Virginia’s 2nd District to see rematch between Kiggans, Luria

August 4, 2026 | 8:32 PM

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Virginia’s highly competitive 2nd Congressional District will see a rematch in November.

Former Democratic congresswoman Elaine Luria won her party’s primary on Tuesday, CBS News projects, and will face GOP Rep. Jen Kiggans in the general election. Luria beat three other candidates to win the nomination.

Luria, who held the seat for two terms, lost to Kiggans in 2022 after redistricting made the area more favorable to Republicans.

The military-heavy district — which includes Virginia’s Eastern Shore and Virginia Beach — has flipped parties four times since 2008. In 2021, it voted for Republican Glenn Youngkin for governor, then supported Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger four years later. The district voted for former President Joe Biden in 2020 but for President Trump in 2024.

Democrats tried earlier this year to redraw the state’s congressional districts to be more friendly to their party in all but one district, but the voter-approved measure was struck down by the state Supreme Court, leaving the old district boundaries in place.

The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics rates the race a toss-up.

Luria, 20-year Navy veteran, was first elected to Congress in 2018. She was part of a group of Democratic women with national security backgrounds who helped their party win back control of the House after eight years of a Republican majority.

Kiggans is also a Navy veteran, serving as a helicopter pilot for a decade.

Republican senators release Fauci’s text messages discussing safety of Covid vaccine and pregnancy

By CNN
August 11, 2026 | 12:54 AM

(CNN) — Two Republican senators have released the first batch of text messages retrieved from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s former government phone as part of an investigation into his leadership and actions during the Covid-19 pandemic – including messages in which he discusses the possible risks and safety of the vaccine during pregnancy.Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky released the texts publicly online Monday, after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provided Fauci’s iPhone to a Senate subcommittee investigating him.The phone contained more than 34,000 messages and 522 voicemails, said the senators in a news release. They published screenshots showing a fraction of these – 11 texts sent during Fauci’s tenure as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).In one exchange on January 25, 2021, Vivek Murthy, then a member of President Joe Biden’s Covid advisory board, asked about any potential risk to those who are pregnant, or whether Fauci knew of any “data or theoretical reason why vaccinating early vs late in pregnancy would be preferred.”Fauci responded that there was “no data or theoretical reason to believe that vaccinating early versus later in pregnancy would be preferred.”Then he added: “Since many people have significant cytokines storm and fever after the 2nd dose, this theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”Dr. Rochelle Walensky, then-director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), replied, “Definitely a good point, esp after dose two.”In another exchange a day later, according to the screenshots released, Fauci said that any vaccine with limited data on pregnancy should be carefully considered. “One must weigh the potential risks against the benefits,” he wrote, pointing out that a Covid infection could be “especially” serious in pregnancy.Though pregnant individuals were not included in vaccine trials, more than 10,000 had been vaccinated since the government issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the vaccine – and “no issues have arisen,” he wrote in a text.CNN has reached out to Fauci, Murthy and Walensky for comment.The CDC formally recommended on August 11, 2021, that pregnant people receive the vaccine after analyzing data and finding no increased risks of miscarriage or other safety concerns related to the shot.The CDC also warned during the pandemic that pregnant people were more likely to get severely ill compared to those who were not pregnant, according to an archived page from the agency’s website.Studies have since shown that the vaccines were safe during pregnancy, and that serious adverse reactions are rare. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists still recommends, as of this spring, that individuals who are pregnant or will be pregnant during the fall or winter should receive annual Covid-19 vaccines.In a news release, Johnson and Paul said their staff were reviewing the rest of the information on Fauci’s phone, and would publicly release them “as soon as possible.” The texts released on Monday “could have an immediate impact of public health and the principle of informed consent,” they said.The news release also listed several further public statements made by Fauci and other health officials in the months following the text exchange, recommending pregnant people receive Covid-19 vaccines.Battles on the HillPaul, who chairs the full Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has long clashed with Fauci, who he subpoenaed in June to appear before Congress.He and other prominent Republicans accuse Fauci of covering up the origins of the pandemic, and of lying and misrepresenting data during the Covid-19 response – though they’ve yet to present clear evidence of such an alleged cover-up.Republican members of the Senate subcommittee voted last week to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress after he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times in a hearing, refusing to answer questions over concerns his responses would be used in an attempt to bring charges against him.Ahead of that hearing, the committee also released more than 1,100 pages of Fauci’s personal diary from 2019 to 2022.Neither HHS nor Paul’s committee alerted Fauci ahead of time that they had obtained his diary and that they planned to publish it in full, according to a person familiar with the matter.The diary entries narrated Fauci’s growing concerns about Covid-19, frustrations with the government response and conflicting relationships with both Trump and Biden administration officials.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

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