Mike Pence aide, Kellyanne Conway's ex run as anti-Trump Democrats

A former aide to Vice President Mike Pence announced her candidacy for Congress earlier this week, testing whether Democratic primary voters will back a Trump expat for the U.S. House.

Eagle-eyed cable news viewers may recognize Olivia Troye, who now spends her days as a television commentator, rebuking President Donald Trump. Troye announced her congressional run in Virginia's 7th congressional district on April 14. She will face a crowded field that includes the state's former first lady, Dorothy McAuliffe.

Troye departed Trump's orbit five years ago and became a TV commentator. She first left the White House in 2020 amid the first Trump administration's coronavirus response and spoke out about her rationale on "The View," a daytime hotbed of Trump hostility.

"Too many families are struggling to get by while Washington looks the other way," Troye says in an announcement video. "I won't because I've lived it." Troye grew up in a Texas border town and said she was the daughter of a truck driver and a Mexican immigrant.

Troye is among a handful of Democratic candidates nationwide with former ties to Trump who have launched campaigns on an anti-Trump platform. The field includes former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who is now seeking the governorship, and George Conway, the ex-husband of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

Can party switching find success in Trump era?

Party switching has long been a part of politics in America, but it remains to be seen how effective a shift of that nature will be in the Trump era. Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist ditched the Republican Party and later became a Democrat in 2012.

After switching parties, he was defeated by Republican Sen. Rick Scott in a 2014 governor's race but served three terms as a Democrat in Congress from 2017 to 2022. Later that year, he lost a gubernatorial campaign to current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley registered as an independent earlier this year, facing a tougher map for his past party in California's redistricting; and ex-Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema left the Democratic Party and became an independent.

She didn't seek reelection and was replaced by Sen. Ruben Gallego.

Duncan, the ex-lieutenant governor of Georgia, has faced criticism in the Georgia gubernatorial race for his past opposition to abortion access from groups such as Emily's List, the nation's largest network focused on electing Democratic women. The group slammed his "anti-abortion record" on the org's website and argued that he helped pass Georgia's controversial six-week abortion ban in November 2022.

George Conway told CNN he was "crying in joy" for his ex-wife, a key spokesperson during Trump's first term, in 2016, after she became the first woman to successfully lead a campaign for a candidate who won the White House but he "didn't really realize how bad, how horrible this guy would be." Conway is in a crowded field to replace Rep. Jerry Nadler in New York's 12th district. That race also includes John F. Kennedy's grandson, Jack Schlossberg.

"I was a Republican until 2018 when I realized it had become a personality cult, and it no longer stood for things that I had stood for for many years," Conway also told CNN.

But it's Troye who may be able to carve out the most distance from Trump. In her announcement video, she claimed she voted for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, "but after Trump won, I kept showing up to work."

"Because serving your country isn't supposed to be partisan," Troye continued. "The evil I saw in that White House was staggering. In 2020, I finally said enough." It remains to be seen if that messaging will work.