Early voting is underway for a statewide referendum over proposed congressional district maps in Virginia. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi spoke with eight candidates for the House of Representatives about the redistricting effort. This report is the fourth and final installment in the series.
Virginia Democrats are hoping to redraw congressional district lines to flip four seats blue in the midterms this year. One of their strategies to achieve this is by having five districts stretch to the blue stronghold of Northern Virginia from as far as 160 miles away. WMRA spoke with two candidates and veterans from Northern Virginia – Tony Sabio and Rep. Eugene Vindman.
Tony Sabio, of Woodbridge, served in the Navy, Secret Service, and Central Intelligence Agency's Global Response Staff, then went into security in the private sector. Sabio is vying for the Republican nomination in the 8th District, where six-term Democratic incumbent Don Beyer has consistently won reelection with over 70% of the vote.
TONY SABIO: I want a big-tent party. I am conservative, but I do truly believe there's a lot that unites us. There's a lot of division out there right now, and once we can focus on the humanity of trying to work together to get things right, it goes a long way. … I grew up in California, so I grew up understanding a lot of the more Democratic mindset of things. …. My views are my independent views. Do I support the current administration with a lot of their initiatives? Yes, I do. Are there things I don't support that I think we could do a lot better? Completely.
If the proposed maps are implemented, Sabio would stay in the 8th District – which would shift from a compact district composed of Alexandria, Falls Church, Arlington County, and part of Fairfax; to one reaching most of the way down the Virginia Peninsula.
SABIO: It's going to be hard to actually service all those districts within. … I'm not a proponent for the redistricting, but it is what's on the ballot, and hopefully the votes go in the way of voting "no" for this particular initiative. But if it does happen, we are in here for the long haul. We've already developed a strong base going all the way down towards Norfolk area, so we are ready to go.
His policy priorities include growing Northern Virginia's job market independent of the federal government, promoting electricity generation from small nuclear reactors, and supporting immigration reform such as the Dignidad, or Dignity, Act.
SABIO: Let's make sure that we know who's coming into the country. … Criminals need to be gone, off the streets. And then second to that, we have good hardworking people that have been here. Now, what do we do with some of these folks that have been here and they came over because of our neglect on the border? … The Dignity Act gives them a pathway to be able to work here. … They come out of the shadows.
Hailing from nearby Dale City, Democratic incumbent Eugene Vindman is running for his second term in the House. Vindman's family came to the U.S. from Soviet Ukraine when he was a child, and he went on to serve in the Army for 25 years, retiring at the rank of colonel. Vindman currently represents the 7th District, which includes part of Northern Virginia and Fredericksburg west to the center of Skyline Drive. If the lines are redrawn, he'd be moved into the new 1st District – a curving stripe from Fairfax down to King William County.
EUGENE VINDMAN: I don't think it changes my perspective on how I perform my duties. … You know, I lose some of the beautiful parts of my district, which I regret – I enjoy going out to Culpeper, Orange, Greene, and Madison. But the work, for the most part, will not change. … I've got, currently, and I will retain for the most part three military installations, nearly 20,000 active duty servicemembers, 72,000 veterans, and so I intend to remain on the House Armed Services Committee.
He supports the redistricting effort and says the stakes are "extremely high" for Democrats to flip the House.
VINDMAN: The president has started a redistricting, a gerrymandering war. … If you characterize, like I do, the last 14 months of this administration as chaos, as cruelty, as corruption, then this is an opportunity to directly stand against that.
Within his current district, the Washington Post reported last year that internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents indicated that Stafford was targeted for a future detention center that could hold up to 10,000 beds. County leaders told WMRA they haven't been contacted by ICE about any such plans, and the Post wouldn't provide them with the source that mentioned Stafford County. The reporters wouldn't provide it to us, either.
An ICE public affairs specialist told WMRA via email that "ICE is not considering that site."
The proposed 1st District would include Hanover County, where residents and the board of supervisors opposed a Department of Homeland Security plan to convert a large warehouse into a detention processing facility, causing Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison to back out of selling the property.
Vindman opposed both of these potential projects.
VINDMAN: As a matter of national security … I can acknowledge that we needed improvements on our southern border. But deploying tens of thousands of federal agents on America's streets without due regard to Americans' constitutional rights is vast, vast overreach.
As of mid-April, more than a million early votes – representing 18% of the state's registered voters – have been cast in the referendum that could authorize redistricting this year, and thus add Virginia to the partisan line-drawing brawl. Election day is April 21.
