On Thursday state Senator Jennifer Wexton will announce a run for Congress in the 10th district against Congresswoman Barbara Comstock. Wexton has been a member of the state Senate since 2014.
The DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) had chosen the chair of the Loudoun Board of Supervisors, Phyllis Randlall, to run against Comstock. When Randall declined Wexton was their second choice.
Governor McAuliffe could be a major problem in Wexton campaign if he wants his wife to be the Democratic nominee against Comstock. We previously wrote about the possibility of Dorothy McAuliff running against Comstock here. Will Governor McAuliffe do what he did to Democrat Tom Mulrine in 2015? Leesburg lawyer Tom Mulrine had filed to run against Senator Dick Black in the 13th district. Mulrine was working hard to be the nominee and was circulating his petitions to get on the ballot when Governor McAuliffe decided Mulrine could not run and put Dr. Jill McCabe into the race in his place. Despite spending $1.6 million McCabe lost the race to Dick Black by 5%. Will McAuliffe pull Wexton from the race to insert his wife? Or someone else?
With so many other people running in the 10th district as we have reported here, here, and here, it will be interesting to see if Wexton’s nomination will be a coronation, (assuming McAuliffe approves) or if one of the grassroots candidates will prevail. With Tom’ Perriello’s rise in his bid for Governor, this may be the year that other Democratic grassroots candidates will prevail. If so, that could be bad news for the DCCC candidate, Jennifer Wexton.
UPDATE: The Washington Post has now covered the story here.
Jennifer Wexton has announced her run here.
