Former CIA operative Valerie Plame, who has been accused of anti-Semitism, lost in a Democratic primary for a New Mexico congressional seat, The Washington Free Beacon reported on Wednesday.
Plame won 23% of the vote, finishing second among seven candidates trying to replace outgoing congressman Ben Ray Luján, who is running for Senate. Local attorney and activist Teresa Leger Fernandez captured the nomination with 42.6% of the vote.
The congressional district is reliably Democratic, making Leger Fernandez the likely winner of the general election in November, according to CNN.
Leger Fernandez emphasized among her credentials that she was “a daughter of Northern New Mexico,” while Plame only moved to the state in 2006.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Plame also had 89% of her contributions came from outside the state, including from Holocaust denier Pete McCloskey, the Free Beacon reported.
In addtion, three years ago Plame shared on Twitter an article from an anti-Semitic website arguing that "America's Jews are driving America's wars,” although she later apologized and said she had only skimmed the article and did not realize its full contents.
Republican Jewish Coalition spokesman Neil Strauss told the Free Beacon that it was good Plame was defeated, but stressed GOP concerns that Democratic leadership had “supported an anti-Semite," adding that this “shows that Democrats aren't committed to combating left wing anti-Semitism."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.