Rob Wittman’s long Washington run faces a tough test in Virginia

DOSWELL, Virginia — Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) has spent nearly 20 years in Congress, winning reelection after reelection in a district Democrats haven’t held since the 1970s.

But as the nine-term Republican worked the crowds at the State Fair of Virginia, shaking hands and talking with voters less than a month before Election Day, the political reality around him was markedly different.

Wittman is no longer running as a longtime incumbent in a reliably red district. He is trying to hold off a Democrat who has turned his nearly two decades in Washington, his personal finances, and the broader culture of Congress into the centerpiece of her campaign — and who now has a narrow lead in at least one major poll.

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) attends the Virginia State Fair on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (Barnini Chakraborty/Washington Examiner)

A recent survey from the Washington Post and the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government found Democratic candidate Shannon Taylor leading Wittman 50%-46% among likely voters in Virginia’s 1st Congressional District. The 4-point advantage falls within the poll’s 4.5-point margin of error but still emphasizes how sharply the political landscape has shifted.

Wittman won reelection in 2024 by about 13 percentage points. President Donald Trump carried the district by 4.9 points that same year, making the district almost perfectly representative of the national electorate.

Now, Democrats view it as one of their best opportunities to pick up a Republican-held House seat.

Wittman is not conceding the premise that he is in trouble.

“It is certainly a challenging one, but we’re up for the challenge,” Wittman told the Washington Examiner during an exclusive interview at the state fair.

His campaign is betting that voters will ultimately care less about the Washington controversies Taylor has put at the center of the race and more about the kitchen-table issues Wittman says he hears about while traveling through the sprawling district.

“I hear about those issues of daily life issues, costs of healthcare, energy, groceries,” Wittman said. “But also here too, people want to make sure that their communities are safe, that we’re supporting local law enforcement.”

He also pointed to immigration, homeland security, and the cost of housing as concerns he says voters are raising with him.

“These are things that make a difference in people’s daily lives,” Wittman said. “They want us to be working on those things, and I agree with them. We have more work to do.”

Taylor, the commonwealth’s attorney in Henrico County, Virginia, is making a very different argument.

Her campaign wants to turn Wittman’s longevity into a liability, portraying him as a symbol of a Washington political class detached from the financial pressures Virginia voters face.

Her television advertisements focus heavily on Wittman’s personal finances and congressional stock holdings, claiming his net worth has increased dramatically since he entered Congress.

“Presently, the records demonstrate that his net worth has gone up 40 times during that time period,” Taylor said.

Wittman says the accusation is deliberately misleading and “blatant lies.”

Much of the increase reflected inheritances after the deaths of his parents and in-laws, Wittman said, and he bristled at the suggestion that his congressional salary or stock trading explains his financial position.

“My parents passed away,” he said. “My in-laws passed away. I would much rather have them here rather than have their inheritance. My financial reports bear that now. It’s very clear about where those finances have come from, and everything is transparent.”

Wittman also rejected Taylor’s claim that he voted to increase his own salary.

“My salary today is the same as it was after 2007,” he said. “So it hasn’t changed. So I would urge people to go look at that.”

The financial fight has landed at an especially potent moment in national politics, as lawmakers across Washington face growing pressure to restrict members of Congress from trading individual stocks.

Wittman voted in July for legislation that would prohibit members of Congress and their immediate families from purchasing publicly traded securities. The measure later stalled in the Senate.

Wittman has said he has never personally traded a stock and that financial professionals manage his investments independently.

But the issue has become hard for Republican incumbents to escape, particularly in competitive districts where Democrats portray congressional wealth and stock ownership as evidence that the political system serves itself before voters.

Taylor has made that argument central to her campaign.

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) talks to two voters from Bon Air, Virginia, at the Virginia State Fair on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (Barnini Chakraborty/Washington Examiner)

She is calling for a ban on congressional stock trading, term limits, a lifetime ban on members of Congress becoming lobbyists, and tougher penalties for politicians who misuse taxpayer money.

“Washington has to work for regular Americans, not for itself,” Taylor says in her campaign platform.

The financial attacks have been accompanied by equally aggressive efforts to define each candidate.

Wittman’s campaign has attacked Taylor over her past involvement with Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice, a group that has advocated changes to policing and the criminal justice system. Taylor, who was first elected commonwealth’s attorney in 2011, says her record includes prosecuting violent criminals, sex traffickers, and fraudsters.

The race extends well beyond Washington ethics, however.

Virginia’s 1st District encompasses an enormous geographic swath, running from the Richmond suburbs through the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula, Historic Triangle, and portions of the Virginia Peninsula. It contains suburban, rural, and coastal communities with markedly different political and economic concerns.

One emerging issue is the rapid expansion of data centers.

Taylor argues residents should not have to shoulder the cost of electricity, water, or infrastructure required to support the facilities. She has also accused Wittman of having a financial conflict because of stock holdings in companies involved in the data center industry.

Wittman says local governments should have the final say over whether data centers are built, while developers should bear the cost of the infrastructure needed to support them.

“Data centers are important to Virginia’s economy, our technological leadership, and our national security,” Wittman has said, while arguing that families and small businesses should not be forced to subsidize the infrastructure required to serve them.

For Wittman, the argument is ultimately about whether voters see him as a longtime incumbent who has become part of Washington’s problems or as an experienced lawmaker who can deliver for a district increasingly caught between competing economic and political forces.

He pointed to healthcare, energy, and housing costs as areas where he believes Congress still has work to do.

But the national political environment may give Taylor an opening. Mark Rozell, the dean of the Schar School, said the country’s mood is weighing heavily on Republican incumbents.

“The national climate is driving everything this year and even Republican incumbents who otherwise should be comfortable are struggling,” Rozell said.

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That puts Wittman in an unfamiliar position. He has spent years campaigning as the incumbent who knows the district and understands Washington.

Now, he has to persuade voters that those nearly 20 years in Washington are precisely why they should keep him there.

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