A former Trump official who quit during the president’s first administration to speak out against him announced she’s running for Congress as a Democrat.
Olivia Troye launched a bid on Tuesday for the new Virginia 7th Congressional District seat. The longtime national security expert became a major MAGA target after she quit her senior-level White House job to sound the alarm against the president.
Troye worked as a civil servant in both the Bush and Obama administrations. While she voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, she continued to work in public service after Trump was elected and took office, giving her a front-row seat to some of the biggest decisions of his first term.
Troye first served in the administration at the Department of Homeland Security before becoming a special adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security to former Vice President Mike Pence in the White House.
But what she witnessed in the Trump administration was so disturbing, she quit her job in 2020 to speak out against the president and became one of the loudest anti-Trump voices heading into the 2020 election.
In 2024, Troye took her warnings as a former Republican to a new level by appearing on stage during primetime at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“To my fellow Republicans, you aren’t voting for a Democrat. You’re voting for democracy,” Troye warned in her three-minute speech. “You aren’t betraying our party. You’re standing up for our country.”
Her fierce criticism of the president and his top allies put a target on her back as a top MAGA enemy. Before he was picked and confirmed as FBI director, Kash Patel threatened to sue her for calling him a “delusional liar” and accusing him of lying about intelligence. Troye fired back, saying that a letter from his attorney was meant to intimidate her and that she would not back down.
Patel isn’t the only MAGA acolyte who’s had it out for her. Former Kennedy Center boss Ric Grenell sued Troye for claiming on social media that he tried to get her former boss, Pence, to attend a “white supremacist gathering” in Germany. A judge tossed out his defamation suit last year.
On Tuesday, MAGAworld was already revved up about her bid to run. Laura Ingraham posted on her joining the race, “So much to say about this—but another sign that Virginia is in free-fall.”
In her announcement video on Tuesday, Troye argued Virginia needed a representative who has “been through the fire” and “isn’t afraid to fight.”
“Trump doesn’t scare me. I took him on when it mattered the most, and I’m ready to do it again,” she declared.
Troye is running to represent a new district that would be created if Virginia voters approve the new congressional map next Tuesday.
Democrats moved to redraw districts to allow them to pick up as many as four more seats in response to Republican gerrymandering efforts across the country.
A Washington Post-Schar School poll earlier this month showed a slim majority of voters supported Democrats’ plan ahead of the referendum on April 21.
