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May the Best Woman Win: Two Women Compete for Virginia’S 10Th Congressional District by Sarah Sem

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May the Best Woman Win: Two Women Compete for Virginia’S 10Th Congressional District by Sarah Sem May the Best Woman Win: Two Women Compete for Virginia’s 10th Congressional District By Sarah Sem In just 58 days in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, a two-time Democratic state senator and the Republican incumbent will face off in what the New York Times calls “one of the ​ ​ most hotly contested races in the country.” With 2018 already being called the “Year of the Woman,” Virginia’s 10th Congressional District midterm race is worth watching. Incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock (VA-10) will be defending her seat against another female politico, Virginia State Sen. Jennifer Wexton, in a district the Cook Political Report identifies as Lean Democratic. The district itself is gaining national attention, especially since the governorship and the House of Delegates went Democrat in 2017 and it is one of 23 seats under Republican control that Democrats will attempt to flip in order to control the House. According to local Virginian paper the Loudoun Times-Mirror, half of the voters in ​ ​ Virginia’s 10th Congressional District identify as independents, with whom Wexton currently leads by nine points. Additionally, the New York Times said the district has “one of the highest ​ ​ concentration of college graduates in a Republican-held seat” and has a large immigrant presence as well. Fortunately for Comstock, one of her strengths is in constituent services and showing up at Eid festivals, Diwali, Korean National Day and Pakistan Day. However, some constituents are not happy with her conduct at the events. Grace Wolf Cunningham, a Democrat, Korean-American, and Herndon Town Councillor, told the New York Times that Comstock often ​ ​ comes to events with a canned statement and little else. “I think that she is very good at making that token show of support for the community, but personally, I haven’t seen her show any substance,” she said. Despite resistance from Virginia Democrats, the two-time Republican congresswoman has appealed to moderate voters while also retaining her conservative base. However, she hit a roadblock with the 2016 election cycle. Comstock initially won Virginia’s 10th Congressional District seat by 16 points in 2014, but only won by six points in 2016 when Clinton won the district in the presidential election. Since Trump’s victory in 2016, Comstock has received criticism both for her support of Trump policies as well as her opposition. One of the main policies from the Trump Administration she opposed was the travel ban, as it restricted travel based on the faith of immigrants. “I don’t support anything on the basis of religion. It needs to be on the basis of national security,” she told the New York Times. ​ ​ Comstock also did not vote for the House bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act supported by the president. Despite these moderate tendencies, her party ties to Trump could prove detrimental in November. According to a poll conducted by Monmouth University in June, eight in ten potential voters in the district say it is very or somewhat important to vote in a way reflecting how they feel about Trump, and nearly half of voters intensely disapprove of the job the president has done. The woman who could capitalize on this friction is a two-term Democratic state senator from Loudoun County with history in law. Wexton received endorsements from Virginian Gov. Ralph Northam, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11), and Rep. A Donald McEachin (VA-04) in the Democratic primary, and currently also has the endorsement of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA). However, Wexton is not without criticism either. Primary opponents attacked her for not pledging to refuse corporate donations. She promised on the campaign trail to not take any more money from Dominion Energy, the largest corporate political donor in Virginia, but previously took upwards of $6,000 from them before that statement. Despite the controversy, Wexton won the primary and holds a strong lead over the incumbent heading into the last few months of the campaign. According to the Loudoun Times-Mirror, Wexton holds a 49 percent to 39 percent lead ​ ​ over Comstock among potential voters, which includes “voters who have participated in an election since 2010 or have newly registered to vote.” The November election is not a guarantee for either woman, however. Most polls have large undecided percentages, and there are around two months left to campaign. These next 58 days will be crucial for each campaign, as many voters are still not convinced by either woman, despite the identity politics pull for each party. A focus group of Comstock’s constituents on “Face the Nation” in August revealed that some voters are not inclined to vote for either candidate. The group of five women of various ages and races were split three to two for Wexton and Comstock, respectively. Jackie Solomon, a self-identified independent who will vote for the incumbent in November, compared her options of Comstock and Wexton on the program to “airplane food” and “hospital food.” “Neither one’s going to kill you, but neither one’s worth it,” Solomon said. .
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