He recently switched to the Democratic Party.
David Nygaard, owner of David Nygaard Fine Jewelers in Virginia Beach, VA, plans to run for Congress.
Running as a Democrat, he’ll seek the state’s 2nd Congressional District seat currently held by Scott Taylor, a Republican, the Williamsburg Yorktown Daily reports. Five other Democrats are also seeking their party’s nomination in the race.
Nygaard, who has never held public office, only recently switched his party affiliation to Democrat from Republican. He told the newspaper that a Democratic Congress is needed “mainly to put a check on President Trump” and because Republican policies favor the wealthy.
In addition to the Democratic hopefuls, Taylor faces a contender from his own party.
Nygaard has faced challenges in his business and personal life in recent years, and his story was featured in a February 2017 INSTORE piece on handing your own public relations.
The story explained:
In 2008, when the bank seized David Nygaard’s home, his seven jewelry stores in Virginia and all of his inventory, he experienced what he describes as a public disgrace.
Running a multi-million dollar business with multiple locations meant he was a public figure in his market and his financial troubles attracted attention. But because he was well-regarded in his community, his fall from grace wasn’t as debilitating as it might have been. “Because we did a lot of charitable work in the community, a lot of people supported us,” Nygaard says.
The key to being able to start over, he says, was being up front and “owning whatever problems you bring to the table.”
Nygaard’s story was also detailed in a May 2017 article entitled “Bankruptcy, a heart attack, coming out as gay: How a prominent Hampton Roads jeweler found his true self” that appeared in the Williamsburg Yorktown Daily.
Read more at Williamsburg Yorktown Daily