(The Center Square) — Despite Democrat Eugene Vindman raising more than five times as much as his Republican opponent Derrick Anderson, the race for Virginia’s 7th District remains tight.
A new poll shows Anderson lags Vindman by only 2%, a statistical tie according to one of the poll’s partners.
“With just two weeks to go, my opponent has leveled $millions in false attack ads and lies…yet we are TIED. I will fight everyday for the future of #VA07, while my opponent will focus on the failed policies of the past,” Anderson wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The poll, sponsored by Anderson, was conducted by Ragnar Research Partners, a polling firm known for its work for Republican clients like the Republican State Leadership Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee. While Harris led Trump by 5% among poll respondents, Vindman led Anderson 44%-42% – well within the poll’s 5% margin of error – with 14% still undecided.
Vindman is known for blowing the whistle on former president Donald Trump in 2019 as a legal adviser to the National Security Council. Vindman reported on Trump for allegedly “attempt[ing] to extort Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden,” which led to the former president’s first impeachment.
Along with his family, Vindman emigrated from Ukraine as a child during the Cold War. After graduating college, Vindman began a career in the military that spanned 25 years, including time as a paratrooper, infantry officer and officer in the JAG Corps. He later joined the National Security Council, where he “eventually became the NSC’s Senior Ethics Official in the White House,” according to his campaign website.
Now, he’s running on the platforms to “defend democracy” from “MAGA Republicans” and what he describes as attacks on “our most fundamental rights, from a woman’s right to access abortion care, a student’s right to learn in a safe, high quality public school, a worker’s ability to enter the middle class, or a voter’s right to make their voice heard.”
Vindman has raised nearly $15.7 million, according to the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project. That’s not only more than Anderson, who has raised close to $2.9 million to date; it’s more than any other candidate, incumbent or newcomer, running for a Virginia seat in the U.S. House of Representatives this election.
Though Vindman likely has wider name recognition among his party than Anderson, the district’s competitiveness is part of why The Washington Post called their contest “one of the country’s most closely watched House races” and a “perennial battleground.” The Virginia Public Access Project has been pegged as the most competitive of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts.
Though Anderson and Vindman have followed similar career paths, including time in the military, serving as lawyers and working in the White House, the similarities might end there. Anderson also found his way into the military post-college. He completed ranger school within a year of graduating and became a platoon leader and later an A-Team leader in the Green Berets.
After serving in the army, he earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and clerked for two federal judges. He also “served in the White House during President Trump’s administration, where he worked in the Office of National Drug Control Policy,” according to his campaign website.
Anderson has focused on the economy, immigration, his military service and pushing back against messaging from his opponent in his campaign.
“High costs are the number one topic on people’s minds right now. We have to work together to get everyday costs down,” Anderson wrote in an X post on Thursday.
Ragnar surveyed 400 of the district’s likely voters. Anderson’s support hasn’t changed much since early August, according to Ragnar’s earlier polls (41% in August, 43% and 42% at different points in September, and now 42%), while Vindman’s has increased slightly (42% in August, 43% twice in September, and now 44%).
