J.P. Cooney, a former deputy to ex-special counsel Jack Smith, has launched a congressional bid in Virginia as a Democrat.

“I’m running for Congress because never before in the history of our country has a president of the United States posed a graver threat to our Democracy, our rule of law, and the economic security of American families. And never before have we had a complicit Congress rubber stamp a lawless president like Donald Trump,” Cooney said in a release.

“I don’t want my children, friends, or community to have any doubt about where I stand in this moment,” Cooney said in a post on LinkedIn, according to NBC News.

“Today, I am announcing my candidacy for Congress in Virginia’s proposed new Seventh District,” he added.

NBC News has more:

Cooney shared an article from The New York Times, which first reported his election bid, and said he was running as a Democrat.

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In his time working with Smith, Cooney served as “a lead prosecutor in both criminal prosecutions of President Trump for obstruction of justice and conspiracy,” his LinkedIn account says, referring to the federal indictments of the then-former president on charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Days into President Donald Trump’s second term, the Justice Department fired the lawyers in the special counsel’s office, including Cooney.

Cooney is running in a proposed new congressional district that would stretch from Arlington to rural parts of the state. The district would lean blue, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which indicated that more than 58% of people in the proposed district supported Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, in last year’s elections. The Democratic-led redistricting effort in Virginia, as well as other blue states, came in response to other mid-decade efforts by Republicans to redraw their state maps.

The proposed districts in Virginia would likely give Democrats a 10-1 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation.

The Hill shared further:

A state court threw up a recent hurdle to the plan taking effect before November, but Democrats are appealing that ruling.

Cooney’s campaign is banking on Virginia voters approving the new district lines in an April referendum.

Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.) currently holds the 7th District, but the map would shift him to the 1st.

 

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