This story was reported and written by our media partner the Virginia Mercury.
Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans faces Democratic challenger Missy Cotter Smasal this year in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District. Both Navy veterans have been involved in their local communities for years – Kiggans as a former state senator and Smasal as a member of the Chesapeake Bay Commission.
While both women share some priorities, like reducing inflation and the costs of living, their divergence on abortion policy is something Smasal and Democrats are hoping can help flip the district.
Meanwhile, Kiggans and Republicans hope that maintaining control of the House of Representatives can put America closer to completing former president Donald Trump’s proposal of building a wall along the U.S. – Mexico border.
Smasal has the endorsement of democratic New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the likely next Speaker of the House should Democrats gain the majority there, while Kiggans appeared at a rally in Chesapeake this summer for Trump and Gov. Glenn Youngkin boosted her during a Fox News segment in Virginia Beach on the first day of early voting. They’ve also both had helping hands from national political groups.
Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District: Republican lean, pockets of Democratic support
A drive along Route 13 on the Eastern Shore shows Kiggans signs sprinkled along much of the highway, signaling the district’s Republican lean. But pockets in Northampton and Accomack went for Kiggan’s Democratic opponent Elaine Luria in 2022, as did portions of Chesapeake, Suffolk and Isle of Wight on Virginia’s mainland. Much of Virginia Beach, which anchors the district, is also Republican territory, but 51% of the area showed up for President Joe Biden in 2020. Despite the GOP lean, the district has oscillated between the parties over the years and is among several competitive ones in Virginia and around the nation to help determine partisan control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Candidates’ local impact
Smasal said constituent services is something that most excites her about potentially becoming a congresswoman.
“That’s one of the most interesting parts,” she said. “And when I go across the district and (people) have stories for me … they remember when somebody in Elaine Luria’s congressional office helped them out.”
Kiggans, whose campaign did not follow through on organizing an interview with The Mercury, has kicked it local with some of her advertising.
Recent digital advertisements featured the refrain “that’s Jen Kiggans!” as people noted some of her voting records to include supporting veteran health care. Home to the largest naval base in America, veterans and active duty service members make up a sizable portion of the 2nd District.
For example, she supported the “Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act” which includes funding for VA health care programs and benefits.
Reproductive health
As they prepare for an upcoming debate next month, a poll from Christopher Newport University released on Sept. 13 showed Kiggans with a five point lead over Smasal. It also showed that surveyed voters trust Kiggans more with veterans’ concerns while Smasal is more trusted to handle reproductive rights issues like abortion access.
Pew Research Center shows 55% of Virginians believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. A top issue for Smasal, she hopes it’s key to unseating Kiggans so that she can help restore federal protections.
“People are talking to me constantly about protecting reproductive rights,” Smasal said. “It’s really the number one thing that I’m hearing from people they’re concerned about.”
Smasal took issue with Kiggans last year over how the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act played out when it passed the House and failed to progress in the Senate.
The bill was part of a hullabaloo between parties with President Joe Biden’s administration opposing it, in part, for a provision that would revoke veteran access to funding should they need to travel out of state for an abortion if the location of their duty assignment bans the procedure.
Over in the U.S. Senate Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville held up military promotions in protest over the Biden administration’s VA abortion travel policy. At the time, Kiggans told the media that she didn’t agree with his method but supported his reasons.
“Taxpayers should not be funding elective procedures,” she told an NBC affiliate in Hampton Roads last summer. “If I wanted to get a Hollywood nose job in California, I do not expect the Navy to pay for my travel expenses to get there.”
But Smasal stressed the complexities of why someone may want or medically need an abortion and how the national patchwork of state laws is creating various additional barriers for people.
“I don’t know how any female veteran could do that to other service women,” Smasal told Virginia Mercury in a recent interview. “She went to Congress and voted to restrict reproductive rights, so she’s chosen to be more extreme.”
But Kiggans took aim at Smasal in a recent video on her social media and asserted that Smasal is lying when referring to Kiggans as someone who is “extreme.”
In the video, Kiggans cited her status as the 19th most bipartisan member of congress from a Lugar Center and Georgetown University ranking report.
“I believe it is an issue that should be legislated at the state level,” Kiggans added to clarify her abortion policy preferences. “I’ve always been an advocate for women to choose life, allowing for exceptions in the cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother.”
There’s no mention of fetal anomalies, many of which are detected at or after 15 weeks of gestation.
And while Kiggans supports abortion laws being up to individual states, she has also echoed a false claim that Democrats support it to “the moment of birth.”
On other reproductive health laws, both women have expressed support for protecting contraception access and family planning procedures like in vitro fertilization. As the incumbent, Kiggans has voted for expanded contraception access and cosponsored a resolution to protect IVF.
Immigration views
Immigration policy has featured prominently in both presidential and congressional campaigns this year. Republicans and Democrats tend to diverge on solutions when it comes to concerns about immigration. Republicans have favored ramping up deportations of people who enter America illegally while Democrats have proposed enhancing pathways to U.S. citizenship. This year, Democrats in congress worked with Republicans on boosting funding for border security, but the efforts failed.
“Nobody’s done enough to fix things,” Smasal said. “Both Democrats and Republicans have failed on this issue.”
However, she was glad to see Democrats coming to the table with Republicans on the bipartisan border deal that was toppled earlier this year. It’s something she would have supported and something Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has said she would support.
“(Republicans in Congress and Trump) wanted the political issue (for this election) as opposed to doing something substantial to actually help address the border,” Smasal said.
She stressed how supporting border security efforts can help detect drugs like fentanyl entering the country and combat human trafficking.
“I firmly believe we need to be security minded,” she said.
On related legislation, Kiggans has co-sponsored the “Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act.” The bill, which has not progressed past introduction, would suspend entry of some immigrants at the U.S. border and require asylum seekers to “remain in Mexico” during adjudication of their immigration status.
She also voted for the “Secure The Border Act” which would expedite construction of border barriers. It passed the House but did not clear the Senate.
On her website, Kiggans called the rise in border crossings a “self-inflicted crisis” that is “threatening the safety of Americans and emboldening cartels, which are making massive profits off of drug trafficking and exploiting vulnerable migrants.”
Addressing inflation
On a local-yet-national issue, both candidates have stressed how they want to curb inflation and rising costs of living. Kiggans’ campaign website points to her support of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 which passed congress and was signed into law by the president.
Smasal said that addressing affordable housing is a key part of addressing the cost of living. If elected, she aims to start by championing federal legislation to prevent large corporations from purchasing housing stock and raising prices or creating more short-term rentals in places like Virginia Beach.
“If everything is turned into an Airbnb, where are our teachers and our firefighters and our police officers going to find their housing?” she said.
Both women are also supportive of ways to help alleviate the nation’s growing childcare cost and access issues.
Kiggans called it an “unfortunate reality” that some parents are feeling forced to leave the workforce, take on debt or tap into their savings as a result of the growing issue.
