Ex-CIA spy Valerie Plame loses House bid in New Mexico Dem primary

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Former spy Valerie Plame on Tuesday lost her bid for the U.S. House of Representatives, falling in New Mexico’s Democratic primary election to attorney Teresa Leger Fernandez.

Plame had announced in 2019 that she was running for the spot being left vacant by Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., who is seeking the Senate seat of the retiring Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. Plame had previously said she was going to run for Udall’s spot.

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The former CIA operative was thrust into the national spotlight when she was outed in a 2003 column that cited officials with the George W. Bush administration as sources of a leak. Plame maintained the revelation was an effort to discredit her then-husband Joe Wilson, a former diplomat who was critical of Bush's decision to invade Iraq.

Plame used the fame that resulted from this in her campaign, including releasing an ad saying she had “a few scores to settle” while displaying fancy driving maneuvers she claimed she learned from the CIA.

Plame has been a vocal critic of President Trump, who in 2018 pardoned Lewis “Scooter” Libby – aide to then-Vice President Dick Cheney – of his conviction for lying and obstruction during the investigation into the leak of Plame’s identity.

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At one point Plame raised nearly $90,000 on a crowdsourcing site to buy a stake in Twitter in hopes of banning the president from the social media platform.

The final weeks of the primary campaign season were marked by ads from anonymous backers that accused Plame of being racist. Plame denounced the ads and has repeatedly apologized for sharing on Twitter in 2017 an article with anti-Semitic expressions, insisting that she opposes anti-Semitism and is against prejudice in every form. Leger Fernandez denied involvement.

Fox News' Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.