Enter Vindman

Shortly after Virginia’s 2023 election, Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger announced her candidacy for Virginia Governor in 2025 and would not be seeking reelection in 2024.

A vacancy in Spanberger’s seat means a good number of politicians will be competing for the Democratic nomination to represent a Congressional district above Richmond and below Northern Virginia. Enter Vindman.

Numerous Democrats have already declared like former Delegate Elizabeth Guzman, Delegate Briana Sewell, and Prince William County Supervisor Margaret Franklin. While on the Republican side, they feature 5 candidates with more potential candidates looming. Spanberger had narrowly won the seat in the last 3 elections.

The candidate that has reached the most attention so far is Eugene Vindman. Vindman is best known as the brother of Alexander Vindman, who was at the center of the Trump impeachment in 2019.

Vindman made his announcement for his candidacy for Congress with an endorsement from the Lincoln Project and getting coverage from the Washington Post. Vindman boasted that he was able to fundraise over $800,000 for his campaign in the first 24 hours.

The problem is that elections are won and lost inside their districts. Critics point out that Vindman has never lived within the district and just showed up. This includes Vindman’s lack of assistance during previous elections. Additionally, criticism of Vindman includes his lack of policy. Nothing more than platitudes that Trump is bad against democracy.

One such critic is Delegate-elect Josh Cole who went to Twitter to say that “I've never seen this person in our area.” This drew ire of Alexander Vindman’s wife.

Vindman’s endorsement from the Lincoln Project is part the organization’s brief history full of political gimmicks. The group was founded for the 2020 Election with the purpose of preventing the reelection of Donald Trump. The Lincoln Project was made up former Republican operatives that were on the outside during the Trump Presidency. They were able to gain attention for themselves with promotion from 60 Minutes. With the main goal of defeating Trump, it seems like they were successful. However, the Lincoln Project spent over $81 million dollars to flip Republican voters. The results were 94% Republicans that voted for Trump over Biden, up from 92% in 2016.

The Lincoln Project has not been shown to be successful and their stunts can be more harmful like when they recreated the scene of white nationalists with Tiki Torches like Unite the Right at an event in Charlottesville in 2021. The Lincoln Project and air dropped Vindman as their stuntman and will not be focused on running a serious election.