Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Leslie Cockburn, Democrat Accused Of Anti-Semitism Over Israel Writings, Loses House Race

Democratic candidate and former journalist Leslie Cockburn, who was dogged during her race for her critical writings about the U.S.-Israel relationship, lost her effort to capture a Republican-held congressional district in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Associated Press called the race for Cockburn’s opponent Denver Riggleman at around 8:45 p.m. on Tuesday night. With around 75% of the votes counted, Riggleman was beating Cockburn 55%-45%.

Cockburn was accused of being a “virulent anti-Semite” by the Republican Party of Virginia for her past Israel comments. A 1991 book that Cockburn co-wrote with her husband, “Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship,” was described in The New York Times’s review as being “largely dedicated to Israel-bashing for its own sake. Its first message is that, win or lose, smart or dumb, right or wrong, suave or boorish, Israelis are a menace. The second is that the Israeli-American connection is somewhere behind just about everything that ails us.”

Cockburn and some of her Jewish supporters denied that she was anti-Semitic, but opponents made hay of the allegation regardless. A social media post by the state GOP stated: “Leslie Cockburn hates veterans, hates ICE, hates Israel. Basically, Leslie Cockburn hates America.” She was also targeted with a $300,000 TV ad campaign by the Republican Jewish Coalition.

The race was one of the most unusual in the country. Cockburn originally planned to run against incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Garrett, but he announced his retirement in May to seek treatment for alcoholism after Politico reported that Garrett and his wife would make his staffers do their shopping and other personal tasks. Garrett’s replacement, Riggleman, was mocked for his obsession with Bigfoot, including owning a drawing of what appeared to be Bigfoot erotica.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.