With the start of early voting, Antonio Olivo of the Washington Post joins Michael to discuss the race to succeed Jennifer Wexton in Virginia's 10th Congressional District--with twelve in the Democratic primary and and four in the Republican primary, what are the dynamics of the race this year?

Episode Transcript

Michael Pope  

I'm Michael Pope, and this is Pod Virginia. A podcast that's taking a look at one of the most crowded Democratic primaries in recent years; the 10th congressional District. Currently held by Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton. In September of last year, she noted that she would not be seeking reelection because of health issues, and that opened up the floodgates. A dozen Democrats are seeking the nomination. We've got a great guest here today who can help us understand the candidates and the crowded Democratic field. He's a reporter for The Washington Post who's covering the primary for the Virginia 10th; Antonio Olivo, thanks for joining us.

Antonio Olivo  

Thanks for having me.

Michael Pope  

Alright, let's start with the 10th Congressional District. This is basically a Loudoun seat. Most of the voters are in Loudoun County. Still, the District also includes parts of Prince William and Fairfax County, in addition to Fauquier, Manassas, Manassas Park, and Rappahannock. It's a competitive seat, although it leans to the left with a +4 advantage for the Democrats. Antonio Olivo, what can you tell us about the 10th congressional District?

Antonio Olivo  

Yeah, it's a district that covers a lot of ground in Virginia and is a diverse crowd. As you said, it is anchored in Loudoun County, which is itself diversifying, which has meant that it has become more blue in recent election cycles. Particularly after Congresswoman Wexton took the seat in 2019 when she defeated Barbara Comstock. Back then, it was solidly red, but since then, demographics have changed the scenario there.

Michael Pope  

We're going to go through all 12 of the candidates, so brace yourself. But to make this a little more palatable and easier to understand, we're going to start with what the political experts called the Big Four: Dan Helmer, Eileen Filler-Corn, Suhas Subramanyam, and Jennifer Boysko. Antonio, is it safe to say that these four are essentially the front runners in this race?

Antonio Olivo  

They have an advantage because they have more money raised in many of those cases. Or they have already been recognized as elected officials in the area. So that gives them a leg up over the rest of the field. It's allowed them to purchase more brochures, and they're starting to air online and TV advertisements. So, the word is getting out on their behalf. The others just don't have enough money or enough time to spread their message as much as they'd like so far.

Michael Pope  

Let's meet our candidates, starting with the big four here. I want to start with the candidate who has raised the most money, more than a million dollars. He's currently a member of the House of Delegates, where he was first elected in 2019, defeating Republican incumbent Delegate Tim Hugo. He also ran for Congress, but he was defeated by Jennifer Wexton. So, this is not his first run for Congress. Antonio, you said that in the candidate forum, the speed dating forum, he cast himself as a bridge builder. Tell us a little bit about Delegate Dan Helmer.

Antonio Olivo  

Dan Helmer is a veteran; he served in Afghanistan and Iraq as a US Army intelligence officer. As you mentioned, he entered his current seat by defeating a longtime incumbent Republican who was well-liked in that District. And so, Delegate Helmer leans into that victory and his ability to reach across the aisle, or at least his ability to appeal to independents in that District. He couldn't have won that seat without a substantial portion of the independent votes. Since then, he's been in the General Assembly, where he has worked with Republicans to pass some of his legislation. Most notably, I would say he sponsored legislation, a 2020 law that basically said if you were a victim of sexual assault or rape that involved you consuming alcohol and you're a college student, you could not be disciplined for consuming that alcohol or drug. And it took Republican support to get that law passed.

Michael Pope  

Alright, next up in the big four is former Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. She was the first woman Speaker and the first Jewish Speaker. She decided against running for reelection last year, and so she's no longer a member of the General Assembly. Although she considered a run for governor last year, she changed course and decided instead to run for Congress. In your report about the Loudoun speed dating forum, you said that she cast herself as someone who has experience as a Speaker, showing she can work with Republicans. Tell us a little bit about Eileen Filler-Corn.

Antonio Olivo  

Eileen Filler-Corn is well known in the Democratic Party because of her leadership role. She was Speaker of the House of Delegates at a time when Democrats were able to pass some pretty substantial and significant legislation with respect to gun safety and women's reproductive rights, basically the core issues for the Democratic Party. As far as endorsements go, she's been able to rack up some pretty notable ones; former Governor Northam, former Attorney General Mark Herring, Senate Pro-Tempore Louise Lucas, and Jamie Raskin in Maryland, who has weighed in with an endorsement. So she's got people pulling for her. As a leader in the General Assembly, she had to work with her counterparts in the Republican Party. So, she has been highlighting that as well. And you'll hear her say, I'm ready to hit the ground running in Congress, basically using her experience to say that.

Michael Pope  

Another one of the big four is a freshman State Senator who served two terms in the House of Delegates before moving over to the Senate. During the speed dating event in Loudon, you reported that he got into a deep discussion of Ukraine and forever wars. Tell us a little bit about Senator Suhas Subramanyam.

Antonio Olivo  

Senator Subramanyam is fairly new to elected office in Loudoun County. And yet he has become well known because of the issues he's tackled. He's tried to deal with the frustrations out in that area with the proliferation of data centers. He has introduced legislation that would try to rein in that growth in some way or another. Or try to get datacenters to pay more of the costs for new transmission lines. He is somebody who worked in the White House under Barack Obama. He's a bit of a technocrat and will get into the details of a particular piece of legislation. He also founded the Commonwealth Caucus in the General Assembly, which is geared toward bipartisanship. So that's dear to his heart.

Michael Pope  

The last of the big four is a former member of the House from Herndon, who is currently a State Senator. In your article about the speed dating event in Loudoun, you portray her as chopping the air and presenting herself as a relentless fighter for things like menstrual equity. Tell us a little bit about Senator Jennifer Boysko.

Antonio Olivo  

Senator Boysko recently aired an ad that casts herself as a fighter, somebody who doesn't back down, somebody who was dismissed at a young age and continues to prove the naysayers wrong. She is a little bit more liberal than the other candidates we have discussed. Her big issue is women's reproductive rights. After a few attempts, she passed a law that eliminated the sales tax for feminine hygiene products, as well as personal hygiene products. Still, the intent of that law was to help women defray some of the costs of menstruation products. She was instrumental in saving 4,000 Begels from being bred for research. That was some legislation that she worked on with Senator Stanley, Republican William Stanley. 

Michael Pope  

So that's the big four. Let's talk about the rest of the eight candidates. We'll start with a newcomer to politics who has raised a huge chunk of change—$900,000, according to what you reported for the Washington Post. She has online ads in eight languages, which is really impressive. Tell us a little bit about Krystle Kaul.

Antonio Olivo  

Krystle Kaul is somebody who's attracted some attention from Democrats and her competitors because of the money she raised and or loaned to her campaign. She is the owner of a defense technology company, and she has a background in strategic communications. She worked for the Department of Defense for a while. And yeah, she has those ads online, each basically delivering the same message about her in different languages. She is also able to, like Subramanyam, tap into this growing demographic in the 10th District, which is the South Asian community. Krystle Kaul is the daughter of immigrants who are Indian American with Kashmiri and Punjabi roots. She and Subramanyam carry that appeal for that segment of voters.

Michael Pope  

Another candidate in this race is a former Education Secretary who has been on this podcast a couple of times to talk about education issues. In your reporting, you say that he casts himself as someone who wants to avoid getting down in the mud with Donald Trump. Tell us a little bit about Atif Qarni's campaign.

Antonio Olivo  

Atif Qarni is Ralph Northam's former Secretary of Education. He started his political career running for a House of Delegates seat in Prince William County that was then held by a longtime incumbent. It's no longer a Republican seat. But he lost that race. But it got him some recognition. He was appointed Secretary of Education. He has also focused on education funding as one of his primary issues. If he were to be elected to Congress, he would call for an expansion to universal Pre-K, school lunch programs, student loan forgiveness programs, and other things of that ilk. 

Michael Pope  

Another candidate in this race is a current member of the House of Delegates, who has a campaign biography out, 'Virginia Grit,' which tells us a little bit about delegate David Reid.

Antonio Olivo  

David Reid was recently re-elected to his seat in the House of Delegates for a fourth term. He's got some history in the area and, indeed, has leaned into his personal story. Which is basically, he was one of five siblings who spent a portion of their youth at a children's group home in Rockbridge County, Virginia, a really rural area. Then, he went on to live with foster parents and ultimately became successful after joining the US Navy Reserves. He became an intelligence officer. One of the things that he does to try to appeal to voters is to lean into that childhood history to show that he's somebody who understands what it takes to struggle to get by. And to do what you can to succeed.

Michael Pope  

The next name on the list might be familiar to listeners because he was the Democrat who ran against Ian Lovejoy last year for House District 22. Antonio, tell us a little bit about Travis Nembhard. 

Antonio Olivo  

Travis Nembhard, as you mentioned, ran in that 2022 House race. That was one of the more expensive races of that year. It was a seat Democrats had hoped to win and did not. But that got Travis Nembhard some recognition. He was an administrative judge for a while; he currently is the head of the Department of For-Hire Vehicles in the District in Washington, DC. He is essentially like other Democrats; he started saying that he wants to codify abortion protections and deal with climate change, expand gun control laws, and things of that nature.

Michael Pope  

The next candidate on the list is an incumbent member of the House of Delegates serving her second term. She's in the seat previously held by Delegate Lee Carter. Tell us a little bit about Delegate Michelle Maldonado.

Antonio Olivo  

Michelle Maldonado is in her second term and was recently re-elected to that seat. In the House of Delegates, she launched a bipartisan Technology and Innovation Caucus. She has dealt with some burning issues now in the state with respect to technology, the grid, data centers, and things like that. She's also the founder of a company that helps organizations overcome traumatic events. She highlights that by showing that she can bring groups together around common goals. She's had less success in raising money, and that's going to be her big challenge. Getting people to remember who she is. She hasn't been around the General Assembly long enough to become a known entity yet. 

Michael Pope  

The next candidate on the list is Marion Devoe, the Director of Campus Operations for Northern Virginia Community College. Tell us a little bit about her.

Antonio Olivo  

Marion Devoe, it's hard to miss him. He is a very tall former basketball player who used to work as the Chief Operations Officer for the White House under George W. Bush. He's now at Northern Virginia Community College. He's a motivational speaker, and he's charismatic, but he's not very well known. His policies so far are pretty general, things like fostering economic growth, enhancing military recruitment and retention, and supporting veterans. Again, he's not very well known, and he has not held elected office. And that is reflected in the small amounts of money that he's been able to raise in order to get his message out so far.

Michael Pope  

The head librarian at George Mason University's Scalia Law School is also on the list. Tell us a little bit about Mark Leighton.

Antonio Olivo  

Mark Leighton is the head librarian at the law school at GMU. He is a newcomer and hasn't really been able to distinguish himself one way or the other, to be honest. Some of the ideas that he's put out there are to keep student loans, basically, at the rate of inflation, along with tuition; he wants to deal with gun reform and help women secure their reproductive rights. But he, again, is not somebody who's very well known. He hasn't really had much success in getting people to pay much attention to his platform.

Michael Pope  

Last on our list is a former CIA officer, Adrian Pokharel; what can you say about him?

Antonio Olivo  

Adrian Pokharel is a former CIA officer; he is also a disabled veteran. And he speaks candidly about his past issues with depression. And that has informed his primary issue, which is to establish more support for mental health, in particular mental health that affects veterans. He also speaks about controlling the rate of student loan growth, student loans, and the cost of student loans. He's basically in line with the other Democrats in terms of reproductive rights, gun safety, and things like that.

Michael Pope  

I also want to talk about the Republicans. But before we move on from the Democrats, we went through all of the candidates; it's a very long list. I appreciate you walking us through all of that. I'm wondering about the issues here. In your reporting, it looks like gun safety is really important. The Supreme Court is an issue. Also, locally, something that you have done a lot of reporting on is data centers. Tell us a little bit about where the candidates are coming down on those issues. 

Antonio Olivo  

Sure, I think the main issue for all 12 candidates is for the party to gain control of the House. So they see the seat as being very important in that regard. It's a district that is well-known and important because of its proximity to the Capitol. It happens to be the home of some pretty high-powered elected officials or people in industries that, in some way or other, deal with the federal government. In terms of the issues yeah, gun safety is something that comes up again and again, as does abortion and women's reproductive rights. Every one of the candidates will talk to you about that. Also, things like immigration reform this is a district that is home to a lot of immigrants as well. So that's been something very important to all of the candidates. Voting rights are a core issue for Democrats, and it's something that all 12 of those candidates will get behind.

Michael Pope  

Looking at the four Republicans. Mike Clancy has raised the most money, $350,000. Followed by Alex Isaac, who's raised $125,000. Followed by Aliscia Andrews $106,000. Manga Anantatmula comes fourth in terms of fundraising. So, I want to start with Mike Clancy. In your report, I thought it was interesting that the Republicans seem to want to steer clear of being too closely associated with Donald Trump. What did you make of that?

Antonio Olivo  

It is interesting. It's reflective of the fact that in order to win in November, any of those Republicans is going to have to attract independent voters. Voters who might be Republican in terms of how they usually vote but may be turned off by the former president. That's not to say there aren't Trump supporters in the 10th District; there are plenty. But I would say there are more people who are moderate Republicans if they are Republican than if they were the former. So, in that conversation, or at the candidates forum that came up a few times, would you support Donald Trump? And they all say they would, but then deflect it a little bit and say, well, this isn't really about personality; it's more about issues like border security and the economy. Which they say is in shambles under President Biden. Essentially, it is beefing up law enforcement in general.

Michael Pope  

The front runner, in terms of money, is a tech company executive who seems to be strongly influenced by immigration and student protests. Tell us what you heard from Mike Clancy.

Antonio Olivo  

Sure. Yeah, Mike Clancy is known to Republican voters in the 10th District because he recently ran for the nomination; he didn't get it back in 2022. But he did spend a lot of money, so his name is out there. And his platform, essentially, or his campaign slogan, is to restore America. And that is kind of a Trump-like slogan. He does focus on border security and essentially paints a fairly dark picture of where the country sits today, instilling some fear in voters with respect to border security. And as you mentioned, the campus protests both of those, in his view, are signs that things have gotten out of control in the United States.

Michael Pope  

Next on the Republican list is a candidate who has raised $125,000. He's a defense industry contractor who casts himself as being able to talk to independents. He's someone who's focused on national security. Tell us a little bit about Alex Isaac.

Antonio Olivo  

Alex Isaac comes from the defense industry, as do a lot of the candidates in this field. There's a lot of crossover there in terms of their experience in defense. If they didn't work in the defense industry, then they dealt with it in some capacity by being lawmakers. So, Alex Isaac does have that going for him. But he also happens to know Arabic. He talks about being able to tap into the unrecognized or unrealized conservative vote among immigrants in the 10th District, immigrants who have culturally conservative values. By that, he's really talking about the growing Muslim population in that area, the growing Arabic-speaking population, but also South Asian. He will talk about his ability to cross over and bring those voters under the Republican tent. And so that sets him apart from the other three in the field, and he is a little bit more moderate than his competitors there.

Michael Pope  

Next up on our list is a name that's probably familiar to our listeners because she was the Republican candidate who ran against Wexton in 2020. More recently, she was Secretary of Homeland Security in the Youngkin administration. Tell us about Aliscia Andrews.

Antonio Olivo  

Yes, Aliscia Andrews also has some pretty broad name recognition because of the two roles that you just mentioned. She was the nominee and did okay with respect to her competition against Jennifer Wexton. She got her word out back then and now has since been part of the Youngkin administration, and that has people pretty excited. Republicans were pleasantly surprised that Governor Youngkin did as well as he did in Northern Virginia. And that is something that Aliscia Andrews hopes to tap into.

Michael Pope  

There is one more name on the list here, but I did not see this name in your reporting. Tell us a little bit about Manga Anantatmula.

Antonio Olivo  

To be honest, I don't know much about Manga Anantatmula because she has not been to many or any of the forums that I've either attended or watched online. I do know that she is someone who leans heavily on the fact that she is a big fan of Donald Trump. I'll just put it that way. She's really leaning heavily into that. If you look at her social media profile, it is basically a profile that supports Donald Trump. 

Michael Pope  

So, we just went through a bewildering amount of names and profiles. Antonio, how are voters supposed to make any sense of this? There's a huge amount of candidates; how is your normal voter who has a life and doesn't focus on these things? How are they supposed to make sense of all these people?

Antonio Olivo  

Yeah, good luck to them. I think it depends on who is able to get the most airtime on TV and who does the most door-knocking, which is sort of the basics of campaigning. Also, a few of the candidates have some advantage because of the fact that they are already known entities in the area. And by that, I'm thinking of, let's say, Suhas Subramanyam, Jennifer Boysko, and Eileen Filler-Corn. Dan Helmer references a portion of the 10th District. He definitely has a lot of money to burn in terms of commercials and so forth. However, one of the disadvantages for him is that he isn't very well known in Loudoun County, or at least not yet.

Michael Pope  

I have one last question. I really appreciate your time. On election night, Antonio Olivo, what are you going to be looking for?

Antonio Olivo  

I will be looking to see who is strong out the gates on election night; I will be paying a lot of attention to the Loudoun County precinct since that's likely where the election will be decided. By then, we'll know a little bit more about what kind of media presence candidates are getting and whether or not any tension points have developed. So far, none have; they're all pretty aligned on the issues. Nobody's taking any swipes at another candidate. But in terms of the returns themselves, we'll be looking at those Loudoun County precincts to see how everyone is doing. And, of course, talking to voters outside the polls to see who they like. 

Michael Pope  

He is a reporter for The Washington Post, covering the primary for Virginia 10th. Antonio Olivo, thanks for joining us.

Antonio Olivo  

Thank you again for having me.