetuating that lie.
10:23Yeah, I don't do political ads, but I like your idea there.
10:26You know, you go, Giggins lied to Virginians when she said that she would extend
10:30the ACA tax credit. Conned by Giggins.
10:34Da -da -da -da -da -da -da.
10:35Conned by, you know, a future career for me.
10:38I don't know. But. Let's talk about the fact that, you know, Trump has dropped
10:42so significantly amongst independent voters and Virginia has an independent streak.
10:49I mean, you had a Republican governor before, you have a Democratic governor now, they
10:53really couldn't be, they're like the exact opposite people right now.
10:56And we saw even with the types of executive orders that Governor Spanberger gave, the
11:01incredible, probably my favorite rebuttal I've really ever heard that she delivered to whatever the
11:07hell Donald Trump delivered. But, you know, we're seeing at least in the polling data,
11:11independent support of Trump only at around like 24 % or 25%.
11:17Are you, you know, this district well, you tore every nook and cranny of it.
11:23Are you seeing and feeling something different right now than even you saw back in
11:282018, 2019? Yes. So, I mean, we're in a similar situation, but it's actually gotten
11:33worse. So in 2018, when I ran for Congress the first time and flipped this
11:37district from a Republican, that was the same year that Abigail Spanberger, myself, Jennifer Wexton,
11:43so three Virginia women flipped three districts that year.
11:47And there was a lot of anger and momentum that said, you know, Democrats really
11:52need to come in and take over Congress to put some sanity in place.
11:56But, you know, you take that and you multiply it times 10, 20, 100.
12:01You know, people are just really fed up.
12:03They don't think that what the Trump administration is doing represents who we are as
12:07Americans. They don't believe in, you know, National Guard troops on the streets and ICE
12:12agents terrorizing people, shooting of American citizens in broad daylight.
12:16I mean, this is not who we are as Americans.
12:19The weaponization of the Justice Department against political enemies.
12:22I mean, this is pretty long.
12:23I don't know how much time we have, but we could, you know, keep going
12:25and going. But, you know, I think people really are fed up.
12:29They are angry about what this administration is doing, and they want to hold accountable
12:32every single member of Congress who votes in line with Trump all the time, like
12:36Kiggins does. You know, and as you mentioned, you know, she has a background in
12:43the military, but votes against it.
12:45You have a background in the military, of course, joining the Navy at the age
12:49of 17, but you supported it to your entire life.
12:54And it seems that whether it's our military, whether it's government employees, and in Virginia,
13:02Virginia second, there's a lot of both.
13:05It just seems like there's, again, over there, an outright assault on something that's a
13:12major part of Virginia. I mean, military families, camaraderie with military, protecting.
13:19I mean, one of the things that you pioneered is the PACT Act, which MAGA
13:23Republicans voted against, protecting the health and safety of military veterans.
13:29And you see right now in the Trump regime, they're gutting of the VA and
13:33firing lots of federal workers who have military backgrounds as well.
13:37I saw at the People State of the Union that we ran, there was a
13:40story about just government employees who were saying that right now they're consulting shelters for
13:47unhoused individuals because they're a month away from foreclosure.
13:51And that's a story we're hearing and a tragic story we're hearing.
13:54And what are you hearing those stories in a second?
13:56Well, I will tell you that, you know, there's really probably nowhere else in the
14:00country other than Washington, D .C.
14:02proper that is more impacted by the cuts to Doge, has more federal employees per
14:06capita. And, you know, 40 % of our economy is directly and or indirectly tied
14:11to the Navy and DOD.
14:12We have the largest naval base in the world.
14:14We build all of the carriers and half the submarines.
14:17So when you start cutting the military, putting veterans' health care at risk and, you
14:22know, an assault on federal employees, it hits pretty hard where we are.
14:27And I hear that from people across the district, people who are furloughed, who are
14:31sort of stiff -armed and forced to take this early retirement, and people who are
14:34just, you know, fed up, like, I cannot continue to serve in this capacity.
14:38I believe in our country.
14:39I'm a patriot. I love our country.
14:41But, you know, I don't want to continue to serve in this capacity for our
14:45federal government under this administration.
14:46So I hear that just over and over again.
14:49And we need to make a change.
14:51Congresswoman, before we go, where can people learn more about the campaign?
14:55And what's your final message that you want to put out there to our more
14:59than 6 million subscribers who are watching it, whether they're from Virginia or throughout this
15:04country or the world? Well, people can learn more about the campaign at Elaine for
15:08Congress, spelled out F -O -R, ElaineforCongress .com.
15:12So you can learn about the campaign there.
15:13You can support us from afar.
15:16And, you know, my message is, is that we have to flip the house.
15:19We have to flip the house to put a check on this administration.
15:21And this is one of those seats.
15:24I'm a red to blue candidate.
15:25So one of the 12 seats that's going to make the difference to flip the
15:28house. I've done that before in 2018.
15:30This is a D plus zero district.
15:33What does that mean? We are number 218.
15:35We are the swingiest of swing districts in the country.
15:38And we need your help from every corner of America to make us, you know,
15:42have the resources that we need to flip this district and flip the House of
15:46Representatives. So please look us up at Elainefor, spelled out F -O -R, Congress .com.
15:52Congresswoman Elaine Luria, thank you for joining us.
15:55Thanks for having me. And everybody hit subscribe.
15:58Let's get to 7 million subscribers.
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