Eugene Vindman is running for the seat now held by Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D), who is running for governor in 2025. The district spans across much of Central and Northern Virginia. President Joe Biden carried the district with 52.4% of the vote and Rep. Spanberger won with 52.3% in 2022.
Vindman faces retired Green Beret Derrick Anderson, who won the GOP primary with 46% against his Freedom Caucus-aligned opponent.
Vindman was born in Soviet Ukraine but emigrated to the United States when he was very young. Vindman attended SUNY Binghamton and enrolled in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Cornell which led to a 25-year career in the Army.
In the Army, he served as a paratrooper and JAG officer and ultimately was assigned to the Pentagon in 2016. Later, he joined the National Security Council (NSC) as a Legal Advisor focused on international partnerships, human rights and ethics, and eventually became the NSC’s Senior Ethics Official in the White House.
In 2019, Eugene’s twin brother, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who also served on the NSC, listened in to former President Donald Trump’s now infamous call with the President of Ukraine. Alexander reported the call to Eugene, and together they reported it up the chain of command which ultimately led to former President Trump’s first impeachment.
Vindman’s background, coupled with his experience, position him to understand the threat posed by nuclear weapons and the need to exercise oversight over national security policy to ensure it addresses the challenges we actually face.
