The Race for the Virginia 7th District US House of Representatives Seat Between Conservative Republican Candidate Anderson and Liberal Democrat Candidate Vindman – A Side-by-Side Comparison of the Two Candidates

This year the race for the Virginia 7^th District US House of Representatives seat being vacated by Abigail Spanberger pits two Army Veterans against each other in what is turning out to be a very competitive race.  On the Republican side Derrick Anderson is currently a National Guard Special Forces Major who spent 8 years on active duty as an Infantry and Special Forces Officer.  He was born and raised in the 7^th District and has deep roots in the community with local Conservative Republican values. he graduated from Courtland High School in Spotsylvania Courthouse and Virginia Tech. Anderson is a lawyer having graduate from the prestigious Georgetown University Law Center.

His opponent on the Democrat side for the seat is Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman, a retired Army Judge Advocate General Corps Lieutenant Colonel who spent his early years as an Infantry officer before going to Law School and transferring into the JAGC. He was born in the Ukraine and grew up in New York City with local Liberal Democrat values. He graduated from FDR High School in Brooklyn and the State University of New York at Binghamton. Vindman only moved into the 7^th District in 2016 as a result of him being assigned to the Pentagon and then the White House. Vindman is a graduate of the University of Georgia Law School.

For a quick comparison of their background:

Since both Anderson and Vindman are touting their Military experience as their main attribute, let’s compare their Service.

Anderson is still a serving National Guard Army Special Forces Major with 8 years of active duty and multiple Southwest Asia tours including a 15-Month “Surge” tour in Iraq and another in Afghanistan. He is an Airborne Ranger with a Combat Infantryman’s Badge (CIB) and Bronze Star among other awards. He is also a graduate of the elite Special Forces Qualification Course and has had multiple SF commands and deployments to Afghanistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Israel, and Lebaron. Between combat tours he served 2 years in the elite “Old Guard” at Arlington National Cemetery.

Although Vindman served as an Infantry Officer for almost 10 years, he never had an Infantry command nor went into combat as an Infantryman but after becoming a JAG he did manage to spend 5 months in Iraq as a Captain in the relative safe Baghdad Green Zone as a Law of War advisor. It should be noted that he received NO combat awards for his service and that almost all of his contemporaries served at least three (3) combat tours between Iraq and Afghanistan.  As a JAGC Officer, Vindman served mostly in Stateside assignments although he did have one overseas tour in Germany.

Vindman was promoted to Colone before retiringl but retired as a Lieutenant Colonel because he was not eligible to retire in that grade.  He now refers to himself as “a former Army colonel” after being exposed to public ridicule for falsely referring to himself as: “Colonel Eugene Vindman, US Army Retired” and “Retired Colonel Vindman” on his campaign website and other and places although he is on the retired roles as a Lieutenant Colonel.

For a quick comparison of their career assignments:

A good indication of how successful an officer’s career was is by looking at the Awards, Decorations and Badges they amassed over their time in service. For a quick comparison of both the recognition for their service: