Barbara Comstock

Barbara Jean Comstock (née Burns; born June 30, 1959) is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 10th congressional district from 2015 to 2019.

Comstock was born Barbara Jean Burns in Springfield, Massachusetts, on June 30, 1959.

She is the daughter of Sally Ann Burns, a teacher, and John Ferguson Burns, national manager of polymer sales for Shell Chemicals.

Comstock graduated from Westchester High School in Houston, Texas, in 1977.

She graduated cum laude from Middlebury College in 1981.

In college, Comstock spent a semester interning for Senator Ted Kennedy.

While interning for Kennedy, Comstock, who was raised a Democrat, became a Republican.

Years later, she recalled that she had long reckoned herself as a Reagan Democrat, and during her internship she found herself agreeing more with Orrin Hatch of Utah than with Kennedy.

She then attended law school at Georgetown University, graduating with a Juris Doctor degree in 1986.

After working as a lawyer in private practice, Comstock served from 1991 to 1995 as a senior aide to Congressman Frank Wolf.

Comstock then served as chief investigative counsel and senior counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform from 1995 to 1999, working as one of Washington's most prominent anti-Clinton opposition researchers.

Comstock worked on behalf of the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush.

Her research team built massive stores of paper and electronic data, known as "The Gore File", that were a key source of information on the former vice president for GOP publicists and ad-makers.

Comstock is credited with writing the Republican "playbook" defending Bush nominees such as John Ashcroft for U.S. Attorney General.

Barbara Olson died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

She was a founding partner and co-principal of the public relations firm Corallo Comstock.

Comstock later served as director of public affairs for the Justice Department from 2002 to 2003.

Comstock and Barbara Olson, the wife of United States Solicitor General Theodore Olson, formed a partnership known to Washington insiders as the "Two Barbaras".

Comstock joined law firm Blank Rome in 2004.

Comstock assisted the defense teams of both Scooter Libby and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

In 2005, Comstock was hired by Dan Glickman to lobby on behalf of the Motion Picture Association of America.

In 2008, Comstock was a consultant on the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.

Comstock is a former co-chair of the executive committee of the Susan B. Anthony List.

Prior to running for office, she was registered as a lobbyist.

Comstock's public relations firm consulted for the Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI), a conservative group advocating on a variety of federal labor policy issues, from 2008 through 2012.

Comstock first won election to her seat in the House of Delegates in 2009.

In 2009, Comstock was elected to a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.

She defeated incumbent Democrat Margaret Vanderhye by 316 votes.

While in the state legislature, Comstock was involved in enacting legislation that increased the penalties for teen sex trafficking.

A member of the Republican Party, she was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 2010 to 2014.

Comstock was re-elected to her seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in 2011 and 2013.

She was succeeded by Democrat Kathleen Murphy, who had been her opponent in 2013.

In 2014, she was elected to succeed retiring Republican incumbent Frank Wolf in Congress.

Comstock has worked in numerous positions for various government agencies, including as chief counsel of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, as director of public affairs at the Department of Justice and as a congressional staffer.

According to a 2014 report by Politico, during her time in the Virginia House of Delegates, Comstock sponsored legislation that advanced WFI's overall public policy objectives.

Legislation sponsored by Comstock called for union votes by secret ballot, prevented employers from giving employees' information to unions, and prohibited awarding contracts for state-funded construction projects exclusively to unionized firms.

Comstock's campaign responded to the report by saying "Barbara Comstock disclosed her federal clients under Virginia law as required."

When she won a seat in the U.S. Congress in 2014, she formally resigned her seat in the Virginia House of Delegates and a special election was called to replace her.

On January 7, 2014, Comstock announced her candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 10th District, following the announcement that incumbent Frank Wolf would retire at the end of the 113th Congress.

In 2019, she joined the lobbying firm Baker Donelson as a senior advisor.