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New reporting from the VA Dogwood highlights the stark difference between vulnerable Republican Jen Kiggans and Democratic challenger Missy Cotter Smasal.
Navy veteran and former small business owner Cotter Smasal is “ready to take on MAGA extremists” like Jen Kiggans to defend and expand Virginia women and families’ reproductive rights.
Meanwhile, Kiggans has “engaged in the kind of dirty politics that have become a hallmark of Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party,” like recently trying to secure federal funds “for a natural gas pipeline in the 2nd District that would likely have benefited a for-profit utility” after she “received campaign donations from companies that could benefit from the new pipeline.”
DCCC Spokesperson Lauryn Fanguen:
“The difference between Marjorie Taylor Greene’s friend Jen Kiggans and Democrat Missy Cotter Smasal couldn’t be clearer. While Kiggans continues digging her heels in on MAGA extremism and self-serving politics, Cotter Smasal is ready to work across the aisle to get things done for working families in Coastal Virginia.”
VA Dogwood: Meet the candidates running to represent Hampton Roads in Congress
Michael O’Connor | July 31, 2024
- Virginia Beach, where more than 50% of registered voters live in the 2nd District, backed President Biden in 2020 by more than 12,000 votes.
- This history of electing Democrats and Republicans means the 2nd District election will be a competitive one this fall, with consequences for the rest of the country.
- Smasal’s case to voters is that she’s ready to take on MAGA extremists to defend abortion rights. She has earned the backing of prominent Virginia Democratic leaders like Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Rep. Jennifer McClellan, and former governor Ralph Northam.
- “We must prioritize growing the middle class, fighting for access to health care, and protecting our national security,” Smasal recently posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. “Achieving these goals and making real progress for Virginian families requires pragmatic, bipartisan solutions.”
- Kiggans was elected to the Virginia Senate in 2019, and served there until 2021. Her vote in 2020 against payday lender reforms in Virginia came under scrutiny when she first ran for Congress in 2022.
- More recently, Kiggans withdrew a congressional funding request that would have run afoul of committee rules after Politico’s E&E News asked about it. The funding request was for a natural gas pipeline in the 2nd District that would likely have benefited a for-profit utility. But House Appropriations Committee rules prohibit money from going to for-profit companies, and Kiggans had received campaign donations from companies that could benefit from the new pipeline, according to E&E News.
- When it comes to the issues, Kiggans believes abortion laws should be determined by states, a position that falls in line with Trump’s stance after the US Supreme Court took away the constitutional right to an abortion with its overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
- Kiggans has also engaged in the kind of dirty politics that have become a hallmark of Trump’s takeover of the Republican party.
- Earlier this month, the editorial board of The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press blasted Kiggans for a fundraising email where she played up her medical expertise in suggesting Biden has dementia after his poor debate performance in June.
- “Kiggans would do well to seek reelection on the power of her ideas, the strength of her accomplishments and her vision for the future, rather than resorting to cheap, and unethical, political stunts,” the editorial board said.
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