Clancy, Subramanyam projected to battle for Virginias 10th District seat

Virginia Democratic state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam and Republican tech company executive Mike Clancy were projected Tuesday to win their primaries for Rep. Jennifer Wexton’s seat in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, according to the Associated Press.

Wexton, a Democrat who has represented the 10th District since 2019, decided not to seek reelection for health reasons. The move heightened interest in the office representing a swath of D.C.-area exurbs, prompting 12 Democrats and four Republicans to seek their party’s nominations.

Political analysts say the district — which is anchored in Loudoun County but stretches into Fairfax, Prince William, Fauquier and Rappahannock counties — is safely Democratic, though President Biden’s dip in popularity in the state compared with 2020 could give Republicans an opening with more moderate voters.

In a statement, Subramanyam, 37, suggested a general-election contest with Clancy would be far easier than the Democratic primary that featured a mix of current and former lawmakers, plus some political newcomers, who held similar positions on key policy goals such as women’s reproductive rights, gun control and ending the war in Gaza.

To overcome that crowded field, the state senator from Loudoun highlighted a key endorsement from Wexton and tapped heavily into the region’s growing South Asian community to raise $1 million — with an extra $575,000 from the pro-Indian American candidate Impact Fund PAC.

“Our community is so much better off because of her efforts,” Subramanyam said about Wexton in his statement. “She will leave big shoes to fill, but I am ready for the challenge. This district will remain blue and I will do everything in my power to make my constituents proud.”

In an interview, Clancy vowed to “go on the offense” against Subramanyam, calling him “a radical extremist.”

“The voters here are looking for change,” he said. “It’ll be good.”

The more competitive Democratic primary election largely rode on who was able to get the most exposure through mailers, online ads and television commercials that flooded voters in the final weeks before Tuesday.

State Del. Dan Helmer (Fairfax), who garnered the second-highest amount of votes in the race in Tuesday’s returns, led the pack in fundraising with more than $1.5 million, which enabled his campaign to air television ads that portrayed him as an ex-U.S. Army intelligence officer willing to take on Donald Trump-supporting “extremists” in Congress. He also received $5.4 million in help from Protect Progress PAC, funded by the cryptocurrency industry, and the VoteVets veterans group.

Those messages resonated with Lorraine Zaug, who showed up to the Potomac Baptist Church polling station in Sterling with her husband, Tom, on Tuesday, a few days before their 22nd wedding anniversary.

Zaug, 74, said she was particularly impressed by legislation Helmer sponsored to bar anyone convicted of participating in an insurrection from holding public office in Virginia. The bill, a response to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, was held in committee earlier this year.

“I don’t want anyone who stormed the Capitol. It’s against my beliefs,” Zaug said. “I don’t think they should be representing Americans at all, Republican or Democrat.”

Tom Zaug, 75, agreed but nonetheless voted for Subramanyam (Loudoun), calling him “more of a man of the people in my book” after seeing ads where the legislator highlighted his work as a volunteer firefighter and EMT.

A soft-spoken father of two young daughters, Subramanyam cultivated the image of a family man who worked as a technology policy adviser in the Obama administration and is now committed to passing stronger federal gun-control laws. In ads, he included video of him walking or playing with his family while telling voters he was “fighting for their future.”

Cyrena Matingou, 22, who cast her ballot for Subramanyam in Chantilly, said what mattered most to her was that Wexton endorsed him.

A recent graduate of the University of Virginia whose mother volunteered for Wexton’s campaigns in the past, Matingou said she is concerned about access to health care — an issue most of the Democratic candidates vowed to take on.

Wexton’s “really powerful” endorsement set Subramanyam apart from the rest, she said.

Catherine Fernstrom, 42, said she chose Subramanyam because she felt he understood local concerns as a county resident. She also liked his experience working in the Obama administration, saying she wanted someone who can counter “the extreme ideologies” that have taken hold in the Republican Party.

“I want [Congress] to mitigate the damage that our extreme, court-appointed officials have done,” Fernstrom said.

With turnout low on Tuesday, largely due to the scorching heat, voters in the Democratic primary were mostly concerned about keeping the party’s values intact.

Jill Klaskin, 74, said she voted for Eileen Filler-Corn because of her “good reputation” as a state legislator.

“We want it to remain a blue seat,” Klaskin said after voting in Ashburn.

Rod Shepard, 61, walked toward his Potomac Falls polling station intending to vote for Subramanyam but changed his mind at the last minute when a volunteer for state Sen. Jennifer B. Boysko (Fairfax) informed him about her work in 2022 to rescue 4,000 beagles from a facility where they were being bred for medical research.

“Evidently, she stepped in as a local representative to save the dogs,” Shepard said, after casting his ballot.

For Iqra Chaudhry, 20, the war in Gaza was what drove her to vote at her polling station in Ashburn.

Chaudhry said former Virginia education secretary Atif Qarni’s unequivocal opposition to that war — in which he has repeatedly accused Israel of being too aggressive while calling for a free Palestinian state — stood out among his competitors.

Qarni, who emigrated at a young age from Pakistan before becoming a schoolteacher in Prince William County, spoke about the issue at Chaudhry’s mosque, she said.

“That’s what my focus is mostly on: Who would actually do something about it in the government,” she said. “A lot of people in my mosque are voting for him.”

The other candidates in the Democratic primary were Krystle Kaul, who owns a defense technology firm; Dels. David A. Reid (Loudoun) and Michelle Lopes Maldonado (Prince William); ex-CIA officer Adrian Pokharel; Travis Nembhard, who oversees D.C.’s Department of For-Hire Vehicles; Marion Devoe Sr., Northern Virginia Community College’s director of campus operations; and Mark Leighton, a head librarian at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.

Among Republicans, Clancy and Aliscia Andrews, the party’s nominee against Wexton in 2020 and a former deputy secretary of homeland security for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), were the two front-runners.

Clancy ran a “Restore America” campaign that promised stronger U.S. border policies and an end to reckless government spending.

That message appealed to Susan Premo, 55, who said she especially liked “support of law enforcement.”

After casting her vote in Ashburn, Premo compared notes with her daughter Jenna Premo, 20, who voted in the Democratic primary for Helmer.

“Sorry,” the mother told her daughter. “We’re so different in our household.”

Alex Isaac, a defense industry contractor, and Trump acolyte Manga Anantatmula were the other two candidates in that race.

Danny Nguyen and Hau Chu contributed to this report.

clarification

An earlier version of this article mischaracterized a voter's rationale for her selection of Eileen Filler-Corn for the Democratic nomination. The article has been updated.

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Clancy, Subramanyam projected to battle for Virginias 10th District seat