US House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Elaine Luria attend a rally at Batten University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on October 31, 2026.
Eric Lee/Reuters
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No part of a rolling, decadelong existential crisis is ever easy, even when things seem on the cusp of going well — and especially when Democrats have had their hopes raised and dashed so many times.

“It’s a little bit of deja vu,” said Elaine Luria, who in 2018 flipped Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District in the Democratic midterm wave during Donald Trump’s first term, held onto it in a squeaker in 2020 to help make up a slim majority, lost it in 2022 as part of Republicans winning their own small majority, and is now running to get it back.