Former U.S. Representative Denver Riggleman, the former Republican congressman who considered voting for President Joe Biden in 2020, and served under the House January 6 committee after he left Congress in 2021.
In remarks published on New Year’s Day by The Washington Post, Riggleman confirmed he has already started to launch an exploratory committee to determine his path to the Republican nomination to serve as Virginia’s next governor, telling the outlet he would run a campaign based on “facts, data, humor and integrity” to spread his message.
“I think I have this unique ability to [tick] off both sides with facts and truth,” Riggleman told the outlet.
Riggleman would first need to best Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears in the Republican primary. Should he win the Republican Party nomination, Good could find himself running against outgoing Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-07), whose Democratic congressional campaign he endorsed in 2022.
Riggleman told the Post that his past support for Spanberger places him “in a very powerful position.”
He told the outlet, “I have no fear about approaching any side of the aisle and calling out crazy, or endorsing rationality and good policy.”
This would not be Riggleman’s first attempt to become Virginia’s governor, as he briefly launched a gubernatorial campaign in 2017, and previously formed an exploratory committee to determine whether he would run for governor in 2021.
Riggleman left Congress in January 2021 after he was defeated in the previous year’s Republican primary by outgoing Representative Bob Good (R-VA-05), who campaigned as a fierce supporter of President-elect Donald Trump. Riggleman had criticized Trump’s presidency and appeared with a prominent Virginia Democrat after losing the primary.
While the former congressman did not run for governor in 2021, he was asked to join the January 6 committee later that year. Riggleman later wrote an unauthorized book about his experiences working on the committee that investigated the civil unrest on January 6, 2021.
In an October 2020 interview with CNN, the Republican previously admitted he was considering voting for the Biden-Harris ticket, telling the outlet, “I’m a free-thinking American.”
Voters in Riggleman’s old congressional district last year elected Representative-elect John McGuire (R-VA-05), a former state lawmaker who narrowly won a primary victory over Good, who claimed Trump was the only candidate capable of losing to Biden in a clandestinely recorded video published after Good endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Virginia Capitol” by Amadeust CC BY-SA 3.0.
