Clashes among Republican factions in the 118th Congress are playing out in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, with money and endorsements flowing to rival candidates in a GOP primary from the party’s establishment and most conservative wings in the House of Representatives.
The 7th, based in Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, is a pivotal political battleground in the outer Northern Virginia suburbs and countryside for control of the House in a presidential election year. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, is not seeking reelection and is running for governor next year.
On its face, the six-person June 18 primary is dominated by three men with strong military records in the district. But Derrick Anderson, Cameron Hamilton and Jonathon Myers each represent a contrasting point of view about the direction of the national Republican Party. Anderson is backed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other party leaders in the House, and Hamilton is backed by House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-5th, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. Myers said he refuses to affiliate with any congressional faction as a matter of principle.
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“Six months ago, I might have expected Anderson to be nominated in a walk,” said Stephen Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington. “Increasingly, the Republican primary is showing up as a referendum on what the future of the Republican Party should be. Should it be Speaker Mike Johnson or Bob Good or Rand Paul?”
“In this particular time, the notion of all politics is local is giving way to all politics is national,” Farnsworth said.
Anderson, 39, a former U.S. Army Green Beret who grew up in Spotsylvania County, came into the race with high name recognition after finishing a strong second to Prince William County Supervisor Yesli Vega in the Republican primary two years ago. Vega lost to Spanberger.
Hamilton, 37, of Orange County, is a former U.S. Navy SEAL who resigned his federal job in homeland security to run for Congress as what he called “a libertarian, limited government constitutional conservative.” He been endorsed by Vega; former Rep. Dave Brat, R-7th, who upset then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a party primary in 2014; and Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper, who narrowly lost the 7th District race against Spanberger in 2020 and urged Hamilton to run for the seat.
Myers, 53, of Stafford County, is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer. He said he decided to jump into the race because of his dismay with what he called “career politicians” whom he said had interfered in the military response to the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 and because of the chaos triggered by the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Three other candidates are also competing for the 7th District Republican nomination. They are:
- , a businessman from Henrico County who immigrated to the U.S. from India 33 years ago to work with church organizations on challenges facing religious communities across the world;
- Maria Martin of Prince William, a Bolivian immigrant and artist who lost the Republican nomination for a state Senate race by two votes last year and previously lost two House of Delegates elections by wide margins to Del. Luke Torian, D-Prince William; and
- Terris Todd of Woodbridge, an ordained minister who served in the U.S. Department of Education under then-President Donald Trump.
Anderson, Hamilton lead funding
Money — or lack of it — appears to narrow the field sharply. Anderson and Hamilton are locked in a fundraising battle that is also shadowed by hundreds of thousands of dollars in independent expenditures by outside organizations that represent the factional rivalry among Republicans in Congress.
“Definitely, Anderson and Hamilton are separated from the pack,” said Chris Saxman, a former Republican delegate who now serves as executive director of Virginia FREE, a state business advocacy organization that closely tracks Virginia politics.
Anderson leads the field with $888,595 raised through March 31 and $581,004 in the bank. Hamilton follows with $499,810 raised and $175,539 in hand at the end of March for the final sprint to the primary on June 18.
But those fundraising totals tell only part of the story.
Hamilton is getting a big boost from the Protect Freedom Political Action Committee, run by Sen. Rand Paul, which has spent $588,973 independently on digital advertising and other media for his campaign. He is also getting outside help from the House Freedom Fund, which has spent $10,833 on services to help his campaign.
Hamilton has pledged to join the House Freedom Caucus if he is elected in November.
“They stand firmly for the Constitution,” he said. “They stand for fiscal conservatism.”
The speakership
The House Freedom Caucus has also been a source of open fighting among Republicans from the beginning of last year, when the GOP took control with a narrow majority and elected then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy as House speaker after a record 15 ballots.
Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, who now heads the Freedom Caucus, was one of eight Republicans who joined with Democrats to oust McCarthy in early October, leading to three weeks of paralysis as Republican factions fought over a successor and finally elected Johnson.
Johnson has also struggled to maintain control of the fractious Republican conference after ultimately relying on Democrats to pass legislation to fund the federal government to avoid a shutdown. He also relied on Democrats to adopt a $95 billion foreign aid package that included $61 billion to help Ukraine in its war against the 2-year-old Russian invasion. Last week, he could have suffered the same fate as McCarthy, but the House easily blocked a resolution by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to remove Johnson as speaker.
Anderson tried to tie Hamilton to the attempt to oust Johnson, calling for Republicans to “fully coalesce behind Speaker Johnson so we can focus on November.”
“We should knock off the D.C. procedural games designed to weaken Johnson and the House GOP,” he said.
Jonathon Nave, campaign manager for Hamilton, dismissed the suggestion that his candidate did not support Johnson.
“Cameron does not support the motion to vacate,” Nave said in an interview before the vote to table Greene’s resolution.
Anderson is also getting outside help, with $125,000 from McCarthy’s Congressional Leadership Fund for digital and other media for his campaign.
“He’s got his endorsements and I’ve got mine,” he said of Hamilton. “It’s who’s willing to put in the work.”
“I think we’ve got a big tent,” Anderson said of his supporters.
None of this sits well with Myers, who said district voters do not like the Freedom Caucus and its brinkmanship with the federal budget or the status quo that the party’s establishment wing represents.
“I’m purposely unaffiliated with any caucus or political faction of Congress,” he said. “The only people I’m interested in are the people of the 7th Congressional District and the citizens of the United States.”
Myers has raised $68,780, including a $3,000 loan to his campaign. He had $29,538 in the bank on March 31, but said he is not worried about getting his message out. He has money for contacting voters, buying digital ads and hiring some staff, but said he is not spending on what he called “overpaid consultants.”
“I’m able to do what we need to do with the resources that we have,” he said.
Financial disadvantage
The remaining three candidates also face a financial disadvantage in the final month of the primary campaign.
Prabhudoss has raised $117,533, including $81,317 in loans he made to the campaign. He had $74,337 in the bank on March 31.
Todd has raised $25,382, including $16,110 he lent to the campaign, and had $11,166 in hand through the end of March.
Martin, in her fourth consecutive campaign for office, raised $6,447 and had just $564 left on March 31.
Front-runners’ focus
Anderson, a litigator for a Washington, D.C., law firm, is counting on the name recognition he gained from the 2022 campaign. He is also counting on his close local ties to the Fredericksburg region where he grew up. His mother owned a gas station and two restaurants in the city.
He is focused primarily on reducing congestion on Interstate 95, lowering the cost of living in the face of inflation, supporting military veterans and combating human and drug trafficking he links to the U.S. border with Mexico.
Hamilton, who was a medic for the Navy SEALs, protected diplomats for the State Department and served as chief medical officer at the Department of Homeland Security. He said he joined the military to “serve as warrior-healer.” Hamilton said he focuses on defending civil liberties, balancing the federal budget by reducing spending and shrinking the federal bureaucracy, but he does not favor shutting down the government to do it.
He said of government shutdowns: “They’re not the chaos some people think they are, but they’re not good,”
Myers strongly favors term limits for elected officials and stronger enforcement of immigration laws on the southern border.
“I’m a national security guy, so I believe border security is national security,” he said.
As for Anderson and Hamilton, he said, “They’re nice guys. I respect them. They both served.”