The candidates for Virginia’s open 10th Congressional District seat have stark differences, including on hot button topics like abortion and immigration.
Democrat Suhas Subramanyam and Republican Mike Clancy, who are running for Democratic U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton’s open seat, have very different views of how the country is doing right now.
A tech executive and attorney, Clancy says he’s running to “restore America.”
“I think we have to fight like it’s 1776, because if we don’t, we’re going to live like George Orwell’s ‘1984,’” he said.
Subramanyam, who served as White House technology advisor during former President Barack Obama's administration, says he wants to use his experience as a delegate and state senator in the General Assembly to find bipartisan solutions.
“I believe in this country and I believe we’ve taken on really tough challenges and been successful, and so I’m going to continue to bring that optimism to Congress,” he said.
Immigration policy is a top challenge for the 119th Congress. The candidates agree the path to legal immigration must be streamlined, hastened. Both back stronger border security, but on mass deportation of undocumented immigrants there’s a sharp divide.
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“The undocumented immigrants here ... the reality is there’s 15 million-plus,” said Subramanyam, whose parents came to this country from India in the 1970s. “And so, we can’t deport them all tomorrow. That’s just not realistic. It’s going to be really bad for our economy. A lot of them contribute a lot to our economy.”
“I think we start with focusing on the 10 million that have come across illegally,” Clancy said. “They should be forced to go back and follow the legal immigration process."
Abortion rights is another dividing line.
If elected, Subramanyam says he’d vote for federal legislation to codify Roe v. Wade.
“It shouldn’t matter what your zip code is whether you have bodily autonomy, and so I want to make sure we take federal action,” he said.
Clancy says the Dobbs decision got it right and states should decide.
“Under Dobbs it should be a state’s issue, so I would not be voting for any federal legislation,” he said.
On the economy, Clancy calls the President Joe Biden administration policy and its spending practices disastrous. He says continuing former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts is essential.
“And those tax cuts four years ago energized the economy,” he said. “It drove jobs. It created jobs, high-paying jobs. Wages went up. Inflation was way down.”
Subramanyam wants to find ways to boost small business and bring more federal government work to the 10th District, which includes parts of Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, Fauquier and Rappahannock counties.
“If we had more opportunities to get businesses access to capital, I think that would actually be the game changer more so than even a tax cut,” he said.
Project 2025 and its controversial proposals are also an issue in this race.
Clancy has been a supporter of the Heritage Foundation, whose members authored the document.
“I know my opponent keeps trying to fear monger about Project 2025,” he said. “But that’s not something I was ever involved in, and I have no idea what’s in it.”
“They may not like the branding, but there’s a lot of parallels between what Project 2025 is trying to do and what my opponent is trying to do,” Subramanyam said.
Democrats won the 10th District seat in the past three election cycles. Last year, Wexton announced she would not seek reelection after she was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy.
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