Rep. Barbara Comstock said in a statement that while she liked parts of the Republican repeal bill, she could not support the final version. | AP Photo Democrats eye Comstock's swing seat after Obamacare repeal failure

Rep. Barbara Comstock dodged constituents, declined town halls and avoided taking a public stance on the Republican Party’s increasingly unpopular health care bill in the months leading up to its collapse.

Her last-minute decision to oppose it — after other GOP moderates had spoken out and sealed the bill’s doom — is unlikely to protect her in 2018. Democrats had already smelled blood, targeting Comstock after Hillary Clinton won her increasingly purple district in northern Virginia by 10 percentage points.


Comstock, a second-term moderate Republican, came out against her party’s Obamacare repeal bill just several hours before her ally, House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled it from the floor to forestall an even more humiliating defeat.

On that same day, a Fairfax County school teacher named Kimberly Adams announced her intention to run against Comstock as a Democrat. Others are also stepping up: Loudoun County Democratic Committee Chairman Marty Martinez said he’s talked to at least 10 potential candidates interested in unseating the Republican.

“I think she’s in big trouble,” he said of Comstock. “Normally, we have trouble finding just one.”

Comstock, who had campaigned against Obamacare and who won re-election by six points is among a handful of moderate Republicans who came out against the bill right before it went down. Many caught in the crossfire over Obamacare may pay the price in the midterms -- earning acrimony from newly energized Democrats who see an opportunity in the botched repeal effort and in some cases (not yet in Comstock’s) from Republicans to their right.

The day before the planned vote, a Quinnipiac University poll showed that just 17 percent of voters nationally supported the repeal bill, while 56 percent opposed it. The rest were undecided

Republican officials say they're not worried about Comstock. “I don't think she's going to have a problem in the midterms at all," said Loudoun County Republican Committee Chairman Will Estrada, adding that he doesn't believe she will face a primary challenger in 2018.

Comstock said in a statement Friday that while she liked parts of the Republican repeal bill, she could not support the final version — in part, because GOP leaders had pulled requirements for maternity care and mental health services in their 11th-hour negotiations with the Freedom Caucus.

“The uncertainties in the current version of the bill caused me not to be able to support it today,” she said.

In Comstock’s politically splintered suburban district, repealing Obamacare was never going to be an easy sell.

Former Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican, who used to represent parts of the same district, said Comstock has been handling the divisive issue of health care exactly how she should be as a member representing a suburban swing district.

“She kept her powder dry, which is smart,” he said. “She’s a pretty savvy politician holding a swing seat in a tough year. She’s not naive about this stuff. The bill was a moving target. It kept changing. It was smart to keep a low profile.”

The district has nearly 40,000 people, or just under 5 percent of its residents, enrolled in Obamacare’s marketplace. And while the state did not expand Medicaid, a Virginia health department analysis found the bill would have cost nearly $1.8 billion in federal funding for Medicaid over a six-years, according to the Associated Press. The bill would have changed the program from an open entitlement to capped payments for states.

But Comstock’s reluctance to speak out earlier against the bill like fellow Virginia moderate Republican Rob Whitman, who opposed the bill in mid-March saying he feared his constituents would lose coverage, caught the attention of district Democrats.

A local grassroots group called “Dump Comstock” was formed earlier this year with the mission of defeating her in the midterms. Aiming to tie her to a president unpopular in the district, it calls her a “puppet of the Trump regime.” A super PAC called “Take Back the Tenth” was created to fund the group’s activities.

Abbey Mansfield Ruby, a DC-area corporate lawyer who founded the group, said the “ragtag army” of people in the 10th District, which has a little over 1,000 followers on Facebook, throws events to register and educate voters for the upcoming midterms. The sole purpose of the group is to unseat Comstock.

“Comstock doesn’t stand for anything other than what House Speaker Paul Ryan tells her to stand for,” Mansfield Ruby said. “She’s a Paul Ryan loyalist who chooses party over country and constituents every time.”

An ill-timed ad campaign sponsored by the American Action Network, which aired during the NCAA Basketball tournament the day after the bill collapsed, caused further embarrassment. It thanked Republican lawmakers who supported the repeal efforts, including Comstock in the list. A spokesperson for the American Action Network said the ads had been airing for the last two weeks, adding that they would end this week.

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“People in the 10th district see through all of her actions,” said Fairfax County Democratic Committee Chair Sue Langley. “It was clear that the bill was going to fail. But knowing that the bill would have been such a disaster, she should have opposed it from the start. It was the right vote for her — but at the wrong time and for the wrong reason. We don’t think that sort of move will earn her political capital in this district.”

Republican leaders dismiss those arguments: Estrada, for instance, says Comstock’s last-minute decision to oppose the bill was smart because the legislation kept changing up until the very end.

Comstock’s deputy chief of staff Jeff Marschner, meanwhile, denies she avoided constituents who wanted to discuss the repeal bill. He said Comstock has been “ever present in her district,” talking to hundreds of people about their personal health care concerns while attending nearly 50 events since the start of the 115th Congress.

“The congresswoman has also held two telephone town halls connecting to 9,000 constituents on health care, and our office has corresponded with approximately 5,000 constituents on healthcare related questions,” he said.

Still, most Republicans acknowledge the defeat of the Obamacare repeal bill is a loss for the GOP that could hurt the party's slate in next year's elections.

“Midterms are all about who shows up and we know the Democrats will. You can see the anger. They’re ready to go,” Davis said, adding “Republicans need to generate the same intensity and this doesn’t help.”