WASHINGTON — For nearly a decade, former President Donald Trump rallied voters with calls to scale back the dimensions of the federal government and “drain the swamp.”
But now a Republican running in a key race for a House seat is attempting to distance himself from the proposed cuts, in addition to Trump's plans to remove 100,000 federal employees from the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia region while firing “renegade bureaucrats” – a policy that would cost that region's economy billions of dollars.
Derrick Anderson is the Republican candidate running in a hotly contested race to represent Virginia’s seventh congressional district within the House of Representatives. The district has almost 60,000 federal employees live there, about 15% of the population. Even more work as federal contractors.
Anderson said in a press release to CNBC that he would “oppose any legislation that could weaken national security, increase the cost of living or jeopardize VA-7 jobs, no matter where it comes from.”
“This is my home district and I will do everything I can to protect it,” he said.
According to the Cook Political Report, Virginia's seventh Congressional District is one of the competitive House races within the country. But Anderson just isn’t alone. He is the newest example of how Republican congressional candidates in tough elections are being selective about how they align with Trump and the way they show their independence.
Although Republicans held the bulk within the House of Representatives that yr, their narrow majorities often resulted in chaos, an inability to advance a few of their most significant priorities, and difficulty passing laws that absolutely needed to be passed.
For Republicans to implement their program in 2025, they’ll must win elections in several districts that supported Biden in 2020. In November of this yr, they’ll likely support Harris.
Anderson's opponent is a Democratic candidate Eugene Vindmanthe dual brother of Alex Vindman, who testified against Trump during his 2019 impeachment trial.
During a visit to Stafford on August 27, during which Vindman went door to door in 90-degree heat, after just a couple of doors he began talking to a self-described “govie,” a government worker who had concerns about a few of Trump’s proposals.
Anderson was supported by Trump. But Vindman has rather more financial ammunition for the race. As of June 30, Vindman's campaign had raised $7.5 million, in comparison with just $1.4 million for Anderson.
In addition to relocating 100,000 employees from the world, Trump also desires to make it easier to fireside civil servants and replace them with politically loyal employees as a part of an executive order. also known as “Schedule F”. This move alone could affect tens of hundreds of federal employees, a lot of them in Virginia-O7.
In Trump’s political plan entitled Agenda 47Trump also presents plans to crack down on “renegade bureaucrats” and “fire all corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus.”
This hits Vindman hard. He and his brother were each fired from their jobs within the White House following Alexander's outstanding role within the impeachment proceedings against Trump.
“It would be devastating for this area,” said Vindman. “Fundamentally unfair, but devastating for this area, because we are talking about thousands and tens of thousands [of] pretty well-paying jobs. It would be terrible.”
If the plan were implemented, it might not only affect federal employees but in addition contractors and other employees within the region, said Terry ClowerProfessor at George Mason University and director of the Mason Center for Regional Analysis.
He estimated that for each job the federal government creates in an area, one other 0.6 jobs will likely be created – that’s, the lack of 100,000 federal employees would equate to 160,000 jobs. Clower estimated that this projected job loss could cost the state between $27 and $28 billion per yr.
“If all of these companies left Virginia completely, manufacturing would probably be about 5% of gross domestic product,” he said. “That would be a pretty severe recession by modern standards.”
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