FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) — The candidates to represent Virginia’s 7th congressional district both say democracy is in trouble.

Republican Derrick Anderson and Democrat Eugene Vindman each argue that the government has failed voters in the district and across the country as leaders embrace extreme politics. In this year’s election, they say, the country’s future is at stake.

And there is quite a lot where their messages differ.

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Anderson, a former Army Green Basker, presents himself as a friendly candidate who can bring people in the district where he grew up together with simple competence.

“At the end of the day, I think people are just ready for somebody to just govern — go get things done in Washington, DC and stop breathing fire,” he said in an interview.

Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman rose to national prominence after helping his brother blow the whistle on President Donald Trump for pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate the Biden family. The former army colonel sees another threat: Trump himself.

“Some people have forgotten about this issue — others haven’t, and it’s just a mix-up in the district,” Vindman said of the scandal that led to Trump’s first impeachment. “But I think, in context, this is not ancient history. Why? Because Donald Trump is now the major party nominee.”

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For months, Vindman, 49, and Anderson, 40, have been entrenched in a vote-by-vote crisis in their fast-growing district, where veterans make up about 12% of the population. The two army veterans who have never before been elected to public office are vying for the parliamentary seat after rep. Abigail Spanberger, a moderate Democrat, declined to seek re-election so she could run for governor.

In a competitive race, both have mostly followed their parties’ playbooks. Anderson has emphasized the economy and immigration, while Vindman emphasizes abortion rights and fending off extremism.

But Vindman and Anderson’s perspective also reflects two distinct strains of voter anxiety American democracy. And in one deeply divided nationcould the voters’ choice affect not only the 7th District but also control of Congress.

Democrats hope to solidify their hold on the district, which Republicans represented for nearly 50 years until Spanberger flipped the seat in 2018. For conservatives, the race is an opportunity to pick up a seat in a matchup without any official.

Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, said it’s Virginia’s most competitive race.

“There’s a lot of national interest in the Virginia 7th, and it’s the kind of district where congressional majorities are won and lost,” he said. “If you can’t win the outermost suburbs of the big cities in America, you’re not going to be in the House majority.”

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Vindman’s claim to fame

Democracy is central to the race, among other things, because it is the basis for Vindman’s national profile.

In campaign videos and on the trail, he has described the episode that prompted him to blow the whistle on Trump as his call to serve a democracy “unbroken, but not spotless.” He said it inspired him to run.

While serving as White House ethics counsel in 2019, Vindman’s twin brother Alexander recounted a phone call in which Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate now-President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The brothers, career Army officers who came to the United States as toddlers after emigrating from Ukraine, raised their concerns with others. The alarm they raised soon became the heart of the Democrats’ first impeachment inquiry against Trump.

Year 2020 they got firedand the Ministry of Defence The inspector general later said that Eugene Vindman had likely faced retaliation. He was reassigned to the Army until his retirement in 2022.

Despite the scandal, Vindman said he had no vendetta.

“It’s actually illuminating that a major party candidate — the potential president of the United States — did these things,” he said.

His high-profile past set Vindman apart in a crowded primarywhere he was a newcomer to a pool of career politicians. The lawsuit also helped him raise campaign money — he almost had $3 million in the bank in late September, compared to Anderson’s $1 million. More than half of the $9 million Democrats have spent on general election ads has come directly from Vindman’s campaign account, while Anderson has relied heavily on Republican outside groups.

But in a diverse district with a swathe of independent voters that stretches from the Washington suburbs to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the race is tight. Vindman’s ties to Trump’s impeachment could affect his ability to sway moderate voters.

At the same time, Anderson is trying to get these votes by painting Vindman as a partisan Democrat. Along with his criticism of Vindmans military rank and recordAnderson has said the Liberal candidate’s unique history with the former president should cost him.

“He thrives on division because he’s focused on his past — his vendetta against President Trump — while we’re focused on the future,” Anderson said.

Vindman believes that voters will respect his actions.

“Moral courage is something rare and the most valuable of qualities,” Vindman said. “That’s where the biggest difference is between myself and Mr. Anderson.”

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The Trump factor

The race has had its share of turmoil, including a campaign photo Anderson sent out in which he posed with a woman and her three daughters. To some, it might have looked like a family photo, except the people with him weren’t his family.

Vindman said Anderson “tried to deceive voters in the district about his fake family” after the photo appeared in New York Times. Anderson blamed Vindman for dragging the local family through the mud and insisted he was not using the image to deceive anyone but to celebrate community ties.

A more formidable challenge for Anderson may be navigating a ticket with Trump at the top.

In a district that is home to approx 60,000 federal workersAnderson deflects questions about Trump’s pitch to redeploy 100,000 government employees from the Washington area. His team has said he opposes the idea.

Trump has underperformed in the district compared to other Republicans. Under its redrawn boundaries, voters backed Biden by seven points in 2020, the data show, while Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin won by about five points.

“Trump is not popular in Northern Virginia,” said Bob Holsworth, a Richmond-based political analyst. “The challenge for any Republican candidate in No-Va is that Trump is a person who came in and said he wanted to drain the swamp.”

By spending more than twice as much as Republicans on ads, Democrats have emphasized Anderson’s ties to Trump. Vindman himself has repeatedly flamed Anderson too run a campaign “bankrolled by MAGA extremists,” tying him to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” platform. But Anderson, who Trump approvedhas pledged to be an independent voice in Congress.

“When I was overseas in the military, it didn’t matter if you were Republican, Democrat — your race, color, your religion,” Anderson said. “We were all on the same team and we all had a mission.”

Still, Vindman said Trump, and those who supported him, were deepening the cracks in America rather than mending them.

“About Democrats,” Vindman began to say.

He paused and considered his words.

“If democracy wins this next election, then we will have a lot to rebuild.”

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Associated Press writer Gary Fields in Quantico, Virginia, contributed to this report.

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Olivia Diaz is a staff member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.