Virginia's 10th District Democratic Primary: Chaos and Results

Virginia's recent domestic elections featured intriguing races, including a contested Democratic primary in the 10th District won by Jennifer Wexton's replacement.

### Virginia Primary Results: Key Races and Implications
* 🔴 The Democratic primary in Virginia's 10th District was highly competitive due to **multiple candidates** and **no consolidation behind a particular contender**. Dan Helmer, a frontrunner, faced allegations of being a "**serial sexual harasser**," while Eileen Filler-Corn was accused of essentially "**paying for an endorsement**" from a pro-Israel super PAC.
* 🏛 Despite the chaotic primary, Suhas Subramanyam emerged as the winner, with Cook Political Report now rating the district as "**Solid D**." Given the narrow House margin, each seat is crucial for determining the **majority**.
* 👯 In Virginia's 7th District, Eugene Vindman, the twin brother of Alexander Vindman and a whistleblower in the Trump impeachment saga, raised **$5 million** to run in the Democratic primary to potentially succeed Abigail Spanberger.
* 🎯 Vindman's fundraising capacity and establishment Democratic profile position him as a **strong contender**, although the district's recent redrawing has made it more of a **swing district**.
* 🐘 In the Republican primary for Virginia's 5th District, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, despite being a staunch conservative, is trailing in the race against a challenger, **DeSantis-endorsed Wren Williams McGuire**.
* 🤝 Good's endorsement of DeSantis over Trump and his vote against Kevin McCarthy have led to a divided MAGA vs. Freedom Caucus dynamic, showcasing the **significant influence of aligning with the right politicians over ideological consistency**.
* 🏛 The Freedom Caucus's internal divisions and inability to act as a unified anti-establishment voting bloc have allowed the Republican establishment to **exert its influence more effectively**.
* 🎉 The competitive and high-stakes nature of these primary races in Virginia reflects the state's political significance and the broader trends shaping both **Democratic and Republican politics**.

should we move on to domestic elections Crystal let's talk about it. All right, so Virginia in particular Crystal's Home State. For whatever reason, had some very interesting races last night. We can put this first element up on the screen from Punch Bow. Punch B news and they were digging into Virginia's Fifth District, which results are actually still outstanding. We're going to get to them in just a moment that I think might have been the most interesting race last night. We can put the next element up on the screen. We're just sort of taking a tour through these. There's a democratic brawl in Virginia's 10th. Crystal, do you before I move on from this, did you have any sort of takeaway on what was going on in Virginia's 10th District because this one was kind of hard to get a handle on. There were so many candidates. Yeah, so this is Jennifer Wxson was representing this District. She has a neurological condition that is untreatable and so is stepping down and

so this is the primary to attempt to fill the seat. This is a district that is in the sort of exurban DC area, centered in like Loudoun County, which used to, in the very recent past at least, you know, from my perspective, be consistently Republican. This is one of the places that has really realigned into the Democratic party. Now Jennifer Wexton did not have an easy race. I think it was relatively close when she, you know, first won the seat, but this is seen as a district that Democrats at this point in time should be able to win. However, this primary apparently really went sideways. So first of all, because it is a prime, you know, opportunity for uh ambitious Democrats, you had a whole bunch of Democrats jump into this race. There was no consolidation behind like this one particular candidate. You had people who were well known, who had held positions of power. You had a woman, feror, who was the former, I think, State, um, speaker of the house. So you had a number of names that were well-known. It looked like uh

this one dude was very well positioned. He'd raised the most money. Dan Helmer is his name. He was a state, and at the last minute, these Revelations came out that he had been uh he was a sort of Serial sexual harasser. That the board that he previously had sat on, they had had to change all the rules around sexual harassment because this dude was such a problem. So you had that. You also with the woman I met I mentioned before Eileen filler corn. You had a scandal involving her as well because she received the endorsement of this packed Democratic majority for Israel that if you guys follow Ryan's reporting he's done a lot of reporting on. They're sort of AP pack aligned um super pack. They're you know solely pro-Israel and take the a pack line on that Etc. They endorse her and the very next day she donates 15 $50,000 to them. So it really looked directly like she basically paid for that endorsement so she was in the mix so there was another uh person in this

race, whose name was Crystal, actually called. She apparently was lying about her resume and really like embellishing beyond the norm. What was so there was just like a whole what the hell is going on? I don't know, people lost their minds in this race. But so there was a whole lot of stuff going on there. Um, ultimately became very nervous about the fact that this dude Dan Helmer could still potentially win because the allegations came out so late and, you know, they seem credible enough and like enough of a problem that it could potentially in a district that still is a swing district hand that district to Republicans. Um, he did not prevail, however. Um, so I think they're breathing, breathing a sigh of relief. And we have, I'm looking at, you know, what number element it is. We do have the results from that, that we can show people of, uh, who Ely was able to win the day. I think it's B4 guys. I've seen enough suas subra manum. I'm gonna go with, sorry guys, wins.

that uh that District so cook political is now giving it a rating of solid D so I think uh you know the Democratic establishment no I didn't have a horse in this race. I was glad Eileen filler corn lost because of that whole dmfi thing but that's about as far as it went for me um but anyway they'll be happy that he won and not uh the other gentlemen so there you go. Yeah and you know it was fairly close I think he won by like five I think he ended up pulling it out by like five percentage points um somewhere around there but we should also note and I know this is always bizarre to people who've lived in Virginia for a long time but if you Google wealthiest county in the United States it is Lowden County as of right now. They have the highest median income sort of formally rural area uh further out than Fairfax County outside of DC but a lot of people from uh those big tech companies defense contractors that have landed in Northern Virginia over the years this is a district that's full.

of those sorts of people was a center of the sort of school board battle uh in 2020. 2021 so it's, it's fairly interesting how this ended up playing out and that it became such a big Battleground. I can't imagine the amount of money that was spent uh just for this one seat. yeah, ladden a really beautiful area um it's was, you know, was in in some ways is this sort of like horse country, you know, so if you're a wealthy lobbyist and you have to commute into DC or you retired like this is sort of the Prime area that you've moved to. I'm sure they've experienced a boom post pandemic with people having the hybrid remote work schedules as well so that you can more easily live in a place like ladden where you are going to have a decent commute if you need to go into the city but if you only have to do that a couple times a week that it makes a lot of sense so in any case this is an area right to

point out it was one of the centers of like the school board battles. I think Republicans when they uh elected Glenn yunan got very excited. That this is the type of place that could be back in play and it's still theoretically possible. But I do think Democrats got you know a decently strong Contender here and it's likely they'll be able to hold on to this seat. And that of course matters a lot when you consider what is the house margin right now. Three seats or something like that it's as close as it could possibly be so each one of these seats becomes incredibly pivotal and potentially determinative in terms of the next house majority. Yeah sigh of relief at the DNC I'm sure the DC I should say ever these results now both staying in Virginia because believe it or not we have two more Virginia races to talk about Eugene vindman a lot of people know what Alex Alex vinman Alexander vinman but his twin brother Eugene vidman who is also part of the

whistleblowing on Donald Trump's, uh, quote perfect phone call, uh, which we need to get into Crystal, uh, but part of the whistleblowing and that entire sort of impeachment saga that played out during the Trump Administration. One primary, a Democratic primary, this is for Abigail Spaner Spanberger District, which I believe is Virginia 7. Yesterday, Virginia 7 yesterday, you get, uh, Eugene Vindman, twin brother, $5 million he raised, uh, to win this seat in, uh, Congress or the primary for the seat in Congress. Crystal again, because this is Virginia, that is, I imagine, going to be a fairly contested general election. It's probably safe Dem, uh, but could actually turn into something going forward. Uh, you know, again, he raised $5 million. Spanberger is running for governor, sort of an establishment Dem favorite, uh, Centrist, and this is in a lot of ways makes sense as somebody who would potentially replace Abigail Spanberger. True, uh, but I could see this escalating a little bit in the general election contest so this.

is the district that I live in um. I explicitly voted against viman yesterday in a primary. I sort of expected he would win but freedom and democracy that's it. I just don't want to preserve democracy that's I'm against that um fascist yeah. So you know this District it's been redrawn recently so I formerly was in more of a uh conservative more rural District. Now it's been drawn so it takes in more of the sort of exurban area that does make it much more of a a swing District. The reason you're joking about how he's the perfect successor to spanberger spanberger former CIA so these are like two deep Staters I guess guess people around here just love the Deep State. I don't know what to tell you um but he he obviously has huge fundraising capacity. You know I don't know his real capabilities as a politician it doesn't really matter that much at these house level people don't tune into to them enough to really distinguish between like the political Talent of various actors Etc. But because

he has that National fundraising Bas. I'm sure the party loves him and feels like this is, you know, exactly who we want to be the face of the democratic party in 2024. So there you go. And um, you know, I do think that this, uh, district is rated, you know, lean or likely or something, by cook political. So I think he's, you know, he's most likely to Prevail. But, uh, it is still a District that could kind of go either way. And you mentioned Abigail Spanberger running for governor. Um, I think she'll have a decent shot at that as well. In Virginia, you can only serve one term as Governor. So Glenn Youngkin is already lame duck term limited out, which, you know, in my opinion, that rule is very silly. But not that I'm a Glenn Youngkin lover, but just in general, I think that's a silly rule to have that tight of term limits. But um, in any case, she will be on the ballot next time the governor's race comes up here. So yeah.

that's where we are with that one, and let's shift over to Republican races now because over in Oklahoma, Tom Cole. We mentioned this in the, in the, this was actually on the tear sheet that we put up, first combined with what happened in Virginia 5. But if we take a quick, visit outside of Virginia, we're then going to return to Virginia, of course, but let's just start in Oklahoma where 11-term Congressman Tom Cole, Republican, had a primary with four different candidates in it, and some of them were sort of like upsurge, almost. I don't know, it reminded me kind of how the Tea Party, you know, you had these, these sort of anti-establishment candidates that were all jockeying for a position. He managed to hold on in that race, which was fairly interesting result, but it was a pretty convincing margin of victory for Tom Cole. Let's go back over to Virginia 5, where a former guest of Counterpoints, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, is currently trailing. We can put B this.

is B5 up on the screen. He is trailing 285 votes to Maguire, and this is a crazy race. Uh, and one of the more interesting, if not the most interesting results that came in last night, saving the best for last year because Maguire ended up getting endorsements from Donald Trump, Kevin McCarthy. I think Marjorie Taylor green jumped into this, and Virginia 5 became this bizarre, probably will be one of the most interesting primary races on the Republican side this entire cycle. This bizarre, uh, sort of test case battleground over Trump, McCarthy, DeSantis, all of that. Bob good, again, currently the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, looks like he's about to lose his primary by a few hundred Bo votes because he voted against Kevin McCarthy, and he endorsed Ronda santis. So while Kevin McCarthy, uh, is out there, you know, still going after Matt Gates. If, if you listen to Matt Gates's take on things is, uh, kind of shiing him with these ethics investigations from behind the scenes. That's how, uh, Matt Gates put.

it when there was an announcement of a new ethics investigation into him just this week. Uh, Kevin McCarthy is seeking revenge against Bob Good who is one of the few. Just they needed just a few people to vote against Kevin McCarthy in order to oust him as speaker. Bob Good was one of those people. He also endorsed DeSantis over Trump, which brought Trump into the race. Bob Good couldn't be accused by anyone's standards of being sort of moderate. Uh, but because he endorsed DeSantis over Trump, uh, and because he voted to oust McCarthy, all of the support came in for Maguire and it looks like it was enough to put him over the edge even though Good still had support from other people Freedom Caucus people, Chip Roy, um, other, you sort of people in Maga spaces. Uh, it was kind of Maga on Maga violence down in Virginia 5 last night. Crystal, um, and it looks like again the house Freedom Caucus who when Ryan and I interviewed Bob Good. I want to say this

was back in February somewhere around there of the winter. Uh, he basically said, you know, reporting about the freedom caucuses divisions is overstated. We're okay. He really went after Marjorie Taylor green. I forget exactly the uh, epithet that he used but just used. I don't think it was uh, what did the other representative call her like blond bad. Butch body. I don't think he said that uh, but it was brutal bleach. Bleach blonde. I think, yeah, Butch body. That's the one. It was alliteration. Um, poetic. It was great. But um, in both directions. I mean, I just unironically enjoyed that exchange. I don't think we ever talked about on the show but just perfect. It's the not the Congress we need but the Congress we deserve that that the chairman of the House Freedom caucus um, more powerful than I think so many people realize is about to lose in this Mega AA violence. It shows you Democrats are getting their normies at least in Virginia. Their normies are hanging on. Normie hung on in.

Oklahoma on the Republican side, but I don't know. Uh, I don't know that Republicans are, are, you know, there's in, in so many ways. Like it's still downstream of these like 2016 divisions, which were in of themselves downstream of like the 2010 divisions. It's just this long simmering battle, uh, that they can't put a on. Yeah. And um, you, it seems like, by the way, the race isn't called yet. Um, so it's possible it's only separated by a few hundred votes, but it Maguire's taking the lead. He's been the lead, you know, by those few hundred votes for a while. So it's looking good for him. So we'll ultimately see. I mean, it could even go to a recount. We don't know. But um, you know, it looks like good could have survived maybe just the Kevin McCarthy thing because didn't Kevin McCarthy also come for Nancy Mason? That, that didn't work out down in, uh, South Carolina. So I don't know that he has the

juice on his own to take someone out, but then when you endorse to santis against Trump, that was really the one that seemed to seal his fate. Um, I'm curious from you, Emily, you know, like what do you read into this? What does it mean politically? You mentioned that he's quite powerful. What does it mean sort of ideologically? Or does it just demonstrate that ideology is really not even second, like tertiary, way down the list from just aligning yourself with the right politicians and picking the right horses and staying on Donald Trump's good side? Yeah, I mean it's really about Donald Trump at the end of the day. I think that's basically what it comes down to. I think the other big takeaway, um, is that the freedom caucus actually is a mess. And that sounds like maybe a background Capitol Hill story, but I really don't think it is. I mean we saw what happened with Kevin McCarthy, the 19 ballots just for him to become speaker. Then the, uh, obviously motion of vacate, which only takes one

person and he's ousted. They're now in the situation with Mike Johnson, where a lot of people will say behind closed doors, We were better off with Kevin McCarthy. That's basically the understanding that a lot of people have. Some people will say, You know, maybe we don't know if we were better off with McCarthy, but it was still worth the effort to oust him to sort of scare the Republican establishment, etc. The bottom line, though, is that without a Freedom Caucus that is able to be effective, the Republican establishment is going to get whatever it wants. And it's hard for everyone to be on the same page when you have such a tiny margin. House Republicans, in and of themselves, aren't that powerful when they have such a small margin, but they are still powerful enough. Kevin McCarthy gave a lot to the Freedom Caucus. He put them on the committees they wanted to be on, gave them chairmanships that they wanted to have.

he gave them the motion of vacate, which eventually is what uh was his downfall. Uh, he gave them a lot. Mike Johnson is giving them basically nothing, even though they always felt like Mike Johnson was kind of Freedom Caucus adjacent. And so, these Trump divisions have just basically destroyed the Freedom Caucus. Um, they can't get on the same page, they can't, you, they can't be unified as a block, uh, because of those divisions, which means that the Republican establishment is just basically running, like, just bulldozing any sort of, uh, you know, any sort of disagreement. And the last thing I'll say on that point is, as annoying as some people may find the Freedom Caucus, um, I will say they are an actual unified anti-establishment voting Block in the House of Representatives. And so, well, I may not agree with everything that they do, they are the only real challenge to the Republican, uh, sort of pro-war, uh, pro-defense contractor, pro-austerity, uh, all down the line establishment that exists in Congress. Uh, and so, things are at least a lot more

interesting and fun, and uh, you know, worth debating when they have a sort of organized voice that is actually able to, uh, put some pressure on the establishment. Yeah, I mean, this is basically since the Tea Party ERA, this has been a group, not the same individuals, but this Vibe and this grouping has been giving hell to Republican, uh, leadership, you know, since the early 2010s, and as a leftist, I've always looked at these groupings with jealousy that there was a willingness to use power because, yeah, if you have this slim majority, then basically, the power is up for the taking for a small group of people who are willing to, you know, willing to use hardball tactics, and the Freedom Caucus is currently the only group that really has, uh, exhibited any willingness to actually use the power that they have. So, I don't agree, there are a few of their goals I do agree with, but, you know, mostly they are like proter, I mean, they're, you know, hardline conservative Republicans, obviously don't have a lot.

of common cause with them, but tactically, I've been very envious of their willingness to throw their weight around in a way that we just literally never see on the Democratic side. I mean, this was the hope that the squad would engage in a similar adversarial type of politics vis-a-vis their own leadership, and that just has not manifested whatsoever. You, I do want to give Kow, you've got, you know, Rashida Tlaib and others who've been willing to be very critical on Israel specifically, um, but in general, when they had the opportunity, when Democrats were in their own narrow majority and there was a possibility of engaging in similar adversarial politics within their own party coalition, we didn't see any of that. And a quick fact check, uh, producer Mack says bleach blonde bad, Bill Butch body, um, which I don't think we had in the proper order. We may have even left something out. So bleach blonde bad, built Butch body. Thank you, producer Mac for, I know there were t-shirts made. So guys, just, just check.

those out hey if you liked that video don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe to Breaking points. If you want to see the rest of counterpoints go to breakingpoints.com to become a premium member and get the full uncut show every morning in your inbox and on Spotify.

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Breaking Points

Turbulent Races in Virginia's 10th District

Virginia's 10th District had a chaotic Democratic primary, with multiple well-known candidates and various scandals.

The leading candidate, Dan Helmer, faced last-minute allegations of sexual harassment, causing concern about the potential impact on the swing district.

Despite the turmoil, the ultimate winner of the primary was Eileen Filler-Corn.

The Political Landscape in Virginia's Districts

A Democratic candidate won in a closely contested race in a wealthy and influential district in Loudoun County, Virginia.

The victory is crucial for the Democrats to maintain a strong hold on the house majority.

In another Virginia district, Eugene Vindman, known for his role in the Trump impeachment saga, raised $5 million to win the Democratic primary, potentially impacting the general election.

Political Upheaval in District Redistricting

The district has been redrawn, shifting it from a conservative rural area to a more of a swing district.

The recent primary election results indicate a potential shift in the district's political landscape.

A long-term congressman in Oklahoma won his primary, while in Virginia, the House Freedom Caucus Chairman is currently trailing in a significant and intriguing race.

Kevin McCarthy is reportedly seeking retaliation against Bob Good for endorsing DeSantis over Trump and being one of the few people to vote against McCarthy as speaker.

Despite Good's support from the House Freedom Caucus and other MAGA spaces, Peter Maquire is currently in the lead in the race.

The ongoing power struggle and divisions within the Republican party reflect the long-term impact of past political rifts, with Maquire potentially coming out as the winner.

The Impact of Trump's Endorsement on the Freedom Caucus

Trump's endorsement of candidates against the Freedom Caucus members has significantly impacted the group's power and unity.

The struggle for leadership within the Freedom Caucus has led to division and ineffectiveness, allowing the Republican establishment to dominate without opposition.

The disunity within the Freedom Caucus has diminished its ability to challenge the pro-establishment agenda in Congress, despite being the primary anti-establishment voting block.

The Impact of the Freedom Caucus in American Politics

The Freedom Caucus has been a powerful and adversarial force within the Republican party since the early 2010s, using hardball tactics to wield their slim majority power.

Their willingness to throw their weight around has been the envy of leftists, despite their hardline conservative views.

The lack of a similar adversarial approach within the Democratic party has been a point of frustration for many observers, contrasting with the aggressive tactics of the Freedom Caucus.