Luria and Taylor to square off again in the 2nd
The region’s most closely watched congressional race is — once again — the matchup between Elaine Luria and Scott Taylor.
Two years ago, Luria was the Democratic challenger in the 2nd Congressional District and unseated Taylor, then a freshman Republican congressman.
This year, she’s the incumbent and he’s the challenger. But many of the dynamics and even the tone of the attack ads haven’t changed much.
The political analysis site FiveThirtyEight gives Luria an 83% chance of winning again, forecasting she’ll get 52% of the vote to Taylor’s 45%.
But such forecasts can be wrong, as we learned in 2016. In any case, that gives Taylor far more of a shot than the Republican challengers in two other races
In the races for the U.S. Senate and the 3rd Congressional District, FiveThirtyEight gives Democratic incumbents, Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Bobby Scott, a 99% or greater chance of winning.
Earlier, The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press published election guides laying out each candidate’s biographical information giving them a chance to answer the same three questions so voters could hear them in their own words. You can read those at pilotonline.com/voterguide2020.
Here’s a look at how each race is shaping up.
2nd Congressional District
Taylor, who won the seat in 2016, is hoping to get it back after his narrow loss two years later.
He and Luria are vying to represent Virginia Beach, the Eastern Shore and parts of Norfolk and the Peninsula.
Taylor, a former U.S. Navy SEAL turned investor and international business consultant, ran briefly for U.S. Senate last year before deciding instead to seek his old seat.
Luria, a retired commander in the U.S. Navy, spent her first two years in Congress serving on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
Luria and her campaign repeatedly have tried to tie Taylor to a scandal in which three of his former staffers have either pleaded guilty to or been charged with submitting forged signatures in an effort to get a spoiler candidate on the ballot that year.
The special prosecutor in the case, John Beamer, said the investigation isn’t over, and he expects to seek at least one more indictment. He said no one has been cleared, including Taylor.
Taylor and his campaign have continued to say he knew nothing about the petition signatures and had no knowledge of any wrongdoing by his former staffers.
Taylor said he would focus on helping small businesses impacted by the pandemic and push to bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas. Taylor said his top priority for veterans would be getting a new veterans hospital built on the Southside to relieve “overwhelming pressure” on the facility in Hampton.
Luria also said she’ll work to help small businesses and families affected by the pandemic if reelected. And she said she’s helped veterans by, among other things, helping undo an error in the 2017 tax bill that led to Gold Star families being overtaxed on survivor benefits.
Both said they’ve gotten along with members of the opposite party and could work well with a Biden or Trump administration.
David Foster, an independent candidate from Hayes, is also on the ballot and is self-funding his campaign. He’s a U.S. Navy veteran and a small business owner.
3rd Congressional District
Scott, a 13-term Democratic incumbent, has a challenge from a Republican newcomer, John Collick.
The 3rd Congressional District includes parts of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Hampton and Suffolk, plus all of Newport News, Portsmouth, Franklin and Isle of Wight County.
Scott, who serves as chair of the House Education and Labor committee, hopes to close out three decades in the Hampton Roads district.
Collick, a 57-year-old former counterterrorism expert who lives in Suffolk, said he looked for a candidate to support in the November elections and couldn’t find anyone, so he decided to run.
He won a three-way primary in June.
Collick praised President Donald Trump for his work helping create historically low unemployment, including for minority groups, before the pandemic hit. Collick said he’d push for workforce training to help unemployed or underemployed people get new jobs. And he’s a supporter of what Republicans call “school choice,” referring to parents being able to use public funds to send children to religious or other private schools.
Scott said he’d keep fighting for working families if re-elected, including by expanding medical and sick leave benefits and giving extra pay to workers on the front lines. He supports a higher minimum wage, protecting workers’ right to unionize and an end to “mass incarceration.” Scott also said he’ll work to support Hampton Roads’ shipbuilding and ship repair industries and advocate for the interests of veterans as well as those still serving in the military.
U.S. Senate
Warner is seeking a third term, facing a challenge from a Republican newcomer with military experience who thinks he can steer Virginia red after a decade of statewide Democratic wins.
Daniel Gade, a relatively unknown retired Army lieutenant colonel and public policy professor, has debated Warner twice, with a third time scheduled Oct. 13.
A recent poll from Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center for Public Policy shows Warner has a 52% to 39% lead among likely voters.
Gade has said he sees his candidacy as an extension of his public service. A 25-year Army veteran, the Alexandria native and West Point graduate was wounded in Iraq when an explosion resulted in the amputation of his right leg. He did not respond to questions from The Pilot.
Warner, a businessman who worked in the telecommunications industry, previously served as Virginia’s governor from 2001 to 2004 and became one of Virginia’s two U.S. senators in 2008. He is the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
He said he has pushed to help small businesses and expand testing amid the pandemic, but that the country can’t get its economy fully up and running again until the virus is under control.
Warner said Trump has lied to the American people throughout the pandemic, and he noted Gade has called the president’s leadership on the issue “great.”