Republican Jen Kiggans keeps House seat in Virginia while 7th District race remains a close contest

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Incumbent U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans won her bid for reelection Wednesday in Virginia’s 2nd District race, defeating her Democratic challenger in a victory for Republicans aiming to keep the congressional seat in their battle to control the House.

Democrats had backed candidate Missy Cotter Smasal in hopes of reclaiming Kiggans’ seat after Republicans flipped it in the 2022 midterm election.

“I’m incredibly thankful that Southeast Virginia has once again chosen commonsense conservatism,” Kiggans said in a post on X early Wednesday.

Democrat Eugene Vindman and Republican Derrick Anderson remained locked in a close contest in the 7th District. With 99% of the votes counted in the race, Vindman led Anderson by a narrow margin.

Kiggans, a 53-year-old former Navy helicopter pilot, sought a second term while facing a challenge from Cotter Smasal, 46, who also served as a Navy surface warfare officer.

Differences between Kiggans and Cotter Smasal mostly traced the national fault lines between the two major political parties. In a fiery October debate, the two repeatedly painted each other as ineffectual and supportive of partisan policies that would hurt the coastal district. While Cotter Smasal centered her campaign on abortion access and defending American democracy, Kiggans focused on issues such as the economy and border security.

“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” Kiggans said at the October debate. “If the answer is no, why would we give Democratic policies, which my opponent would support, another chance? I am running to restore that security we’ve been missing.”

The 2nd has traditionally been a swing district, oscillating in recent years between Republicans and Democrats who served in the Navy. For instance, former Navy SEAL Scott Taylor was a Republican who represented the district for one term before being defeated in 2018 by Democrat Elaine Luria, a former Navy commander. Luria served for two terms before she lost to Kiggans in 2022.

All U.S. House seats were up for election on Tuesday, including eight other districts in Virginia. Democratic Reps. Don Beyer, Gerry Connolly, Jennifer McClellan and Bobby Scott won their seats. Republican Reps. Ben Cline, Morgan Griffith and Rob Wittman also won reelection. State Sen. John McGuire also won Virginia’s 5th District after narrowly defeating incumbent Rep. Bob Good by less than a percentage point in a bitter primary, which led to a recount in August.

On Tuesday night, Democrat Suhas Subramanyam defeated Republican Mike Clancy in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District. Democrats sought to maintain the House seat representing a swath of northern Virginia exurbs after incumbent Rep. Jennifer Wexton said she would not run for reelection because she was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy.

In the 7th District, the race between Vindman and Anderson quickly became one of the most competitive in the country, with Republicans hoping to make gains in districts in which they don’t face an incumbent. Vindman, despite being a political newcomer, developed a national profile after blowing the whistle alongside his brother during then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment. The former Army officer focused his campaign around abortion rights and the threat of MAGA extremism on democracy. Anderson, a fellow veteran and former Green Beret, pitched himself as the more affable candidate, and centered his campaign around the economy.

Republicans represented the district for nearly 50 years until Spanberger defeated former Republican Rep. David Brat in 2018.

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Barakat reported from Falls Church, Virginia, and Finley from Virginia Beach.

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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.