Plame, 55, is running for the northern New Mexico seat being vacated by Rep. Ben Ray Luján. Luján, who had been regarded as a possible successor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has announced that he plans to run for Senate to replace retiring Sen. Tom Udall.
Plame, who moved to Santa Fe after leaving Washington more than a decade ago, has recently worked as a speaker and writer, but she is best known for the circumstances of her departure from the CIA, where she had served for two decades.
When her husband, U.S. diplomat Joseph C. Wilson IV, wrote an opinion essay in The New York Times in 2003 raising questions about a central underpinning for the invasion of Iraq — that President Saddam Hussein was acquiring nuclear weapons there — Plame’s identity was leaked to the media.
Columnist Robert Novak disclosed Plame’s undercover status in The Washington Post, quoting unnamed administration officials, in what was regarded as an effort by some in the administration to discredit Wilson’s opinions.
No one was ever prosecuted for the leak, but the ensuing investigation led to the conviction of I. Lewis Libby Jr., a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Libby, who goes by Scooter, was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2018.
In congressional testimony, Plame said she blamed the Bush administration for intentionally disclosing her identity and undermining her career. And in a news release Thursday, she repeated that contention.
“My career in the CIA was cut short by partisan politics, but I’m not done serving our country,” she said.
In the news release, Plame indicated that health care would be a central focus of her campaign.
“The high cost of health care and prescription medicine is hitting everyone,” she said. “Everyone is losing under the health care system we have today except for insurance and drug companies.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.