In a guitar-heavy campaign video complete with desert stunt driving and a slo-mo camera approach, Valerie Plame lays out her candidacy for a U.S. House seat in New Mexico.
“I was an undercover CIA operative,” she says as a car zooms backward down a dusty desert road. “My assignment was preventing rogue states and terrorists from getting nuclear weapons.”
Gritty images of Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby crackle across the scene, as Plame recounts how Libby leaked her name out of revenge against her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was outspoken in his conviction that the Bush administration’s claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were false. Libby was convicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges in 2007.
“Guess who pardoned him last year?” she asks, as a fist-pumping President Donald Trump appears.
“Now I’m running for Congress because we’re going backwards on national security, health care and women’s rights,” she continues.
The car skids to a halt, doing a dusty donut and squealing to a stop.
Plame climbs out, wearing black shades and approaching the camera in slow motion, hair whipping in the wind.
“We need to turn our country around,” she intones. “And, yes, the CIA really does teach us to drive like this.”
“You’ve probably heard my name,” she says as the bold letters burst onto the screen. “And Mr. President, I have a few scores to settle.”
Plame is running for New Mexico’s 3rd District, a seat which Rep. Ben Luján (D-NM) is leaving to run for the Senate. The field is very crowded so far, but Plame has the greatest name recognition of the House hopefuls. She announced her bid in May.
Watch the campaign video here:
