In Virginia’s 7th Congressional District — a seat that could prove crucial in Republicans’ effort to gain control of the House of Delegates — Republican Derrick Anderson has been elected. locked in a dead heat With Democrat Eugene Vindman.
The district spans much of Northern Virginia, just outside the Washington DC Beltway, and has a large military and veteran population, with the famous Marine Corps Base Quantico being the main hub – and both candidates are touting their military qualifications to shore up support among voters.
The Post asked Anderson, a former Green Beret, about the Biden administration’s tumultuous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which took place three years ago this week. Neither Biden nor Harris held any public events on Monday, the anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack that killed 13 U.S. service members.
Former President Donald Trump Made a surprise visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Monday in honor of the 13 martyrs, while Biden and Harris issued a press statement remembering them.
Anderson responded passionately to questions from the Post about the failure to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, saying that was what motivated him to run for Congress.
Reflecting on Abbey Gate three years later, he said, “It's a mixed bag of emotions.”
“Accountability. It comes down to accountability,” Anderson said, referring to the abrupt end of the 20-year war in which he fought and lost many friends in battle.
“It's anger, it's sadness, it's also, especially what we saw, I think about last week, what we saw in Kabul, and the Taliban marching through the streets of Kabul with our military weapons, our equipment, our aircraft, millions of dollars worth of equipment that was abandoned there.”
This is Anderson's second attempt at Congress, after losing the 7th District's GOP primary in 2022. The seat is currently held by Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who will run for Virginia governor in 2025.
Anderson's opponent is a fellow Army veteran who previously served on the National Security Council under President Trump. Vindman gained national attention in 2019 as a whistleblower in the first impeachment effort against the former president, prompted by the Ukrainian-born candidate's reporting of a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Vindman Expedition Currently facing an FEC complaint due to alleged illegal coordination between his campaign and VoteVets, a PAC run by his twin brother. The complaint came after media scrutiny over the candidate's military record, which led to He launched a campaign to redirect reporters' questions to his brother's advocacy group.
Anderson told the Post that he is willing to make his military service record, known as a DD Form 214, available to the media for review.
