Lisa Vedernikova Khanna announced Monday that she is dropping out of the race for the Democratic congressional nomination in the First District.
Not a fan of how she announced it.
“The infrastructure simply does not exist to give political outsiders a fair shot at public service. And the infrastructure that does exist, including establishment groups in Washington, is often allergic to people who don’t fit their narrow idea of what a candidate should be,” Khanna said.
ICYMI
This is the reality: Shannon Taylor, in her fourth term as the Commonwealth’s Attorney in Henrico County, which makes up a 21.6 percent share of the expanse of the current district boundaries in the First, who entered the race after Khanna, and several others, formed the original battle lines, is the prohibitive favorite to win the nomination.
Taylor ran and narrowly lost in a primary challenge for the attorney general nomination last spring to Jay Jones, who went on to win in the November election.
Taylor has political chops; Khanna can get there one day, but she’s not there yet.
ICYMI
Which isn’t to say that the experience of having run before dropping out because a big-name candidate jumped in should be considered a loss; I would hope that Khanna made some inroads that she can use in a future run during the seven months that she was out and about, meeting with voters.
From her statement on Monday, it seems that she did.
“Over the last seven months of my campaign, I’ve spent my time talking to voters across VA-01 and across the country,” Khanna said. “Two things have become clear to me. First, life feels impossible for many Americans. We are living through one of the most profound existential crises we’ve faced in decades. Second, people feel deeply alienated from a political system they believe is incapable of responding to that crisis.”
There appear to be lessons still to learn. The press release from her campaign announcing her decision to drop out made an issue of her feeling that “the infrastructure surrounding congressional campaigns is not built to support candidates who fall outside a narrow, establishment-approved mold.”
“It shouldn’t require millionaire fundraising rolodexes or entrenched political connections to run for office, nor should campaigns be stymied by favors owed to elected officials or backroom decisions that presuppose the will of voters. Running for office certainly shouldn’t include the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee threatening to spend against primary candidates or threatening to do opposition research to intimidate candidates out of the race, both of which happened to me,” Khanna said.
Probably would have been better to take the high road on the way out of the race.
Because, another reality check: if you feel that you’re doing the right thing, you keep doing it, even if you think the deck is stacked against you.
I say that as the guy who has been running a progressive-focused news website in the reddest part of the Commonwealth of Virginia for the past 24 years.
I also ran for local office here, once – way back in 2008.
Got my ass handed to me, and decided to focus on the news thing – and we’re having impact.
I had the chance a couple of months ago to interview Khanna, and I like where she comes from in terms of her politics.
I’m glad to hear, from her announcement, that she doesn’t consider herself done.
“While I will no longer be a candidate, I am staying in this fight,” Khanna said. “Inspiring, relatable, bold candidates should be the norm, not a lightning-in-a-bottle anomaly, because that’s how we build a government that actually fights for people.”
From the Archives: Soon-to-be new mom running for Congress
Share
Chris Graham
