Competitive Virginia races could play a critical role in the battle for Congress

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Virginia’s marquee matchups for U.S. House races in Tuesday’s election feature tight contests in a district being vacated by three-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger and a district known to flip between Democratic and Republican control.

In Virginia’s 7th House District, Republican Derrick Anderson and Democrat Eugene Vindman are entrenched in a competitive race to succeed Spanberger, who is vacating her seat in favor of a gubernatorial bid next year.

Down the coast, Republican U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans is trying to cement her hold on her seat in a district known to swing between both parties. Kiggans faces Democratic challenger Missy Cotter Smasal in the 2nd District, a seat in which Kiggans ousted a Democratic incumbent in 2022.

This year, federal elections are closer than ever — a slim number of races may determine which party will clinch a congressional majority. In an intense battle over a few seats, competitive districts in Virginia and elsewhere will play a critical role in the fight for the House.

All U.S. House seats were up for election on Tuesday, including nine other districts in Virginia. State Sen. John McGuire is battling Democrat Gloria Witt in Virginia’s 5th District after narrowly defeating incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob Good by less than a percentage point in a bitter primary, which led to a recount in August.

In the 7th District, the race between Vindman and Anderson quickly became one of the most competitive in the country, with Republicans hoping to make gains in districts in which they don’t face an incumbent. Vindman, despite being a political newcomer, developed a national profile after blowing the whistle alongside his brother during then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment. The former Army officer focused his campaign around abortion rights and the threat of MAGA extremism on democracy. Anderson, a fellow veteran and former Green Beret, pitched himself as the more affable candidate, and centered his campaign around the economy.

Republicans represented the district for nearly 50 years until Spanberger defeated former Republican Rep. David Brat in 2018.

In Fredericksburg Tuesday, 19-year-old Ossien Asiedu's disdain for the top of the Republican ticket helped Vindman pick up a vote.

“I just don’t like Trump at all,” said Asiedu, a University of Mary Washington sophomore who identified as an independent. Asiedu, who registered to vote on Election Day, said he chose all Democrats although knew little about the other races.

Wendy Stone, 50, a lifelong Virginia resident and longtime voter, picked Anderson.

While taking a photo of her grandchildren with a Trump standee, Stone said she liked Anderson's policies and didn't want to support Democrats.

“Vindman lies, just like the top of the Democratic ballot,” Stone said. “You can’t continually misrepresent basic information and expect voters to go with it.”

Dustin Schwers, a 22-year-old progressive voter who worked for another Democratic candidate in the primary, said he begrudgingly voted for Vindman. “This community is my home, but when he announced his candidacy, none of us knew who he was.”

Robert Gilbert, 63, liked that he saw a Vindman brother on the ballot.

“With his role in Trump’s first impeachment and his credentialed military background, he is the type of candidate I look for,” Gilbert said.

In the 2nd Congressional District, Democrats are putting their weight behind Cotter Smasal to reclaim the House seat after Kiggans ousted former Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria. The 2nd has traditionally been a swing district, oscillating in recent years between Republicans and Democrats who served in the Navy.

Candidate differences have mostly traced the national partisan fault lines. Kiggans focused on issues such as the economy and border security, while Cotter Smasal has centered her campaign on abortion access and defending American democracy following the Jan. 6 insurrection. In a district filled with military veterans, both candidates have cited the need to help veterans and address the rising cost of living.

Preserving the right to an abortion was a driving issue for Hannah Taylor, 34, of Virginia Beach, who voted for Cotter Smasal. Taylor, who just welcomed her first child and plans to have more, was especially concerned about the high mortality rate among Black mothers.

“If I were to be in a situation where a pregnancy didn’t go well or where there’s a chance of me dying or my baby dying, I would want to have the opportunity to do what is best for me,” said Taylor, who works as a case manager helping veterans find housing. “I would want the right to be able to do what I need to do and not die.”

But Jeff Parks, 60, who voted for Kiggans, said issues such as abortion are less relevant in congressional races with the matter now in state lawmakers’ hands.

“I think it’s a deflection away from the economy, inflation and other key issues,” said Parks, who lives outside Parksley on Virginia's Eastern Shore. “Economic development is clearly a top issue. We have very low-median incomes and high prices. We need jobs and lower costs of living.”

Parks works for a private company that provides emergency management services across the U.S. He also serves on his county's board of supervisors. He said Kiggans has entrenched herself in the community, while focusing on issues that include securing federal funding for sewer upgrades.

Up in northern Virginia, Democrats are trying to hold their ground after Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton announced she would not be running for reelection after being diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy. In an area that has trended liberal, Democrat Suhas Subramanyam is up against Republican Mike Clancy.

Subramanyam, formerly a tech adviser under the Obama administration, began his political career as a state lawmaker in 2020 and was elected to the Virginia Senate last November. His campaign against Clancy, a corporate attorney who previously served in the Navy’s Office of the General Counsel, came after Subramanyam clinched the Democratic nomination in a crowded primary in June.

Barakat reported from Falls Church, Virginia, and Finley from Virginia Beach.

Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Virginia Sen. Suhas Subramanyam, a Democrat running for Virginia's 10th House seat, talks with voters outside the Harper Park Middle School polling station at in Leesburg, Va., June 18, 2024. (Mark Miller/The Washington Post via AP)

Missy Cotter Smasal speaks to members of the media at Ballyhoos in Virginia Beach, Va., after winning the Democratic nomination in the race to represent the 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, June 18, 2024. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)

Missy Cotter Smasal addresses her supporters at Ballyhoos in Virginia Beach, Va., after winning the Democratic nomination in the race to represent the 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, June 18, 2024. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)

Republican congressional candidate Derrick Anderson gestures during an interview at an early voting station in Stafford, Va., Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. Anderson is running against Democrat Eugene Vindman in the 7th Congressional race. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

This combination image shows candidates for Virginia's 7th Congressional District, from left, Democrat Eugene Vindman, seen on Sept. 12, 2024, and Republican Derrick Anderson, seen on Oct. 23, 2024, both in Stafford, Va. (AP Photo/Jay Paul, left, and Steve Helber)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday dismissed his popular defense minister, Yoav Gallant, in a surprise announcement that came as the country is embroiled in wars on multiple fronts across the region. The move sparked protests across the country, including a mass gathering that paralyzed central Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly been at odds over the war in Gaza. But Netanyahu had avoided firing his rival before taking the step as the world's attention was focused on the U.S. presidential election. Netanyahu cited “significant gaps” and a “crisis of trust" in his Tuesday evening announcement as he replaced Gallant with a longtime loyalist.

“In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust is required between the prime minister and defense minister,” Netanyahu said. “Unfortunately, although in the first months of the campaign there was such trust and there was very fruitful work, during the last months this trust cracked between me and the defense minister.”

In the early days of the war, Israel's leadership presented a unified front as it responded to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. But as the war has dragged on and spread to Lebanon, key policy differences have emerged.

While Netanyahu has called for continued military pressure on Hamas, Gallant had taken a more pragmatic approach, saying that military force has created the necessary conditions for at least a temporary diplomatic deal that could bring home hostages held by the militant group.

In a late-night news conference broadcast on national TV, Gallant said that he had disagreed with Netanyahu over three main issues: the need to end controversial exemptions from the military draft for ultra-Orthodox men, the urgent need for a hostage deal and the need to establish an official commission of inquiry into the political and security failures of Oct. 7, when Hamas militants stormed into Israel and killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel estimates that about 100 hostages remain in captivity, only about 65 of them still alive.

With military service compulsory for most Jews, Gallant said that drafting the ultra-Orthodox was both an issue of fairness and security at a time when Israel faces so many challenges.

He said a hostage deal was needed “as quickly as possible, when they are still alive” and said there will be “no forgiveness” for neglecting them. And he said a full investigation into the events of Oct. 7 was the only way to ensure the government would learn the proper lessons. Netanyahu has rejected calls for an inquiry, saying it should only take place when the war is over.

Gallant ended his statement by honoring the soldiers serving in the army and those who have died in the wars. He held up his hand and saluted as he walked away from the podium.

Many of the families of the hostages, along with tens of thousands of people who have joined anti-government protests, accuse Netanyahu of scuttling a deal in order to maintain his hold on power. Netanyahu's hard-line partners have threatened to bring down the government if he makes concessions to Hamas, raising the risk of early elections at a time when the prime minister's popularity is low.

“Firing Gallant in the middle of a war is an act of madness,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said on X. “Netanyahu is selling Israel’s security and the Israeli army soldiers for a disgraceful political survival.”

Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, whose largely ceremonial office is meant to help unify the country, called the dismissal “the last thing Israel needs.”

The grassroots forum representing hostage families said Gallant’s dismissal is “a direct continuation of the ‘efforts’ to torpedo the abductee deal.”

Within hours, thousands of protesters gathered in central Tel Aviv, blocking the city's main highway and crippling traffic. The crowd, many holding blue and white Israeli flags and others blowing whistles and pounding drums, gathered around multiple bonfires. Several thousand people demonstrated outside Netanyahu's home in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the city. Protesters gathered and blocked roads in several other spots across the country, and Israeli TV stations showed images of police scuffling with protesters.

The dismissal comes at a delicate time. Israeli troops remain bogged down in Gaza, over a year after invading the territory in a war that has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, including tens of thousands of civilians, and caused widespread destruction, while Israeli ground troops are pressing ahead with a month-old ground invasion against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting.

Israel also has clashed with Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and is facing the possibility of another strike by Iran. Iran has vowed to avenge an Israeli strike that came in response to an Oct. 1 Iranian missile attack, itself a reprisal for earlier Israeli attacks on Iranian-linked targets.

On Monday, Gallant announced he had sent out thousands of draft notices to young ultra-Orthodox men. The system of exemptions for religious men has bred widespread resentment among the secular majority, and Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the government to scrap the system. Netanyahu, whose governing coalition depends on ultra-Orthodox parties, has not yet implemented the order.

Channel 13 TV said Netanyahu had also taken advantage of the U.S. election, when American attention is focused elsewhere, to dismiss his rival.

The White House on Tuesday declined to comment on the firing but called Galant “an important partner on all matters related to the defense of Israel.”

“As close partners, we will continue to work collaboratively with Israel’s next minister of defense," the White House National Security Council said.

Gallant, a former general with a gruff, no-nonsense demeanor, has emerged as the most popular figure with the public in Israel's wartime government. Gallant has worn a simple, black buttoned shirt throughout the war in a sign of sorrow over the Oct. 7 attack and developed a strong relationship with his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

A previous attempt by Netanyahu to fire Gallant in March 2023 sparked widespread street protests against Netanyahu. He also flirted with the idea of dismissing Gallant over the summer but held off until Tuesday's announcement.

Katz, his replacement, currently serves as foreign minister and is a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister. Katz thanked Netanyahu and pledged to lead the security establishment to victory in the wars against Israel’s enemies.

Katz, 69, was a junior officer in the military decades ago and has little military experience, though he has been a key member of Netanyahu's Security Cabinet over the years. Gideon Saar, a former Netanyahu rival who rejoined the government in September, will take the foreign affairs post.

Netanyahu has a long history of neutralizing his rivals. In his statement, he claimed he had made “many attempts” to bridge the gaps with Gallant.

“But they kept getting wider," he said. “Our enemies enjoyed it and derived a lot of benefit from it.”

Associated Press writers Eleanor H. Reich in New York and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed reporting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, speaks to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, left, at the opening of the 25th Knesset session marking the anniversary of the "Iron Swords" war, in Jerusalem, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (Debbie Hill/Pool Photo via AP)

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, left, and Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, attend a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel Sunday Oct. 27, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP)