Comey’s tweet about a presidential run was for April Fools’, but a play for governor in Virginia could get serious

Former FBI Director James Comey posted an April Fools’ joke Monday teasing a 2020 presidential run, saying, “We need someone in the middle.”

In a subsequent tweet, he clarified he was just joking.

“Could you imagine a president who used this website to make dad jokes rather than to hurl insults? Happy #AprilFools,” he tweeted.

But the tweets beg the question: Why was he joking about embarking on a political career in the first place?

Many on Twitter hoped it was at most a half joke, urging him to run. Comey, who lives in McLean, Va., just outside of D.C., has ruled out running for president. But there could be an opening for him in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial race if he decided to run for office.

Comey has said multiple times he will never run for president or political office. But he has become politically outspoken since being fired by President Trump in 2017, popping up regularly to take shots at the president.

Formerly a Republican who donated to Sen. John McCain’s and Mitt Romney’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, Comey now tells Americans to vote for Democrats. And he’s been dipping his toe directly into Virginia Democratic politics.

Comey knocked doors for the 2018 campaign of Rep. Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat who ran against Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock in a suburban Virginia district outside of D.C. that includes parts of McLean. He donated $2,700 to Wexton’s campaign, the maximum amount.

Virginia’s state constitution prevents the governor from serving consecutive terms, opening a door for Comey if he wants to go through it. Current Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam will not be able to run for reelection in 2021.

Comey declined to comment on whether he would run for governor in Virginia or seek other political office.

If Comey did decide to run for governor, he “would get support from a lot of middle-of-the-road Dems who didn’t like Hillary. There’s quite a few of those, especially in the non-[Northern Virginia] areas,” Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, a Democratic strategist based in southwest Virginia, told the Washington Examiner.

“Name ID, he’s way ahead on that,” Saunders said. “He could raise a lot of money, enough to do a governor’s race in Virginia.”

Comey’s position with Virginia Democrats would be complicated.

“He would have to stake out positions in line with the Democratic primary electorate, as I doubt he would be such an obviously strong candidate that he could clear the primary field in any major race,” Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told the Washington Examiner.

“He also would have to deal with his handling of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during 2016 and 2017, which if explored in depth during a campaign could give both Democrats and Republicans reason to question him,” Kondik said.

Saunders agreed Comey’s 2016 “October surprise” letter informing Congress the FBI reopened an investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server could be a point of division among Democrats. Some political analysts thought the letter cost Clinton the election against Trump.

Comey also does not have close relationships with a lot of other Democratic players in the state, Saunders said, unlike other potential Democratic gubernatorial candidates such as Virginia’s Attorney General Mark Herring.

Saunders worried Comey’s candidacy in the general election could further divide the state due to his rift with Trump. The state is already separated politically and culturally between urban, Democratic-leaning Northern Virginia and rural areas that favor Trump.

“There’s been enough division in Virginia,” Saunders said.

Carolyn Fiddler, an editor and communications adviser at Daily Kos who has worked in state politics for a decade, was skeptical Comey could bring anything valuable to Virginia politics.

“I think it would be hard for him to run as a Democrat anywhere, given his long history as a Republican, and especially in Virginia, where the bench is pretty deep these days,” Fiddler told the Washington Examiner. “I can’t imagine what he brings to the table” compared to “a slew of longtime Dems, many of them women and people of color.”