TRS Staff

Rep. Don Beyer, recently announced his re-election plans and the press coverage indicates that he had absolutely no legislative successes or agenda to promote and instead talked about targeting Rep. Barbara Comstock.

According to InsideNova, Beyer said, “She [Comstock]  is ‘the No. 1 target – we’re going to put everyone behind it,’ Beyer said of the effort to unseat Comstock, who succeeded U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf the same year Beyer followed Moran into office.”

Beyer, a failed candidate for Governor 20 years ago who nearly lost the 10^th in that race by a 2 to 1 margin, warms the 8th District seat and holds parties in Alexandria and ventures into Arlington, and all but ignores the Fairfax part of his district.  His prognostications about the 10th District race are ironic considering since Beyer lost it badly when he ran for Governor against Jim Gilmore in 1997 — losing Virginia in a 55-42 rout.

In 2016, Beyer stressed how important it was for them to “bump off” Comstock that year, because it would get harder every year.

Classy, Don — bumping off the only female in the Virginia delegation — the chivalry of Democrats.

Despite those like Beyer trying to “bump off” Comstock who has been consistently targeted, she has demonstrated she is Lucy with the football when it comes to Democrats trying to score against her.

As Miles Coleman of Decision Desk HQ, who actually lives in the 10th District, wrote after the 2016 election:

“One of the Congressional incumbents who ran furthest ahead of their ticket was Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) of Virginia’s 10th Congressional district. Comstock was a state legislator who won this blue-trending seat after the very popular Frank Wolf (R) retired in 2014…Comstock overperformed the most in her old legislative district,  which is the dark red arm of the district in northern Fairfax County. Clinton carried all but one precinct there, but   all of them voted for Comstock. In fact, after she vacated her legislative seat, it flipped Democratic, but it looks    like Comstock is still popular with voters who know her best…As a resident of the district myself, I thought that, given the district’s lean, Hillary would need to carry the state by at least 5-6% for Comstock to lose. While I was right about the state margin, Clinton won Virginia by 5.3%, there was significantly more ticket-splitting than I expected in VA-10.”

Fact of the matter is, Democrats are in for a rather amazing surprise if they think VA-10 are easy pickings.  Comstock knows her home district better than any outsider.

Of note?  In September 1997, the Washington Post predicted that Beyer would win in Virginia by a full percentage point.  Oops.