Democrat Eugene Vindman and Republican Derrick Anderson are vying for the open 7th District seat vacated by current U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who is running for governor.
The district, which covers parts of Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, could determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.
Vindman and Anderson both come from military backgrounds. Vindman is a retired Army colonel who served in the military from 1997 to 2022. Anderson is a former Green Beret who completed five deployments overseas and currently serves as a major in the Army National Guard.
Both candidates are lawyers, and both say they felt compelled to run for office out of a desire to serve their country in a new way.
On the issues, though, they have different visions for the 7th District.
Anderson has spent much of his campaign talking about the economy and rising costs.
“We see the cost of living has just gone up exponentially, and so that’s the number one thing I’m hearing from folks as we sit at early voting locations like here,” Anderson said. “People are going to be voting with their pocketbooks and with their wallets.”
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Vindman has spoken publicly at several debates and townhalls in the lead up to the election, and one of his main talking points is access to abortion care for women.
“What used to be a right, prior to Dobbs, has been taken away,” Vindman has said. “So, for me, I have a fundamental problem with this.”
“I spent 25 years in the Army defending Americans’ rights and freedoms, and they’re being taken away,” he said. “They’re being reduced right now.”
Anderson says he respects the Dobbs decision.
“The Dobbs decision gave this decision back to the states to make decisions that best fit them, and Virginia has spoken on this issue,” he said
“I’ll be very up front and frank. I do not support a national ban,” Anderson said. “I support IVF, and I support over-the-counter contraceptives.”
Former President Donald Trump’s shadow looms over the race. Vindman’s twin brother, retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, made international headlines in 2019 when he testified during former President Trump’s impeachment hearings about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. Eugene Vindman, who was a military officer at the time, says he, too, was involved as a whistleblower, which led to both brothers losing their government positions. It’s ultimately what led Vindman to enter the race.
“This country was at a crossroads, and I had to, as a person of action, I couldn’t sit on the sidelines when, frankly, the stakes were so high,” he said.
Anderson says he sees eye-to-eye with Trump on a lot of issues, like border security.
“We see about five people a day overdosing on fentanyl because of the fentanyl that’s pouring through the border, so we gotta make sure we build a wall,” he said. “President [Joe] Biden and Kamala Harris had about 90-plus policies that got us into the mess that they either reversed or implemented, and we gotta get back to normalcy when it comes to the border to make our communities safe.”
“I am for a strong border, as somebody who’s served in national security for 25 years and worked at the White House,” Vindman said at a 7th District debate. “But we also have to recognize that we are a country of immigrants and we can’t demonize immigrants.”
Vindman’s campaign has tried to link Anderson to the conservative Project 2025 plan and its proposals, which could drastically cut federal jobs.
“We’re talking about many thousands,” Vindman said at a town hall. “Fifty percent of Virginia 7th Congressional District is federal government employees. Another 6% are contractors. These are high paying jobs, and the idea is to eliminate them.”
Anderson pushed back when asked him about Project 2025.
“Project 2025 is not my plan,” he said. “In fact, I didn’t know what it was until my opponent started talking about it.”
“I’m very upfront about this,” Anderson said. “I’m never going to vote for legislation that’s going to take jobs away from our district.”
This race is one of the most competitive and expensive in the country. Vindman has raised more than $15.6 million. Anderson has raised just shy of $3 million, according to the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project.
Vindman’s campaign initially said News4 would be able to talk with him Sunday at one of his campaign events in Dumfries, where he was joined by U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Spanberger. Following the event, the Vindman campaign told News4 he would only speak with the media as part of a joint availability with Jeffries and Spanberger. News4 made the decision to run this story without Vindman’s direct participation.
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