Rep. Rob Wittman Makes His Case in Virginia’s 1st Congressional District

Virginia’s 1st Congressional District is shaping up as one of the tightest races in the country this year. At the end of September, the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics shifted the race into the toss-up category. It had been listed as “leaning Republican.”

Republican Rob Wittman has represented the district since 2007, when he won a special election to fill the seat. As recently as 2024, Wittman was reelected by 13 points, besting Democrat Leslie Mehta 56% to 43%.

This time, Wittman is facing a well-funded Democrat, Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor. Her campaign website promises she “will fight to lower costs, clean up Washington’s culture of corruption, and make Congress serve the people first.”

The most recent Washington Post poll, conducted late last month with George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, showed Taylor at 50% among likely voters, while Wittman was at 46%. “The national landscape is driving everything this year, and the president’s unfavorable ratings are dragging Republicans down even in places where they normally would be safe,” GMU’s Mark Rozell told the Daily Signal.

When it comes to fundraising, Wittman has outraised Taylor overall, $5.17 million to her $4.1 million. However, in the third quarter, which ended on Sept. 30, Taylor brought in $2 million while Wittman raised $1.1 million. The Democrat will take part in a Rally for Virginia on Oct. 19 along with fellow candidates Tom Perriello (5th District) and Elaine Luria (2nd District).

On a rainy Saturday morning, just before he walked in the annual Midlothian Day Parade, Wittman told the Daily Signal that this race isn’t much different from his previous 10 campaigns. “This election is about issues of the economy, affordability, public safety, and immigration. You name it, folks are still very engaged about things, and this is a competitive election, as you would expect it to be in the off-cycle election.”

Wittman said he is approaching this race as he has all of his earlier contests. “It’s all about getting out and talking to people,” he told the Daily Signal. That ranges from seeing veterans off for an honor flight to Washington, D.C., to joining Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly for site visits at the Jefferson Lab and Naval Weapons Station Yorktown.

“It’s really all about as much personal contact as you can put out there in talking to people,” Wittman said, “and a lot of times they have, you know, very good questions.” The Daily Signal asked what the best question was that he’d been asked recently.

“The best question, I think, was ‘What are we going to do about our future, our national security?’” Wittman said. He noted that the 1st District is home to plenty of active military members. The Virginia Public Access Project counts more than 8,500 people on active duty, while the Census Bureau counted more than 52,000 veterans.

Wittman said all these military families want to know “what we are going to do to modernize in the face of these increasing threats from other nations around the world as the threats change. Especially these unmanned systems that have people obviously concerned, so they want to know what we are doing to modernize with that.”

The congressman told the Daily Signal that the first step in responding to such threats would be for lawmakers to return to Washington next month for a lame-duck session and pass a $67 billion supplemental bill that is pending in the Senate. He said that bill could encourage contractors to build more high-tech weapons.

Constituents also ask Wittman about “the typical affordability issues.” Those include questions about ways to bring down the cost of diesel fuel, gasoline, and healthcare costs.

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