2nd District hopefuls face off in Norfolk

NORFOLK — In an animated debate Tuesday night, Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria and Republican challenger Scott Taylor traded jabs on topics ranging from gun control and policing to health care and the future of energy. Each also accused the other of lying about their records and using scare tactics during the campaign.

“The only thing that he said in his answer that was true is that we have real differences,” Luria said at one point, during a discussion about gun regulations.

Luria and Taylor are vying for a seat representing Virginia’s sprawling 2nd Congressional District, which includes parts of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, York County, Hampton, Poquoson, Williamsburg, James City County and the Eastern Shore.

Neither candidate would be a new face in Congress. Each has held the seat for one term.

Luria unseated Taylor in 2018 and now their rematch is being closely watched as a bellwether for the Democrats. Early Wednesday, Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center for Public Policy released a new poll showing Luria with a seven-point lead over Taylor.

Both candidates are Navy veterans — Luria a retired commander, Taylor a former SEAL.

At the start of Tuesday’s hourlong debate, which was hosted by Norfolk’s WTKRand moderated by Washington-based Scripps correspondent Joe St. George, both emphasized their military experience. Taylor also noted his roots on the Delmarva Peninsula.

Luria is known in Congress for being part of a group of moderate Democrats with national security backgrounds — including Abigail Spanberger in Virginia’s 7th District.

But Taylor consistently tried to align her with more liberal policies, saying several times that she’s “voted with (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi 90% of the time.”

“It’s a myth my opponent is a moderate,” he said.

Luria said that wasn’t true, pointing to her vote earlier this year against Pelosi’s initial COVID-19 package. She said the first versions had too many “additional things that were not targeted toward COVID relief.”

The pandemic was one of the first items on the table, as St. George asked why Democrats couldn’t get out a second round of stimulus checks while worrying about other aid later. Later in the debate, they were asked whether people should wear masks in public and both agreed they should.

Luria said she “fully expects” a bill by the end of the week but said Republicans are holding up negotiations because they don’t want to include a plan for tracking and testing for COVID-19.

Taylor said his opponent has been “silent and absent” while businesses in the district suffer during the pandemic-caused economic crisis.

“Some of the lockdowns have been much more harmful than the actual pandemic itself,” he said.

He also claimed Luria has the “worst constituent services in Virginia,” to which Luria replied that when she took over from Taylor, her office received numerous calls from constituents wondering whatever happened to their cases because he’d never dealt with them.

“You are fear-mongering with stupid political talking points,” she added.

One discussion that grew heated was over gun control.

Luria said she is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, noting she is a gun owner. But she also wants “responsible guardrails on gun ownership.” That includes universal background checks, red-flag laws and possibly a ban on suppressors.

She invoked last year’s mass shooting at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center as an example of why such laws are needed.

Taylor responded by accusing Luria of using the tragedy to advance her political agenda.

“There were still bodies on the ground and blood on the floor when my opponent was tweeting about gun control,” Taylor said, calling it “disgusting.” “Not one of her proposals would have prevented that.”

An election fraud scandal associated with Taylor’s 2018 race against Luria also took center stage.

Three of Taylor’s 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, told The Virginian-Pilot the investigation isn’t over and that 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.

At the debate, Luria cited Beamer’s comments to The Pilot to emphasize that Taylor had not been cleared.

St. George asked Taylor, “if you can’t manage your own staff, how will you manage the affairs of the people of Virginia?”

“As I’ve said many times, I didn’t know of any wrongdoing, there’s zero direct evidence to show that, and we of course made some faulty decisions that were regrettable,” Taylor responded.

On the topic of clean energy, Taylor again tied Luria to Washington liberals, saying she’d called the Green New Deal “aspirational.”

“I said it in a negative way,” Luria said, adding she does not support the legislation. “It has no teeth.”

Both said they support nuclear energy.

The debate often circled back to specific votes of each candidate while in Congress. In 2017, Taylor had voted for the American Health Care Act, which failed but would have drastically reduced funding for Medicaid expansion.

St. George asked if Medicaid expansion in Virginia — approved last year — should go away.

“Why are we defending mediocrity?” Taylor said of the program. “We can do much better than putting more people on Medicaid.”

When Luria pointed out Taylor’s vote for the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 had raised taxes for some families of fallen service members, he said “shame on you for invoking Gold Star families.”

The debate ended with each candidate asking the other a question.

Taylor asked why Luria had not met with leaders of the local Black Lives Matter movement. Luria said she has.

Previously, Taylor said that “racism exists against white people, too,” Luria said. She asked whether the candidate felt he had ever experienced racism. He said he hadn’t.

Taylor and Luria will face off again at lunchtime Thursday at a private debate hosted by the Hampton Roads Chamber focused on business and regulatory issues.