The U.S. House of Representatives is one of two chambers of Congress (the other is the Senate). The powers of the House of Representatives are outlined in the Constitution. Here is an explanation of what those powers are. Representatives are elected for two years. There are 435 districts in the House, of which Virginia has 11. 

Virginia’s Congressional District 7 covers counties in central and northern Virginia, including all of Orange, Madison, Greene, and part of Albemarle Country. Governor Abigail Spanberger held this seat for six years before running for Governor. 

Incumbent Eugene Vindman (D) has held this office since voted in in 2024. He continued the narrow Democratic hold of the district — Spanberger had flipped it blue when she won in 2018. Vindman is challenged by Doug Ollivant (R), as well as Taner Demirci Lopez (Libertarian) and independent candidates Alaha Ahrar, Joshua Ertle and Randall Terry.

Charlottesville Tomorrow designed a questionnaire for the candidates based on responses we received from our voter survey. Lopez, Vindman and Ollivant provided answers below, listed in the order they were received. Charlottesville Tomorrow reporters have been in contact with each of the other candidates, all of whom confirmed they had received the Q&A and intended to return it. We will update this article with their answers when we receive them.

Energy

In our survey, many 7th District voters voiced concerns over expanding data centers, rising power costs and transmission projects like Valley Link, citing the potential impact on land rights and regional resources. Others welcomed such projects, particularly data centers, for the new jobs they can bring to communities.

Although local and state officials decide where individual projects can be built, federal lawmakers hold power over how fast and far local development can expand by controlling the regional power grid. Federal leaders set the national rules and funding mechanisms that dictate how this multi-state grid operates. In your view, what, if anything, should the federal government do to manage rapid energy growth, and what would your priorities be in Congress?

Taner Demirci Lopez: These concerns are why I prepared the Data Center Community Consent Act, published on lopezforva.com. I wrote it for the issues 7th District voters are raising now: data center growth, higher power bills, transmission projects like Valley Link, land rights, and who gets a say.

The Act is not a study. It creates a defined approval process. Directly affected property owners would get clear information and a meaningful consent vote before a project moves forward.

Siting belongs with local governments and landowners. Congress should not treat Virginia land as an easement for industrial load. Washington’s job is the multi-state grid: who pays, how projects are approved, and whether costs are shifted onto households.

My priorities are community consent, requiring data center companies to pay for the power and lines built for them, cost transparency, and more energy supply through competition — not a federal industrial plan. I would take this Act to Congress.

Eugene Vindman: Virginia should welcome innovation, but not at any cost. I regularly hear from those concerned about rising energy costs, environmental impacts, the siting of data centers and transmission lines, and the impact AI could have on their jobs. I share those concerns, and I believe we need stronger protections for Virginia families and communities. 

Data centers must pay their fair share. They should not be built near national parks, schools, or residential communities, and Virginians should not be stuck paying higher utility bills to support their growth. 

I firmly believe rural communities should not be forced to shoulder the costs and consequences of transmission infrastructure built to benefit everyone else. I was also the first member of Congress to oppose the NextEra/Dominion merger which would accelerate unchecked data center growth if approved.* Innovation cannot come at the expense of the people and communities who call Virginia home.

*Editor’s note: In May, Florida-based NextEra Energy announced that it plans to buy Richmond-based Dominion Energy. The $67 billion deal would create the world’s largest regulated utility company that would serve about 10 million customer accounts across Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, as reported by Virginia Mercury. The State Corporation Commission (SCC) — Virginia’s regulatory body that oversees utilities, including Dominion Energy Virginia — has six months to make a decision on the merger, as required by state law. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) must also approve mergers valued at over $10 million. Vindman has publicly opposed the merger and has asked the SCC to reject the deal, citing concerns about increasing bills for customers, according to an Aug. 6 report in the Prince William Times. Some other members of Congress spoke out against the deal that same month, including an Aug. 10 statement from Democratic Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who asked FERC to reject the deal for similar reasons, adding that the merger concentrates “unprecedented market power in a shrinking number of companies.” Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, while not asking regulators to reject the deal, raised concerns about potential impacts to the Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, the state’s one remaining coal-fired power plant, according to an Aug. 14 report in Cardinal News.

Douglas Ollivant: What most of us are asking from these projects can be boiled down to one word: respect. We can solve a lot of problems with economic growth, but good policy should follow good process. The reality is that most of these decisions rest with the State Corporation Commission in Richmond (Valley Link) and local land use decisions (data centers). Just to explain how disrespectful this process has been, one citizen shared with me a letter in April from Valley Link inviting them to a public meeting that had already happened in March.* Forget politics; that’s just being a bad neighbor. Citizens deserve to have a voice in these big projects, and pretending to bring the public along is just flat out disrespectful not just to us, but to the process as a whole.

*Editor’s note: Over the course of Charlottesville Tomorrow’s own reporting, residents shared difficulties communicating with and receiving information from Valley Link in a timely manner, including late or missing mail and unanswered emails. Read more here.

Housing

In our survey, 7th District voters expressed competing concerns over housing. While many families face rising rents and high home prices, others, particularly rural residents, worry that new housing developments are destroying farmland and overloading roads. County and city boards decide where new housing can be built, but federal decisions on things like road funding, housing grants and tax credits can heavily influence regional growth. Should the federal government step in to help address housing costs and regional growth in the 7th District? What specific approach would you support in Congress?

Lopez: Congress should not decide where the 7th District builds houses. County and city boards should keep that power. Families need homes they can afford, and rural communities are right to protect farmland and roads. Washington should not pick a winner between those concerns.

The federal role should be limited. Congress affects housing through spending, tax credits, grant conditions, and transportation money.* I would use that role to lower costs without imposing a federal growth plan.

Zoning should remain local. Housing mandates should not be attached to road or grant funds. Federal credits should not be used to place projects on farmland without local consent. Federal rules and grant conditions make housing slower and more expensive to build, and large deficits add to the cost of living.** Road funding should maintain and improve the roads people already use, not require a community to accept a growth plan it did not choose.

Vindman: Congress must increase housing supply, lower costs, and make homeownership more attainable for Virginia families. 

Since coming to Congress, I have been working to make housing affordable and accessible. I helped pass the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a major housing package aimed at increasing supply, lowering construction barriers, and expanding affordable housing opportunities. This package — which became law — included my Rural Housing Regulatory Relief Act, bipartisan legislation to streamline federal reviews that delay new housing construction on previously developed land while maintaining environmental protections.* I have also introduced bipartisan legislation to support small businesses building multifamily housing, helping increase supply in communities that need it most.** I also introduced the Affordable Homes for Veterans Act to cut red tape in the VA home loan process for veterans and military families, strengthening accountability, and making it easier for veterans to take advantage of affordable mortgages.***

Ollivant: There’s a secret to solving the housing crisis that no one is talking about: build more homes.* While the federal government can’t do a great deal about smart land use decisions**, we can certainly enact broad policies that make building homes cheaper.** Some of that is energy costs, some of that includes the price of building materials, gasoline, lumber, energy, labor, and a whole host of intangibles making life more expensive and less affordable for working-class Virginians. Solutions start by listening, and maybe every solution is a trade-off, but we can most certainly do a lot more to help Virginia families afford the basics by encouraging economic growth, calming markets, and taking the shackles off the American economy.

Congressional authority

Many 7th District voters told us they want representatives who put local needs ahead of political party platforms. Most members of Congress belong to political parties, but their constitutional duty is to serve as an independent check on the executive branch — that is, the president and his or her administration. While the term of the representative elected to serve the 7th District is two years and will conclude before a new president takes office, representatives can serve for an unlimited number of terms. The winner may continue to represent the 7th District through multiple presidential administrations. What principles will guide how you conduct oversight of federal agencies and executive decisions, regardless of which party controls the White House?

Lopez: My duty is to the Constitution and to the 7th District, not to a party and not to whoever holds the White House. That standard does not change from one administration to the next.

I would judge federal agencies by the same tests every time. Is the action authorized by statute? Has the agency stayed inside the power Congress granted? Does the decision serve people here, or does it expand Washington and shift costs onto this district? If an agency exceeds the law, conceals costs, or ignores local consequences, I would use hearings, document requests, and spending votes the same way under any president.

I will not protect an administration because of party loyalty, and I will not oppose it only because of a party label. Oversight means applying the law evenly, following the money, and checking executive power regardless of who exercises it.

Vindman: In Congress, I have been working to restore trust and integrity in our government by standing up to corruption, demanding transparency, and holding those in power accountable. That means ensuring Congress serves as a check on the executive branch, including challenging the President’s decision to wage war in Iran without congressional authorization and repeatedly voting to reassert Congress’s constitutional war powers.* 

In the U.S. House, I have led efforts to ban Members of Congress from trading individual stocks, prohibit lawmakers from using prediction markets, and prevent former Members from lobbying their colleagues after leaving office.** Most recently, I introduced the Sell Your Stocks or Step Down Act, which would require Members of Congress and other senior federal officials to sell their individual stock holdings without receiving a special tax break.***

Ollivant: The purpose of Congress is not to serve as a check to the executive branch or any other branch of government, but to represent the will of the people and work together (and even across the aisle) to achieve those ends.* Any member of the U.S. House of Representatives has a moral duty to first, represent their constituents and the interests of their constituents and second, assert our role as a co-equal branch of government. If we are not doing that, we are succumbing to rank partisan nonsense. I doubt that serves the public interest.

*Editor’s note: The Constitution splits the federal government into three branches — the legislative, the executive and the judicial — and is designed with a series of “checks and balances” to ensure no one branch becomes too powerful. Congress’ primary responsibility is to draft and pass new laws, and it can check the power of the executive branch in several ways. It can override a presidential veto; it controls the federal budget; it approves presidential nominations to federal agencies, federal courts and the Supreme Court; it ratifies treaties; and it can impeach and remove the president.

Healthcare

In our district-wide survey, voters cited the high cost and complexity of the U.S. healthcare system as a major burden. That strain is particularly acute in some rural communities that are losing essential medical care altogether. Lawmakers in Washington remain divided over how to manage programs like Medicare and Medicaid and support rural hospitals and clinics. What role should the federal government play in managing healthcare programs, and what is your plan for keeping care accessible in central Virginia communities?

Lopez: The federal government already runs Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ care. Its job is to keep those programs solvent and usable — not to run every clinic in central Virginia.

Rural communities are losing care because the system is costly, slow, and loaded with rules that close small hospitals and drive doctors out.* I would focus Washington on that problem.

Cut the complexity that raises prices and makes it harder for rural clinics to stay open. Payment and paperwork rules should not punish small hospitals that serve spread-out communities.

Where the government is already the payer, patients need a real option when the system cannot deliver. I developed the Veterans 28 Act for that reason: if the VA cannot provide care within 28 days, the veteran should get community care.

The same idea should guide federal health programs. Fund and oversee what Washington created.

*Editor’s note: Many Virginia communities are losing access to healthcare as over 100 rural Virginia hospitals have closed since 2005. According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, most of these rural hospitals closed due to financial stress due to their “smaller size, lower occupancy rates, and greater vulnerability to economic fluctuations than urban hospitals.” Many more rural hospitals are at risk of closure, according to Virginia’s Joint Commission on Health Care and various news outlets including Virginia Mercury and VPM. Rural hospitals say they are under financial strain due to recent Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rate cuts; changes passed by Congress in 2025 in what President Donald Trump called the “one big beautiful bill”; and Congress’ decision to not renew expired Affordable Care Act credits.

Vindman: I believe every Virginian deserves access to quality, affordable health care, and that we have a responsibility to protect the programs families, seniors, and veterans rely on. That’s why I voted against H.R. 1, which is stripping Virginians of health care and driving up costs for families.* 

I’ve also been fighting to make sure the Fredericksburg VA Health Care Center has the staff and resources it needs to provide veterans with the care they’ve earned.** I will always defend Medicare and Medicaid, fight to reverse harmful cuts to care, and stand against any effort that makes it harder or more expensive for Virginians to get the care they need.

Ollivant: Maintaining our present health care system remains a core value, and I will do everything within my power to ensure that rural hospitals and our VA have the maximum amount of resources we can make available to them. Medicare and Medicaid are expensive programs, to be sure, but like Social Security, they are a promise made to the American people. We should work very hard to keep that promise, and I will join anyone willing to help keep that promise.

Immigration

Voter survey responses reflected deep division over immigration. What specific action should Congress prioritize first when reforming federal immigration law?

Lopez: Congress should first restore control over who enters the country and create a lawful process for people already here that does not reward illegal entry.

That is why I prepared the American Controlled Immigration, Workforce and Security Act, also called the 10-12 Act, published on lopezforva.com. Qualifying participants would have to register, pass background checks, work legally, and contribute $12,000 toward border security and tax relief for citizens. After ten years of compliance, they could begin the regular immigration process without being required to leave the country.

The first legislative step is to put that framework on the House floor: secure the border, require vetting and legal work, and end the permanent second-class population created by the current system. Enforcement without a defined process will fail. A process without enforcement will fail. Congress should start with a bill that does both.

Vindman: I came to America as a refugee from Soviet Ukraine at just four years old with less than $800 to my family’s name.* Only in the United States can someone go from refugee to Representative in a single lifetime. That is the American Dream, and I am committed to protecting it for families like mine. 

I also know our immigration system is broken and requires comprehensive reform. As an immigrant and a former prosecutor,** I believe we must remain a country that welcomes immigrants while protecting our communities and securing our borders. I have supported smart, effective border security while standing up for due process and the dignity of immigrants who come to this country seeking a better life. 

We are a nation of immigrants, and I firmly believe we can secure our borders while preserving the promise of America for the next generation.

Ollivant: First and foremost, the laws on the books should be enforced. America is a nation of immigrants built on a certain assent to very basic principles: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet we are a nation of laws and not sentiments, and when we set that foundational principle aside, we set aside the very thing that makes America exceptional and Americans who we are.

Are there any other pressing issues you would like 7th District voters to know about?

Lopez: Yes. Family farms here are under pressure from development values, estate taxes*, and the cost of lawful farm labor.** That is why I prepared the American Working Farms Act.

The Act would value qualifying farms for estate tax as farms, not as development land, so a working farm is not forced into sale to pay the tax. It would recognize real practices such as fallow, rotation, and drought recovery. It would lower the after-tax cost of legally authorized farm workers, with the strongest help for small farms, and without a new subsidy or inspection program.

Owners would still be free to sell or develop their land. Only genuine agricultural operations would qualify.

I wrote this draft for the farms and rural communities of the 7th District.

Vindman: Life is too expensive for too many Virginia families. Whether it’s the rising cost of utilities, health care, housing, groceries, or gas, families are being squeezed from every direction.* 

That’s why lowering costs has been one of my top priorities in Congress. I’ve led bills to rein in utility bills and crack down on unnecessary fees,** introduced an effort to make health care more affordable for veterans,*** backed bills to pause the gas and diesel tax,**** and worked across the aisle to tackle our housing affordability crisis. A provision I authored to cut red tape and help make housing more accessible and affordable was even signed into law.***** 

I’ll keep fighting to lower everyday costs and make sure Virginians who work hard can afford a good life and build a secure future. 

Ollivant: No response.