CHESTERFIELD, Virginia — Democrats think they can flip a President Donald Trump-supporting congressional district blue. Their message: The incumbent, Virginia Rep. Rob Wittman, voted to cut Medicaid.
Wittman, a ten-term Republican, told party leadership last summer that he wouldn’t support the “One Big Beautiful Bill” because of its sweeping cuts to Medicaid, a program one in eight of his constituents rely on for coverage. But ultimately, he did.
Local Democratic Party committees are using Wittman’s vote to stir up their base. The official campaign arm for House Democrats says his district, the suburban and rural communities surrounding Richmond and the state’s eastern shore, “represents one of our best pick-up opportunities.”
Shannon Taylor, the Democratic candidate who secured a spot on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” list, said his about-face should be “the No. 1 issue” on voters’ minds as they head to the polls in November.
Trending
“Wittman knew that voting for that budget bill was going to be cutting health care services and that’s exactly what’s happened,” Taylor, a county prosecutor, told NOTUS. “He owns that responsibility, and that’s what we’re out there telling people. We are letting them know that these terrible choices that they’re being faced with day in and day out are his responsibility.”
Republicans have publicly and privately fretted that their cuts to the social safety net could be a liability in battleground states. The race for Virginia’s 1st Congressional District is a test of just how much.
It’s a contest taking shape around the future of health care, and particularly Virginia’s rural hospitals. Three such clinics shuttered last year in Virginia, directly citing the One Big Beautiful Bill as a reason. A state legislative committee deemed that 13 more hospitals risk the same fate, though the two in Wittman’s district have no immediate plans to close.
Taylor and the six other candidates vying for the Democratic nomination feel fairly confident in their odds, despite the fact that Wittman has already raised about twice the amount Taylor has, according to the latest 2026 Federal Election Commission filings. Though the district voted for Trump by 5 percentage points, it also broke for Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger last year.
“This is the first time this seat is actually up for grabs,” Elizabeth Dempsey Beggs, one Democratic candidate, told voters at a June town hall in Chesterfield.
Republicans disagree. They don’t think Wittman’s vote on Medicaid is the silver bullet Democrats think it is, for his seat or for the other Republicans who voted for the bill. One House Republican strategist said they feel pretty good about securing the 1st District, citing Trump’s 2024 win.
Rural hospitals struggled to stay open long before last summer’s cuts, they argue. A National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson told NOTUS they plan to “take Democrats to task” for opposing Republicans’ solution for that: a $50 billion rural health fund which was included late in budget bill negotiations to address moderate Republicans’ concerns around Medicaid cuts.
“The Commonwealth of Virginia received $189 million from this program, which will be used to modernize facilities, address workforce challenges, and expand life-saving services,” Wittman told NOTUS in a statement. “I was proud to advocate for this funding, and I will continue to work with our rural providers to ensure they have the resources they need to serve our communities.”
Democratic lawmakers in Congress called the rural health fund a “fig leaf” that did little to address the budget hole the policy created. The law cut more than $900 billion dollars from Medicaid over 10 years, primarily by limiting the ways states can raise revenue to cover their share of the bill, restricting noncitizen coverage and introducing new work requirements. Virginia is part of a 23-state coalition suing to stop those work requirements from being implemented.
“These policy changes risk shifting care from lower-cost preventive services toward higher-cost emergency and inpatient care, which is not the best outcome for patients or the healthcare system,” a spokesperson for Augusta Health, which operated the three shuttered rural clinics, told NOTUS in a statement.
Hospitals have to provide emergency care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. About 13% of Augusta Health’s patients are covered by Medicaid, meaning the company expects to see more uncompensated care.
That can be make or break for rural hospitals that operate on thin profit margins, see fewer patients and have more that rely on Medicaid than their urban counterparts. Virginia’s rural health providers are waiting until later this year to assess how much damage Medicaid cuts will do, but they’re not feeling optimistic. More than 160,000 Virginians are expected to lose coverage.
“The challenges facing rural healthcare are not new. In recent years, however, those headwinds have intensified,” a spokesperson from Bon Secours, which operates one of two at-risk hospitals in Wittman’s district, told NOTUS in a statement. “We are continually monitoring this shifting landscape and remain committed to addressing these challenges thoughtfully and responsibly.”
The $50 billion rural health fund aimed to move rural hospitals away from reimbursement-based funding, as that model works better in urban areas with more patients. But while any funding for rural healthcare is welcome, providers said they don’t see it as a solution.
“While it may help address certain needs, it is unlikely to replace the ongoing reimbursement reductions hospitals are expected to experience,” wrote the Augusta Health spokesperson.
Though Virginia received $189 million of the fund this year, it asked for $1 billion. To access that money, clinics must apply to the state with an innovative idea. Giving the funds without strings attached might have been preferable, Jack Hensold, a rural oncologist in Montana, told NOTUS.
“All they are trying to do is keep their heads afloat. So how many of them really have a sweeping, innovative idea?” said Hensold. “That money is just going to go to waste.”
In June, four of the seven Democrats running for the seat participated in a town hall where they swiped at Wittman for his record on health care. Wittman wasn’t present.
Health care attorney Ericka Kopp said she entered the race on the back of Wittman’s vote last summer — calling it a “slap in the face.” Tim Cywinski, the communications manager for the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, said his family lost their home to medical debt. Jason Knapp, a former naval officer, said he was born to a 19-year-old single mother and they relied on Medicaid and food stamps when he was growing up.
“We have seen good candidates here before, but they didn’t win,” said Knapp at the town hall. “To win this seat we have to consciously get people to fire Wittman who have been voting for him all this time.”
Democratic candidates hoping to oust Wittman face a truncated timeline to get that message across. A statewide redistricting battle delayed Virginia’s primary elections until August 4.
In the meantime, local party committees are focusing on the downstream effects of Trump’s budget bill rather than any one candidate.
“There are so many parts of the Big Beautiful Bill that made things less affordable for people,” Jen Tierney, chair of the Historic Triangle Democrats, told NOTUS. “We have rural hospitals in the 1st Congressional District that are at risk because of those cuts, so it is hard to find a person who is not impacted in some way.”
Republicans have known the political implications of cutting Medicaid for a while. Most adults report some kind of connection to the program, according to the health policy research organization KFF. Politico found that 11 Republicans in competitive seats represent larger-than-average Medicaid populations.
“I see him gradually resented more and more,” Michael Hill, a 72-year-old retired teacher from Chesterfield, said of Wittman. “I just feel like, at this point, you might be persuaded to move in a different way.”
Author
