Democrat Eugene Vindman will become the next representative for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District in January 2025, defeating Republican opponent Derrick Anderson.
The Associated Press has called the race as of 6:24 p.m. on Nov. 6, with Vindman at 51.1% of the vote and Anderson at 48.9% with 98% of the votes counted.
Vindman and Anderson were running to fill the seat being vacated by Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who opted to not seek re-election in order to run for Virginia governor in 2025.
Both Vindman and Anderson come from military backgrounds, with Vindman retiring as a colonel in the U.S. Army after a 15-year career in 2022, according to NBC Washington. Anderson, meanwhile, served as a Green Beret before joining the National Guard, completing five deployments overseas in countries such as Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Bahrain.
Vindman centered his campaign largely around abortion rights, while Anderson focused on the economy and the rising cost of living, with prices having risen over 20% since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, according to NBC Washington.
Vindman raised roughly seven times as much as his Republican opponent, with the two candidates receiving $15,686,039 and $2,851,581 in donations, respectively, according to data from nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project.
The retired Army colonel likely would not have become a fundraising juggernaut had he not helped his identical twin brother — Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman — raise concerns about a phone call between former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that ultimately played a key role in an impeachment inquiry against the former president, according to The Washington Post. Vindman has been largely unwilling to discuss his role in the Trump-Ukraine impeachment investigation on the campaign trail.
The Democratic Party must flip just four Republican-held seats to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives, with Virginia’s 7th Congressional District possibly being pivotal in the chamber’s ultimate balance of power.
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