Star of Trump’s first impeachment, Eugene Vindman, wins Democratic House primary in Virginia

Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman won the Democratic primary in Virginia’s seventh congressional district on Tuesday, and will go on to represent his party in November as Democrats hope to keep the seat held by retiring Representative Abigail Spanberger.

Vindman, 49, is a native of Ukraine and moved with his family to the United States in 1979. He joined the Army, and it was his military service that led to him and his brother working with the White House National Security Council during the Trump administration in 2020. The brothers were ultimately drawn into the first Trump impeachment saga when they reported Trump in a whistleblower complaint over a phone call where the president pushed Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to open an embarassing criminal investigation into Joe Biden during the election year. The complaint led to Trump’s first impeachment by the House of Representatives, though he was acquitted in a Senate trial.

The race was called just after 8.00 eastern with about 15 per cent of the vote counted. Vindman was sitting above 50 per cent when the outcome was declared; his closest rivals had split the vote and thus failed to break 20 per cent. The lieutenant colonel’s victory on Tuesday was hardly a surprise: an internal poll released by his campaign earlier this month showed him as the clear favorite, thanks in part to his national prominence at Trump’s first impeachment.

The would-be congressman also entered the race with powerful national allies, including the anti-Trump conservative Lincoln Project as well as California Rep. Adam Schiff, a prominent House Democrat who served as impeachment manager for Donald Trump and later as a member of the bipartisan January 6 investigation.

But what Vindman has won in national support, he has lacked in local political connections. As primary day drew closer, both Democrats and Republicans in Virginia expressed discomfort over his candidacy to The Independent. One writer with a Richmond-based publication desribed Vindman as having been “airdropped” into the congressional race by leaders in the party from outside of Virginia.

Earlier this month, Clifford Hainzer, a Democratic primary opponent, told The Independent: “It’s not hard to see why there may be some saying, ‘Hey, wait a second, we’ve been out here doing it. Why is [the media] paying so much attention to the candidates who’ve raised the most money instead of the candidates who have been out doing the hard work?’”

Vindman heads into the November election facing quiet concerns from Democrats that he may lack the local political capital necessary to keep the seat in the party. Regardless, all of those who spoke to The Independent, including critics in his own party, said that they planned to support him for the seat with enthusiasm after the primary concluded.

Spanberger, who currently holds the seat, is already campaigning for Virginia governor with the intent of taking the state’s highest office back for the Democrats. Glenn Youngkin, the state’s Republican governor, is limited to one term as governor under state law.

The seventh congressional district is one of Virginia’s purplest, and includes parts of the I-95 corridor as well as rural and suburban parts of Stafford County.