Democrats challenge Beyer in Va.’s 8th Congressional District, marred by federal layoffs

Everyone in Northern Virginia knows someone who was “DOGEd,” either laid off or otherwise impacted by sweeping cuts initiated through President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. 

Virginia is home to nearly 200,000 federal workers; over 20,000 of them lost their jobs last year.

The pain of those losses runs deep in the state’s 8th Congressional District, a strongly Democratic region anchored in Northern Virginia. Many voters there said they are struggling to get by without income while they wait for their pensions to process. Private sector workplaces contracting with the government have also been hit.

In the district closest to Capitol Hill, four former and current government employees are running to unseat six-term U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat, as they put forward different visions on how to help the area recover from Trump’s cuts. Their campaigns address government ethics, big money in politics and concerns about the state of American democracy.

Republicans have their nominee in Tony Sabio, but in the deep-blue district, the Democratic primary is the most-watched contest.

‘Diplomacy matters, feds matter,’ Michael Duffin says

Democrat Michael Duffin decided to run because he felt Beyer was not fighting hard enough for fired federal workers. 

Duffin’s career at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked to counter terrorist propaganda, ended in July 2025 due to DOGE cuts. 

“We were fired to make a point, to make a political statement,” Duffin said.

Now, Duffin is running on an aspiration to reinstate the federal workers lost to Trump’s “extreme” cuts.“My neighbor, two doors down, he was a contractor at USAID (the United States Agency for International Development),” Duffin said. “He was one of the first firings back in January of 2025 as a contractor, had no severance, salary was immediately cut, benefits were immediately cut. He took a job in Seattle, Washington … and there were four other families like that on my block.”

Beyond reinstating employees, Duffin wants to undo what he sees as a breakdown in ethics under the Trump administration — particularly by reforming immigration enforcement.

Speaking of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has ramped up its detainments and deportations in Trump’s second term, Duffin said the agency “has to have leadership that recognizes civil rights.”

Campaigning on a “feds matter” slogan, Duffin hopes to convince conservatives that agencies like FEMA and the National Weather Service deserve legislative advocates who will protect them — something he does not see Beyer doing.

“Our representative needs to be super vocal on the airwaves, beyond just liberal media, and build coalitions,” Duffin said.

Mo Seifeldein brings left-leaning, anti-establishment energy

Former Alexandria City Councilman Mo Seifeldein first arrived in Virginia as a Sudanese refugee who did not speak English when he was only a middle schooler, joining the region’s high concentration of immigrant residents. 

Seifeldein worked alongside his mother and siblings at McDonald’s to make ends meet, before eventually becoming the first immigrant councilor for the same city where President George Washington once served as a trustee. 

Before serving as a councilman, Seifeldein resigned from being an attorney at the U.S. Department of Labor in protest of Trump’s policies during his first term. 

As a councilman, Seifeldein helped secure a collective bargaining agreement for city bus drivers, a program linking 911 callers to mental health professionals and more affordable housing projects. 

Seifeldein then flirted with a mayoral run, before eventually joining the wave of left-leaning, anti-establishment candidates springing up in primary races across the country. 

Coming from a war-torn country, Seifeldein is deeply critical of Israel, which is now engaged in a war with Iran, aided by America. He is advocating for Medicare for All, universal childcare, more affordable housing, healthier and cheaper groceries and “accountability” in government. 

“I’m not really one who’s afraid to speak against the leadership within the Democratic party,” Seifeldein said. “We need someone who’s going to lead the party and make sure it’s actually an incubator for new ideas.”

Adam Dunigan wants to clean up corruption in politics

Adam Dunigan grew up a punk rocker in Los Angeles, served in Afghanistan as a Marine and was then a CIA case officer before he said he “detonated his entire life” by resigning in protest — three years before his pension eligibility — to launch a bid for Congress. 

“My campaign centers around making sure there’s consequences for breaking social trust, breaking the law, putting some dignity back at the center of how we govern, and trying to give people back the quality of life that years and years of apathy and passive corruption in Washington has stolen from them,” the first-time Democratic candidate said. 

Dunigan has presented himself as a young, anti-establishment candidate like Seifeldein, but with more middle-of-the-road policy proposals. 

“You probably need somebody like me to step in as a bridge in this period,” Dunigan said, to help correct what he called “the lack of seriousness that has affected the government.”

Dunigan said it is unrealistic to pass Democrat-led federal bills while Trump is in office, but in the meantime, legislators  can focus on energy production — including green, renewable and nuclear energy — using the war in Iran and rising gas prices as a selling point.

Dunigan also wants single-payer healthcare, more competitive salaries for teachers, stronger unions, reformed immigration enforcement and regulations for artificial intelligence.

Beyer is an effective legislator, Dunigan said, but his style is out of date. 

With Trump’s attempted broadening of presidential power, Dunnigan said Democrats in Congress need “authentic” political newcomers over the “hesitant” older generation to win back control and retain it.

“We might only get one more window,” Dunigan said. 

Lorena Bruner focuses on beating back Trump

Stafford County Public Schools teacher Lorena Bruner initially entered the 8th District race when Virginia Democrats expected their redistricting proposal to go into effect. 

Voters approved the plan to redraw the state’s congressional maps in April. But when the Supreme Court of Virginia struck that down, Bruner opted to keep running, despite not living in the district, partially because she noticed all her competitors were men.

Bruner said women, especially minority women like herself, have suffered the brunt of Trump’s policies. In a state where women make up less than half of Virginia’s Congressional delegation, she wants to see more women in leadership.

Bruner, who previously ran twice for Stafford County commissioner of revenue, wants to immediately impeach Trump to stop the “damage he does by the day.” 

“He’s like a cancer,” Bruner said. “The longer you leave him untreated, the worse it gets.”

Bruner also supports Medicare for All, more student debt relief, a crackdown on gerrymandering and an expansion, or rebalancing, of the Supreme Court.

How Beyer wants to spend his seventh term

With Trump’s veto pen in mind, Beyer said, if he is re-elected, his top priority over the next two years will be to keep championing fusion energy and finish a first-of-its-kind plant in Virginia.

“The biggest part of affordability is energy costs, and if we can break through with the creation of fusion energy, we can solve climate change, lift the remaining two billion people out of poverty and also dramatically reduce costs for homeowners and businesses,” Beyer said.

Beyer’s other top focus areas include regulating AI — he just introduced a bill to boost AI transparency — and “solving the challenges facing the chronically mentally ill,” he said.

Beyer said DOGE “attacks” have exacerbated the affordability crisis impacting the region. Fewer people are moving there due to workforce cuts, making it hard for older people to sell their homes and make way for younger people. Those who were laid off are struggling to make ends meet, he said. He has sought to ameliorate those problems.  

“We spent an enormous amount of time trying to help people connect to state and local services, whether it’s everything from housing, to getting food, to health care, job search,” Beyer said. “We were doing job fairs, doing financial planning things.”

While he understands voters’ frustrations, Beyer thinks Democrats are fighting effectively  against Trump. He said he would vote for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, as the next Speaker of the House.

Beyer wants many of the same things as his rivals: single-payer healthcare, regulations for AI and relief for former federal workers. But they differ on how to enact that agenda. 

“One of the things that my opponents would realize if they came here is that the ability to get things done is based on the quality of relationships, and relationships don’t happen like that,” Beyer said.

Opponents attack Beyer over age, ‘corporate PAC money,’ stock trading 

Duffin, Dunigan and Seifeldein have all lodged similar attacks at Beyer that center on his age, acceptance of “corporate PAC money” and trading of stocks while in Congress. All three pledged to not accept those kinds of donations and pursue policies to ban congressional stock trading.

Beyer, 76, is one of the richest members of Congress, with an estimated net worth of over $120 million.

Seifeldein criticized Beyer for taking $5,000 this cycle from HCA Healthcare, which opposes Medicare for All. 

Dunigan noted the thousands of dollars Beyer regularly accepts from defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, both of which have offices in the 8th District.

“It should make us uncomfortable, the amount of money being thrown around in politics, which is why I am 100% not engaging in that system,” Dunigan said.

Those grievances came to a climax during a July 1 candidate forum in which Dunigan and Seifeldein — who trail Beyer’s fundraising with $247,639 and $136,368 respectively, according to campaign finance reports — criticized him in front of a packed crowd.

Seifeldein condemned Beyer’s donor money, while Dunigain called out establishment Democrats for refusing to make way for the younger generation.

“I would love for there to be no PACs at all, get rid of Citizens United, take money out of politics,” Beyer responded. “But in the meantime, we’ve got to fight fire with fire,” he continued, arguing Democrats cannot afford to be outspent by Republicans.

In a prior interview with the Mercury, Beyer said none of his votes have been influenced by money he accepted. He also noted that the rationale of disallowing corporate PAC money would also disallow environmental, labor and women’s PAC money, because it all goes through the same process.

Asked about his age, Beyer touted his current 3.9 GPA at George Mason University, where he has gone back to school to pursue a master’s degree in computer science. He also recently completed the Appalachian Trail. 

“I still think I’m 37,” Beyer said.

Early voting in Virginia is already underway. Visit the Mercury’s 2026 Voter Guide to learn more about the candidates and issues in Virginia’s key primary races.