Elaine Luria

Luria is running for re-election in the 2020 elections.

Luria was sworn in on January 3, 2019. She was one of 102 female members elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2018, a record number. Luria is a moderate Democrat.

While the federal government was in a partial shutdown, Luria asked for her salary to be withheld until federal workers were paid in January 2019. She participated in a bipartisan group of Representatives seeking to broker a compromise to end the shutdown.

In February 2019, Luria introduced the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2019, which increased the cost of living adjustments (COLAs) made to veterans. It earned bipartisan support and passed in September 2019.

In September 2019, Luria labeled herself a "security Democrat"—an idiom for freshman Democrats with national security experience—and called for an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump in an op-ed published by The Washington Post. In an October 2019 town hall meeting held in Virginia Beach, Luria stated that Donald Trump had: "Enlist[ed] the help of a foreign leader to influence and malign a potential political opponent to affect the outcome of our next election all under [the] guise of trying to fight corruption." Later in October 2019, Luria formally voted for an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, and she joined all but three Democrats in the House of Representatives to vote for impeachment on both counts: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in December 2019; all Republicans voted no to both charges in the House of Representatives.

In April 2019, Luria co-sponsored the Climate Action Now Act (CANA), introduced by progressive Democrat Kathy Castor (FL–14th) in March 2019, which seeks to solidify the Paris Agreement's emissions cap into federal law.

In the 2018 elections, Luria ran for the United States House of Representatives in Virginia's 2nd congressional district . In the Democratic primary on June 10, Luria garnered 62% of the vote, defeating Karen Mallard, who received 38%.

In the November 6, 2018 election, she defeated Republican incumbent Scott Taylor, winning 51% of the vote to Taylor's 49%. Luria carried six of the district's nine county-level jurisdictions, including all but one of the district's five independent cities. She also carried Taylor's hometown of Virginia Beach.

She served first aboard USS O'Brien, a forward deployed destroyer that was sent to the Middle East. Luria was in charge of Tomahawk strike missiles, and managed a division of 15 people. She then became Reactor Controls Division Officer on USS Harry S. Truman, an aircraft carrier, which also deployed to the Middle East. Luria became Flag Aide to the commander of the United States Seventh Fleet once she made lieutenant. She was deployed on destroyer USS Mason and nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise before serving as an executive officer on the guided missile cruiser USS Anzio. She became maintenance coordinator for the United States Atlantic Fleet, overseeing USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, another nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. She then commanded Assault Craft Unit TWO, a combat-ready unit of 400 sailors, from 2014 until her retirement in 2017. She held a Passover seder on an aircraft carrier shortly after 9/11.

Luria's husband, Robert Blondin, is also a retired Navy commander and spent 27 years in the service. Luria has two stepchildren as well as a daughter born in 2009. They reside in Norfolk, and she made the commencement speech in May 2019 at Virginia Wesleyan University located in Virginia Beach. Luria attends the Ohef Sholom Temple, a Reform Jewish synagogue, also located in Norfolk.

Luria graduated from Indian Springs School in 1993. She graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science (BS) with a double major in physics and history, and a minor in French. In 2000, Luria attended the United States Naval Nuclear Power School. While serving in the Navy and stationed aboard the flagship USS Blue Ridge, she earned a Master of Science (MS) degree in engineering management from Old Dominion University in 2004.

Elaine Goodman Luria (born August 15, 1975) is an American Democratic politician and Navy veteran from the Commonwealth of Virginia who has served as the Representative for Virginia's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2019. Luria's congressional district serves most of the heart of Hampton Roads, including all of Virginia Beach, Williamsburg and Poquoson and portions of Norfolk and Hampton. Before running for Congress, she served as a Navy officer for 20 years. Luria rose to the rank of commander and spent the majority of her career deployed on navy ships. Luria defeated Republican incumbent Scott Taylor in 2018, and she is running for a second term in 2020.

Luria was born on August 15, 1975 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her mother Michelle's family immigrated to Jasper, Alabama, in 1906. The family sold goods to coal miners in Walker County, Alabama. In the early-1900s, Luria's great-grandfather helped spawn a Reform Jewish congregation in Jasper, and her immediate family joined the Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham. Luria's mother and grandmother were active in the National Council of Jewish Women (of which her mother was President), Hadassah, the Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood, and the Birmingham Jewish Federation. Both of her grandfathers served in the Navy.