Congress today passed bill H.R.8035, known as the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024, which gives $61 billion in assistance to Ukraine. This includes funds for various forms of aid, such as military, economic, and humanitarian support.
Locally, Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-7th District, Prince William, Stafford, Fredericksburg), and Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-10, Prince William, Manassas) supported the measure. Rep. Ben Cline (R-6th, Roanoke) and Bob Good (R-5th, Lynchburg) were among 112 Republicans who opposed the measure.
More than 10,500 people have been killed, and nearly 20,000 injured since Ukraine’s war with Russia began on on February 24, 2022. The war in Ukraine, often referred to as the Russo-Ukrainian War, started when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This conflict is part of a larger ongoing dispute that began in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
Spanberger and Wexton also voted today to send $14.3 billion to support U.S. military operations in and around Isreal in the wake of attacks from Iran last week. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Arlington) and Rep. Bob Good voted against the measure.
Spanberger and Wexton announced they will not seek office in 2024 after serving three terms. Wexton is retiring due to health matters, while Spanberger is mounting a run for Virginia governor in 2025.
Travis Nembhard: “I’m running for the U.S. Congress in my home district of VA-10. I look forward to continuing to serve the community that has given me so much, and where I’ve been raising my two children with my wife Stephanie.”
“I have spent my career standing up for people who are too often forgotten. My lifetime of public service is focused on combating injustices and fighting for those who need someone to fight for them the most. While working in the Obama White House, I witnessed the power of government to be a force for good. As an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Bureau, I went after slumlords, corrupt employers that violated wage laws, and companies that discriminated against individuals. And, as a financial regulator, I investigated instances of complex white-collar crime. I have a consistent record of working to protect the public against bad actors, and I intend to do the same in Congress, on behalf of the 10th Congressional District.”
Nembhard, a Democrat, lost his bid for the Virginia House of Delegates seat in the 22nd District in Prince William County, which includes Bristow and Nokesville. Republican Ian Lovejoy won the seat by four points.
Nembhard is on a growing list of candidates who seek to replace Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D), who announced her retirement at the end of her term on December 31, 2024, due to health reasons.
The 10th congressional district includes western Prince William County, Manassas, and Manassas Park.
“Maldonado is a second-term Democrat who recently won reelection to the House of Delegates 20th District. In an interview Tuesday with InsideNoVa, Maldonado positioned herself as a unifier who can bridge seemingly irreconcilable divides at a time when Congress is defined by fractures. She cited her work in Flint, Michigan, a community suffering a perpetual clean water crisis, her time working with the Minneapolis community following murder of George Floyd and her efforts to support congressional staffers following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the capitol.”
“Qarni expressed his deep respect for the incumbent Congresswoman. “I want to begin by offering my sincere gratitude to Congresswoman Wexton for her years of dedicated service to Virginians. I was devastated to hear about her battle with progressive supranuclear palsy and I continue to pray for her and her family during this incredibly difficult time.”
Press release: “[Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democrat] Virginia’s first woman and first Jewish person to serve as Speaker of the House of Delegates today made the following statement announcing her intentions to run in Virginia’s open 10th Congressional District, currently represented by Rep. Jennifer Wexton.”
“First and foremost, I was truly devastated to learn of my friend Jennifer Wexton’s recent diagnosis. Jennifer has served Virginia selflessly both in Richmond and Washington. She is an incredible person and a stalwart representative for her constituents. Her work is improving the lives of so many in our commonwealth and our country. Bob and I are continuing to pray for her and her family.
“I am also continuing to fight relentlessly in these remaining 20 days until November 7th, working arm-in-arm with many thousands of Virginians determined to ensure that Democrats regain the majority in the House of Delegates and keep our Virginia State Senate majority in order to protect and expand our historic progress at the state level.
Wexton said she won’t seek a fourth term in the 10th Congressional District, in western Prince William and Loudoun counties, after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of Parkinson’s Disease.
While still serving in the House of Delegates, fellow Democrats inexplicably removed Filler-Corn from her leadership role as Democratic Leader in 2022. In March 2023, Filler-Corn said she would not seek re-election to the seat, representing portions of Fairfax County.
The Center Square: “Virginia Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton said Monday she will not be seeking reelection, citing health concerns.”
“The third-term Democrat previously announced she was battling Parkinson’s Disease and receiving treatments. After further testing amid unresponsive treatment, Wexton disclosed she had been diagnosed with Progressive Supra-nuclear Palsy, type-p. The congresswoman said the disease is characterized as “’Parkinson’s on steroids.’”
The congressional candidates made their closing arguments in the 2022 campaign at events across the region on Monday, November 7, 2022.
First Lady Jill Biden joined Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D), who is hoping to hold onto Virginia's 1oth District seat, which she's had for four years. The First Lady joined Wexton for an event in Loudoun County.
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Congressional candidates Jennifer Wexton (D) and Hung Cao (R) spoke to voters at a forum Wednesday night in Manassas Park.
Mary Washington University Professor Dr. Steven F. Fuller asked more than 10 questions of the candidates during an exchange that lasted nearly an hour and a half. Many of them were about multiple crises facing the nation — inflation, the weakening economy, increased fuel costs, and increased mortgage rates in a cooling Real Estate market.
Cao says the Federal Government should lift restrictions on domestic energy production that “cripple the gas industry, which happened on day one of the Biden administration.”
Wexton blamed oil companies for increased prices, claiming they’re gouging customers, and supported President Biden’s push to convert to green energy by forcing a shift to electric vehicles to decrease reliance on fossil fuels.
Cao called the forced shift a penalty for citizens and business owners who cannot afford the more expensive electric motors. “We can’t get to clean energy overnight,” said Cao. “To punish the American poeple is wrong.”
On the teetering economy last month, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates three-quarters of a percent to 3.75%. In Woodbridge on Friday, September 30, 2022, Richmond Fed Bank President Tom Barkin told business leaders that he expects rates to increase to nearly 5% next year.
Cao said the Fed should stop its price-fixing measures. “It brings up prices of gas and mortgages when you fix rates… that’s when prices go up across the board,” said Cao.
On abortion, Wexton said the Supreme Court’s decision to allow state legislatures, not the federal courts, to decide to let abortion is about controlling a woman’s body. Cao supports allowing state legislators the opportunity to determine whether or not abortion should be legal in respective territories.
On Russia’s War in Ukraine, Wexton called for the continued financial support of Ukrainian soldiers, to which the U.S. has pledged more than $50 billion, more than any other country. Without being asked, Wexton assured the crowd that there was no fraud, waste, or abuse of the war funds.
Cao suggested congress become more concerned with worsening illegal immigration on the southern U.S. border at Mexico than the border of Russia and Ukraine.
Since Biden took office, millions of illegal immigrants have crossed the border and flown to cities across the U.S.
“We need higher walls and wider gates,” said Cao. “Walls worked on the military installations I served on in Afghanistan.”
“We don’t favor walls,” said Wexton. “We must use facial recognition software and x-ray trucks to prevent smuggling.”
The proliferation of data centers in Prince William County was one of the few local issues about which the candidates were asked. Both oppose local efforts by the Prince William County Government to allow data centers to be built on 2,100 acres next to the Manassas National Battlefield Park.
“There’s a place for everything, and the data centers have no place near the battlefield,” said the Battlefiled “[Prince William County Supervisors] should place data centers in industrial areas.”
Paving over rural areas will affect the region’s water supply by producing more sediment runoff into area streams, which flow into the Occoquan Reservoir, used by two million people in Fairfax and Prince William County, including Fort Belvoir.
“We encroaching on the water that affects that base, and that’s where I would step in as a federal legislator,” said Cao.
Wexton also doubled down on her assertion that her opponent has “extreme views” over those who have been imprisoned in a Washington, D.C. jail following riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. “I called Mr. Cao extreme because his views are extreme. Our democracy needed protection when they wanted to overturn a free and fair election result.”
Following Biden’s unprecedented speech on September 1, 2022, labeling those who supported Donald Trump as semi-fascist enemies of the state, Cao took issue with Wexton’s lack of response.
“A representative with integrity would have stood up to him and said, Mr. President, you’re wrong. The voters in our district may disagree with your politics, but many of them are police officers, firefighters, and government employees who have integrity,” said Cao.
Cao didn’t mince words when asked whether or not transgender students should be able to use the locker room of their choosing when playing scholastic sports. “Biological boys do not belong in girls’ lockerrooms or on girls’ sports teams,” said Cao.
The statement elicited gasps from Wexton supporters. Wexton criticized Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin after the Virginia Department of Education reviewed new guidelines aimed to restore parents’ rights taken away by the previous Northam administration, to be notified if their child seeks counseling for gender and must consent if a child wants to be called by another pronoun other than what’s noted on a birth certificate.
“[The guidelines] vilifies [transgender children] and use them as political pawns,” said Wexton.
During closing statements, Cao asked voters to consider whether or not their families are better off financially and if they feel safer in the face of rising crime versus two years ago.
Meanwhile, Wexton promised to continue fighting for “our values.”
The Prince William Committee of 100 and the League of Women Voters Prince William and Fauquier counties sponsored the debate at the Manassas Park Community Center.
Wexton is seeking a third term as Virginia’s 10th Congressional representative. The former assistant district commonwealth’s attorney won a seat in the Virginia State Senate in 2014 and then beat Republican Barbara Comstock for the 10th District seat in 2018.
Cao is a retired Navy captain of 25 years and a Vietnamese refugee, making his first bid for public office.
The General Election is Tuesday, November 8, 2022.
- The deadline to register to vote or update an existing registration is October 17, 2022.
- The deadline to apply for a ballot to be mailed to you is October 28, 2022. Your local voter registration office must receive your request by 5 p.m.
- Voter registration offices open for early voting: Saturday, October 29, 2022.
- The last day of in-person early voting at the city’s voter registration office is Saturday, November 5, 2022, at 5 p.m.
Republican congressional candidates are focused on Prince William and Stafford counties.
Yesli Vega (R), a Board of County Supervisors member seeking to flip Virginia’s 7th Congressional seat, will hold a get-out-the-vote rally tomorrow, Saturday, September 24, at her campaign headquarters outside Quantico.
The event at 9:30 a.m. at 18354 Quantico Gateway Drive in Triangle aims to rally support for Vega in eastern Prince William, which is the most populated area in the 7th District that spans 10 counties, Culpeper, and Fredericksburg, as early voting for the November 8 General Election is underway.
Vega is running against two-term Democrat Abigail Spanberger, who last week attended a celebration at the White House to celebrate the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which is a significant advance on congressional Democrats’ progressive plan, which aims to curb global warming, and authorizes 87,000 more IRS agents to audit citizens and businesses.
While Spanberger was at the White House celebrating the Inflation Reduction Act, news broke of continued rising costs, particularly food and housing costs rising to their most expensive levels since the Carter administration in 1979. Spanberger did not return our request for comment, asking about her support for the Inflation Reduction Act and when the bill would begin benefitting U.S. citizens.
Vega’s campaign event comes on the heels of a veterans’ roundtable held at the Globe and Laurel restaurant in Stafford County on Wednesday, September 21. The discussion ranged from the lack of services offered by the Veterans Services Administration, adjusting to civilian life, PTSD, and a discussion about a lack of accountability over the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, where many served.
Last weekend, Hung Cao barnstormed Virignia’s 10th Congressional District, with stops in Haymarket, Manassas, and the Prince William County Government Center in Woodbridge. Cao is challenging two-term incumbent Democrat Jennifer Wexton. The 10th District spans five counties and includes Manassas, Manassas Park, and Leesburg.
Wexton also voted twice for the inflation reduction act. Wexton cast her vote on her behalf and for Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa), who was on vacation in Europe.
The Cook Political Report shows Virginia’s 7th District leans Democrat and estimates the 10th District will remain firmly in Democratic control following the November 8 General Election.
Early voting for the November 8 General Election begins today, September 23.
Need to know election info:
- First day of in-person early voting at your local registrar’s office: Friday, September 23, 2022
- The deadline to register to vote or update an existing registration is October 17, 2022.
- The deadline to apply for a ballot to be mailed to you is October 28, 2022. Your local voter registration office must receive your request by 5 p.m.
- Voter registration offices open for early voting: Saturday, October 29, 2022.
- The last day of in-person early voting at your local voter registration office: is Saturday, November 5, 2022, at 5 p.m.
