Candidates in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District election weigh in on hot button topics
The two candidates vying to replace the late Rep Gerry Connolly in Virginia s th Congressional District met face to face Monday night in Fairfax County In a candidates forum at the Reston Public Center hosted by the Reston Citizens Association Democrat James Walkinshaw and Republican Stewart Whitson took the stage to answer a number of questions posed beforehand by audience members Related stories Candidates running for late Rep Connolly s seat in Va weigh in on key issues Spanberger outraises Earle-Sears -to- in Virginia governor s race Early voting underway in Virginia to fill the late Rep Gerry Connolly s seat The topics ranged from what each candidate would do to cope with the loss of thousands of federal jobs to voting rights economic enhancement and the war in Gaza Watch video of the forum below from WTOP s partner News Early voting in the ballot has already started Vote Day is Tuesday Sept Polls will be open from a m to p m Opening Statements Democrat Walkinshaw cited his years as Connolly s chief of staff and his experience on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors He targeted Whitson s campaign strategy of running for Congress on a pro-President Donald Trump platform He commented in the last few days he agrees with Trump on everything Walkinshaw declared So the question before us in the th district is do we want someone representing us who will fight for our district our residents and our small businesses or someone who views the job as being Trump s ally he announced Walkinshaw explained the district necessities someone who wants to stand up to the Department of Governing body Efficiency and rebuild a federal regime that works for all I will fight to make Northern Virginia and this country more affordable for all Americans with lower robustness care costs and lower prescription drug costs making it more affordable to buy a home send your kid to college invest in clean cheap renewable potency to bring down utility and electricity costs he commented Republican Whitson pointed out that he was a political outsider and didn t grow up in the world of politics I wasn t handed an office or handed a path to power Instead I was taught to work hard and that God family and country should come first Whitson announced focusing on his provision in the U S Army and as a former FBI agent I m a fighter he noted adding I ll fight for safer streets and communities I ll fight to restore excellence in learning empower parents and make sure our schools are learning ahead of politics He also disclosed he will fight to protect our girls and keep boys out of their sports and boys out of their private spaces And I will fight to lower the cost of living to cut wasteful spending and bring fiscal sanity back to Washington he announced At the end of the day this is what our campaign is about Q A Chosen of the forum s questions have been paraphrased below along with the candidates replies Q Discuss the issue of DOGE and the elimination of thousands of federal jobs during the Trump administration Whitson I know that of the federal employees that serve our country are great wonderful hardworking Americans who love our country and literally devote their life to making it better I also know that when a federal employee loses their job it s not just that person it s their family that s losing their job I want to help you If you re someone that was in the regime and you felt like you were pushed out and you re a good employee and you want to come back in I want to do everything in my power to help find you a home back in the federal regime But you know what else I want to do that s even more major I want to find you other economic opportunities Walkinshaw Well Stewart if you want to help the federal employees who have lost their jobs or those thousands who are about to lose their jobs you can stop advocating to make DOGE permanent and you could commit to cosponsoring bill like the Delete DOGE act as I have to put an end to this chaos for our friends and neighbors Our friends and neighbors are being recklessly fired and it s not the low performers There s no distinction being made between high and low performers by DOGE and the Trump administration They are indiscriminately firing the very people you say you have sympathy for But you won t do that because your priority is to be Donald Trump s ally Q Discuss the issue of Social Shield Whitson The best way to keep Social Protection solid is to promote work over welfare And right now we have millions of able-bodied adults who are not disabled and I m talking about senior citizens not pregnant women not children in poverty I m saying able-bodied adults that are sitting on the sideline and not engaging in the workforce Here s the deal work is definitely good Work is about so much more than just putting money in your pocket And so when people are denied that you re taking something away from them that hurts them far more than economically you re hurting them and you re hurting their kids And so the reckless policies of the left is they re pushing welfare onto people that don t need it And at the same time they re putting these programs at danger for the truly vulnerable that they re designed for Walkinshaw I recommend you talk to a few of the thousands of federal employees who are out of work and ask them if they re sitting on the sidelines or playing video games That is an outrageous thing to say in a locality that is suffering from job loss right now Social Guard solvency is a challenging predicament but it s a math concern right now the tax on Social Measure is capped and a billionaire pays the exact same dollar amount as a two-income family living right here in Fairfax County We all know that the hardest working folks in our group are immigrants and the best way to ensure the solvency of Social Precaution is to welcome immigrants who want to come here and work and are younger than the average American population to pay into Social Assurance Rounding them up scaring them convincing them to self deport is self-defeating when it comes to the solvency of Social Shield Q Share your thoughts on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza Walkinshaw This issue is another broken promise from Donald Trump He promised he would lower prices and prices are going up He promised world peace and we re not seeing world peace in Gaza or elsewhere And this is a very crucial challenge And let me just say right now the images coming from Gaza at present are unacceptable The humanitarian problem is absolutely unacceptable Unacceptable We need a cease fire in Gaza the previous 24 hours and Donald Trump necessities to bring the parties back to the negotiating table and negotiate a cease fire that brings all of the hostages home to their families ends the violence and surges humanitarian aid into Gaza that reaches the people and the children Whitson The majority of tragic part of Oct and Ukraine War is that they were both avoidable Weakness invites aggression During the Biden administration we had a weak president and people around the world took advantage of that It is unacceptable but it all could have been avoided with a stronger commander in chief period If you think Hamas did that attack without Iran s consent you re wrong And they never would have done that if Trump would have been in office We have to confront this with truth But yes that is one point we agree on I do think that devastation necessities to stop and I do want peace in the Middle East and I think our president is doing as much as he can to achieve that Q Would you assistance the John Lewis Voting Rights Act Whitson When it comes to electoral contest integrity the key is we need elections that we trust So when we get to the end of the referendum we need to wake up the day after the balloting and no matter who won or didn t win we have to trust the outcome right You re required to show a photo ID when you buy alcohol You re required to show a photo ID when you get on an airplane And so the idea that you wouldn t show a photo ID when you vote is just ridiculous And guess what Eighty percent of Americans agree Walkinshaw Yes I will backing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act And look the diminution of the officers of the Voting Rights Act has been one of the worst decisions made in the last years with respect to voting rights We have real challenges across the country where people s voting rights are being circumscribed and attacked I think the bulk critical one right now is an outrageous effort in Texas to rig the encounter in the midterm elections and do midterm redistricting and President Trump has been very open and honest about it He wants to do it because he thinks he can get five more seats I don t think that s how our district should be drawn We need to protect everyone s right to vote and we need to ensure that folks have the opportunity to vote in fair districts in this country Q What would the first piece of bill you would initiate if elected Whitson The first piece would be the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act which I revealed would require congressional preapproval before the executive branch if spending million or more on a new rule or regulation Walkinshaw I will introduce provision to defund DOGE and rule to restore the civil organization protections that federal workers need We have a -plus year history in this nation of a nonpartisan civil amenity that has served us very well Source
