Freshman Northern Virgina Rep. Barbara Comstock Begins a Dialogue With DDF

Barbara Comstock was elected in November of 2014, to represent Virginia’s 10th Congressional District (Loudoun County, Clarke County, Frederick County, and parts of Fairfax County and Prince William County as well as the Cities of Winchester, Manassas Park, and Manassas City). Barbara currently serves on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, the Science, Space and Technology Committee, where she serves as Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Research and Technology, and the House Administration Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Barbara served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2010 to 2015 and served as Chairwoman of the Science and Technology Committee. She also served on the Commerce and Labor Committee, and Transportation Committee. Barbara consistently received an “A” rating from the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and received their 2012 “Free Enterprise” award and 2014 “Competitiveness” award.

Barbara was appointed to serve on the Governor’s Economic Development and Job Creation Commission and, was also appointed by Virginia’s House of Delegates Speaker to serve on the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission. In the summer of 2010, Barbara was selected as one of 50 state legislators to participate in the “Emerging Political Leaders” program sponsored by the State Legislative Leaders Foundation and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Congresswoman Comstock is a 30+ year resident of McLean, Virginia. She and her husband, Chip, a retired Fairfax County Schools Assistant Principal who continues to teach, have raised their three children in McLean. Dan is a 2005 graduate of the University of Virginia, Peter is a 2007 graduate of Virginia Tech, and Caity is a 2006 graduate of Langley High School, a 2010 graduate of Villanova University and a 2012 graduate of George Mason University for a master’s degree.

The Comstocks first came to McLean in the early 80s when Chip started his teaching career at Langley High School in McLean and Barbara attended Georgetown University Law Center. The Comstocks have been active in community sports, school, neighborhood, political and church activities for over 30 years. Chip also taught at McLean High School.

Barbara juggled law school while starting a family – having her two boys while in school – then added a daughter shortly after completing law school. Barbara returned to work serving in the federal government for over a dozen years. She served first as a senior aide in the 1990s to Virginia Congressman Frank R. Wolf who represented Virginia’s 10th Congressional District for 34 years. As a senior aide to Congressman Wolf, she was immersed in issues important to Northern Virginia such as federal employee and health care issues, telework and business issues, appropriations for the district, and tax relief for Virginia families.

After working in Congressman Wolf’s office, Barbara was recruited to serve on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, the largest House committee where she became Chief Counsel and led hearings and oversight of investigations into waste, fraud and abuse. Barbara also served as Director of the Office of Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Justice from 2002 through 2003. Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, Barbara’s responsibilities included leading communications efforts at the Department of Justice, the FBI and other department agencies and coordinating those efforts for the Attorney General and other senior officials as well as coordinating with other Departments such as Homeland Security, Defense and State. During her tenure as Director of Public Affairs, she spearheaded communications for the Department’s major challenges including War on Terror investigations, the Washington sniper case, major corporate fraud investigations and judicial confirmation hearings.

Barbara formed a small business as founding partner of Comstock Strategies. She was also a founding partner of Corallo Comstock, a public relations and government affairs firm.

Prior to establishing Corallo Comstock with her partner, Mark Corallo, Barbara was a senior partner and principal at Blank Rome, LLP and Blank Rome Government Relations, LLC.

In 2013, Barbara founded “The Young Women’s Leadership Program” for young women in high school and junior high. The program is designed to inspire the next generation of young women by bringing them together with women leaders in a variety of careers and professions throughout our region. Barbara is bringing this important program to Capitol Hill and expanding it.

The Comstocks are members of St. Luke’s Catholic Church in McLean and previously were members of St. John’s Catholic Church where their children attended elementary school.

Barbara graduated from Georgetown University Law Center and Middlebury College with a B.A. in Political Science.