A former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence has announced a bid for Congress — and she’s running as a Democrat.
Olivia Troye, who left the White House in 2020 and became a strong critic of President Donald Trump, announced on Tuesday that she’s running for Congress as a Democrat.
She described herself as “a proud Democrat” and “MAGA’s top enemy” in her announcement.
She also said she has “faced countless death threats from MAGA.”
Olivia Troye is running in Virginia’s new 7th Congressional District.
The area is expected to be redrawn to give more chances for Democrats to win seats in the House. The new district goes from the Washington suburbs southward and includes Harrisburg and parts near Richmond.
However, Troye faces a busy primary race, with competitors like Virginia’s former first lady, Dorothy McAuliffe, and several state lawmakers.
Democrats are likely to be the main favorites — the region voted for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris by 8 points in 2024 and for Democratic Governor Abigail Spanier by 17 points last year, according to the Virginia Public Access Post.
Troye started her career in Republican politics, working for the Republican National Committee and the George W. Bush administration.
She was an intelligence officer and later worked in Pence’s office on national security and the pandemic.
She left the White House in the summer of 2020 and quickly changed her political views, becoming a vocal Trump critic and eventually supporting Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
She appeared in an ad that criticized Trump and urged Republicans to vote against him.
The White House tried to discredit her and claimed she was fired, but she denied that.
In a video announcing her campaign on Tuesday, Troye shared her childhood and called herself “the daughter of a truck driver and Mexican immigrant.”
She also talked about her political journey.
“In 2016, I voted for Hillary, but after Trump won, I kept showing up to work, because serving your country isn’t supposed to be partisan,” she said.
“The evil I saw in that White House was staggering. In 2020, I finally said, ‘Enough.’ And they came for me. Kash Patel, Stephen Miller, even Trump himself.”
The race for the congressional seat will be a test of how far never-Trump Republicans can go in modern Democratic politics.
Democratic voters have welcomed them into the party and helped them beat Trump, but it’s not clear if they would support putting one of them in Congress.
“I believe in fighting for what’s right — for those who can’t fight for themselves,” Troye says in her video.
“That’s why I’m a Democrat, and that’s why I’m running for Congress.”
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