WALLACES CORNER, Va. \u2014 He didn\u2019t mention it in his mailers or campaign brochures. It was absent from a slew of recent television ads. And here at a synagogue in this far-flung D.C. exurb, Yevgeny \u201cEugene\u201d Vindman did not bring up the reason the worshipers breaking their Yom Kippur fast had first learned who he was.<\/p>\n
Most of those digging into plates of noodle kugel said they knew Vindman \u2014 a political novice running for Virginia\u2019s battleground 7th Congressional District \u2014 for the supporting role he and his twin brother played in President Donald Trump\u2019s first impeachment.<\/p>\n
That high-profile backstory had propelled him to the Democratic nomination for this open seat and played up in his fundraising efforts, which have drawn a whopping $14 million \u2014 much of it coming from small-dollar donors outside Virginia.<\/p>\n
But as the congregants at Temple Beth Sholom stood up to shake his hand and take photos, Vindman made no mention of the episode. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at the issues,\u201d he told one man who asked about it.<\/p>\n
Compare it to the approach taken by his Republican opponent, Derrick Anderson, and it\u2019s a sign of how the first impeachment has played out in Virginia\u2019s most competitive congressional race \u2014 just not quite in the way that might have been expected.<\/p>\n
Incumbent Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), a popular moderate who won this sprawling swing district in 2022, declined to seek reelection to run for Virginia governor next year instead. Her exit opened up a race that will be key to determining control of the House, where Republicans have a single-digit majority.<\/p>\n
With those high stakes looming and Trump himself at the top of the GOP ticket, Anderson \u2014 not Vindman \u2014 has become the one emphasizing how the Democrat\u2019s name and face became known to the public: The former Army colonel helped his identical twin brother raise concerns about a phone call between Trump and Ukraine that ended up at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Anderson, he can simultaneously try to paint Vindman as a partisan as a way to appeal to independents while energizing Trump voters,\u201d said Erin Covey, who analyzes House races for the Cook Political Report. The nonpartisan site had previously rated the 7th District as one that \u201cleans Democratic\u201d but recently reclassified it as a \u201cToss Up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, on Vindman\u2019s end, she added, \u201cthe fact that he was involved in such a high-profile, highly polarizing issue gives him a more partisan sheen.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another corner of Stafford County, Vindman\u2019s cameo in the national spotlight seemed to be a top priority on Anderson\u2019s mind as he addressed a crowd of supporters late last month.<\/p>\n
Flanked by a who\u2019s who of Virginia GOP politics \u2014 including the governor and several state lawmakers, all of them holding gifted red polo shirts to match his own \u2014 the former Army Green Beret boomed into the microphone inside a makeshift stage at a parking facility as he called Vindman a \u201crubber stamp\u201d for liberal policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy opponent is focused on his past \u2026 and his revenge tour against Donald Trump,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWhile me and my campaign, we\u2019re focused on your future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd, in biker jackets and U.S.A. hats, let out a cheer.<\/p>\n
Look at Vindman\u2019s blitz of fundraising appeals to his supporters, and you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking the impeachment probe is still his central talking point on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n
As many of those near-daily emails recount, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a national security official, had been listening in on a call in which Trump pressured Ukrainian leaders to dig up political dirt on Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
He went to his brother Eugene Vindman, an ethics lawyer also working at the White House, and they brought their concerns up the chain of command. After Alexander Vindman testified during impeachment hearings, both men were ousted from their jobs.<\/p>\n
Their actions did not directly spark Trump\u2019s impeachment \u2014 separate whistleblower reports were filed regarding the call \u2014 but the Vindman campaign has blasted out no less than 40 such pleas to supporters for donations explicitly tying him to the probe, sometimes twice in one day.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we did not let Trump\u2019s abuse of his office stand, he was impeached \u2014 and his vengeance cost us our careers when we were fired in retaliation,\u201d Vindman wrote in one mid-September message.<\/p>\n
It is a tactic that appears to have reaped dividends: As of Sept. 30, he had raised nearly $14 million for the election cycle \u2014 more than any other House candidate except for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and a record for House candidates from Virginia. The vast majority has come from donors outside Virginia and those contributing less than $200.<\/p>\n
That strategy could not be more different from the tone he has taken publicly in the district since July, especially when addressing crowds of independents and moderates. In contrast to primary ads, in which he says he \u201cexposed Trump\u2019s corruption,\u201d his recent television spots spotlighted his wife, Cindy, emphasized abortion rights and sought to tie Anderson to \u201cProject 2025,\u201d a conservative think tank\u2019s road map for a second Trump administration.<\/p>\n
The impeachment \u201cis just not my focus and frankly it\u2019s never something that I\u2019ve defined myself by,\u201d Vindman said in an interview after a campaign stop last Saturday in Culpeper, a more conservative, rural part of the district. \u201cPrimarily, my motivation is my family and my kids: I want to make sure they have access to the American Dream like I had.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shift may also be a response to House Democratic leaders, who have privately fretted that Vindman\u2019s link to the impeachment probe will hurt him in a purple district that favors independent-leaning legislators like Spanberger, according to two people familiar with the race who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy. The Vindman campaign referred a request for comment to Spanberger, who said in a statement that Vindman would be a \u201ccommonsense legislator who will work across the aisle to deliver results.\u201d She added: \u201cI can see that he\u2019s already earning trust in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lauren C. Bell, a political scientist at Randolph-Macon College, said such a pivot was unavoidable in the general election. \u201cHe\u2019s got to lean into appealing to independents or right-leaning centrists who might be skeptical,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cYou downplay the things that are going to make you less appealing to the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet without that backstory \u2014 plus no record in elected office and shaky personal ties to many areas in this geographically diverse district \u2014 others point out that Vindman may struggle to win over parts of the electorate less familiar to him.<\/p>\n
Outside a Latino supermarket in Woodbridge last month, Vindman followed Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who is running for a third term, as they hobnobbed with small business owners who had set up stands in the parking lot. Both candidates approached Komi Koutche, a native of Benin, at a booth for his urgent-care clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe senator is very, very close to the community, and that is a good thing,\u201d Koutche remarked afterward.<\/p>\n
What about Vindman? \u201cI didn\u2019t know who that was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite Anderson\u2019s stark financial disadvantage, the 7th District is very much a competitive race.<\/p>\n
The Republican had as of Sept. 30 raised about $2.5 million \u2014 a fraction of Vindman\u2019s war chest \u2014 with just over $1 million still on hand. Vindman has attracted about $1.35 million in outside spending, but Anderson has slightly surpassed him on that front, with $1.42 million mostly coming from the GOP-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund.<\/p>\n
The political makeup of the 7th District, which stretches from D.C. suburbs to more rural areas in the Piedmont, slightly favors Democrats, particularly in a presidential election year: Biden won the seat by about 7 points in 2020, according to a Washington Post model, and Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to have long coattails at the top of the ticket. Yet Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) won the area in 2021 by a similar margin as Spanberger did the following year.<\/p>\n
Multiple independent political analysts have in recent weeks shifted the race to a \u201ctoss-up,\u201d a move they attributed to the fact that even Vindman\u2019s eye-popping fundraising over the summer had not appeared to tip the scales \u2014 at least, not yet.<\/p>\n
Some observers suspect that is because the Anderson campaign\u2019s attacks have been working. Both candidates have been targeting the other\u2019s transparency and authenticity, trading barbs on Vindman\u2019s military rank and combat record, and Anderson\u2019s home outside the district as well as a family photo-style image that Anderson, who does not have kids, took with a friend\u2019s wife and children.<\/p>\n
But only Republicans have been repeatedly invoking the impeachment saga, often without many details, as a way to paint Vindman as a liberal partisan. \u201cIt\u2019s not like he\u2019s going after Vindman\u2019s role itself,\u201d Covey said. \u201cIt\u2019s more that he saying he\u2019s too focused on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
At one candidate forum, Anderson looked over to Vindman and said, \u201chis entire, entire campaign is a revenge tour against Donald Trump.\u201d He used the same line at least twice during a debate this month, while Vindman did not bring up Trump at all.<\/p>\n
They continued sparring over their main policy priorities: Vindman vowed to protect IVF and voting rights and preserve jobs for the region\u2019s federal employees. Anderson said he would tackle inflation and cut taxes while strengthening border security.<\/p>\n
Near the end of the event, Vindman pointed out the lopsided dynamic that had played out. Only Anderson, he said, had mentioned the former president\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
Marianna Sotomayor in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
WALLACES CORNER, Va. \u2014 He didn\u2019t mention it in his mailers or campaign brochures. It was absent from a slew of recent television ads. And here at a synagogue in this far-flung D.C. exurb, Yevgeny \u201cEugene\u201d Vindman did not bring up the reason the worshipers breaking their Yom Kippur fast had first learned who he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}