Before joining the prestigious Baker Donelson firm as a lobbyist specializing in cybersecurity and privacy issues, Barbara Comstock was a respected two-term congresswoman representing the wealthy outer Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C—a purple-ish district she took over from a Republican, held as it swung from Romney to Clinton in 2016, and lost to a Democrat two years later, during the great midterm revolt against Trump. At the time, she was ranked one of the top ten most effective lawmakers by the Center for Effective Lawmaking. 

Everyone in Washington knows that Comstock is a serious player. She was head of research and strategy at the Republican National Committee, the director of public affairs at the Justice Department, and a senior advisor on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. Now, she’s moonlighting alongside other Never Trump heretics like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger to make sure the former president never gets elected again. She’s also supporting anti-Trump candidates at the state, local, and even federal levels. 

But I wondered about her honest assessment of the other contenders in the 2024 shadow presidential race, like her friend and fellow Virginian Glenn Youngkin, or Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, none of whom would dare say what she will say on the record. Herewith, in this lightly edited and condensed interview, Comstock offers her unique perspective on Youngkin’s post-primary late-entrant strategy, the Jeff Roe curse, the woeful state of the Republican party, and more.