Rep. Beyer faces packed slate of challengers in 8th District race

A full slate of candidates is vying to unseat Rep. Don Beyer as Arlington’s representative in Congress.

Beyer has held onto his 8th District seat — which includes all of Arlington County, the cities Alexandria and Falls Church, and portions of Fairfax County — since he replaced the retiring Rep. Jim Moran in 2014.

The incumbent, who declared his re-election bid in January, will face off local progressive Democrat challenger Victoria Virasingh in a Democratic primary scheduled for June 21.

Virasingh, a daughter of immigrants, was born and raised in Arlington and is active with the Arlington County Democratic Committee. She previously worked for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the IRS Criminal Investigations Unit and headline-making tech firm Palantir.

Local Republicans, meanwhile, will be able to select their preferred candidate from five hopefuls. The field is full of candidates looking to catch the wave that elected Gov. Glenn Youngkin last November, though Virginia’s 8th District remains heavily Democratic.

The 2020 Republican nominee, Arlington resident and retired U.S. Army Major and counterintelligence officer Jeff Jordan, is running again. He is going up against Arlington resident and former engineer Karina Lipsman, who immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine when it was still under the control of the Soviet Union.

Other candidates include Alexandria resident and small business owner Kezia Tunnell, McLean resident and Open Fairfax County Public Schools Coalition activist Monica Carpio, and Heerak Christian Kim, a registered nurse and former public school teacher who ran in 2020.

A convention to decide the nominee — open to all Republicans in the 8th District — is set to be held on May 21.