FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) — The candidates for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District both say democracy is in trouble.

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

And their messages differ quite widely.

Anderson, a former Army Green Beret, presents himself as an approachable candidate who can use simple competence to bring people together in the district where he grew up.

“Ultimately, I think people are just ready for someone to just govern — get things done in Washington, D.C. and stop spitting fire,” he said in an interview.

Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman rose to national prominence after helping his brother expose 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 this issue — some people haven’t, and it’s just a mix in the district,” Vindman said of the scandal that led to Trump’s first impeachment. “But I think in this context that this is not ancient history. Why? Because Donald Trump is now the candidate of the largest party.”

Vindman, 49, and Anderson, 40, have been mired in a voting crisis for months in their fast-growing district, which includes veterans about 12% of the population. The two Army veterans, who have never before been elected to public office, are vying for the House seat after moderate Democrat Abigail Spanberger declined re-election to run for governor.

In a closely contested race, both largely followed their parties’ rules. Anderson has emphasized the economy and immigration, while Vindman has emphasized abortion rights and countering extremism.

But Vindman and Anderson’s perspectives also reflect two different forms of voter fear American democracy. And in one deeply divided nationvoters’ decisions could impact not only the 7th District, but also control of Congress.

Democrats hope to solidify their hold on the district that Republicans represented for nearly 50 years until Spanberger left the seat in 2018. For the Conservatives, the race is an opportunity to secure a seat in a duel without an incumbent.

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

“There is great national interest in Virginia’s 7th District and it is the type of district where congressional majorities are won and lost,” he said. “If you can’t win the outskirts of major cities in America, you won’t be in the majority of the House.”

Vindman’s claim to fame

Democracy is central to the race, in part because it forms the bedrock of Vindman’s national profile.

In campaign videos and on the ground, he described the episode that led him to denounce Trump as his call to serve a democracy “unbroken but not flawless.” He said it inspired him to run.

While serving as a White House ethics lawyer in 2019, Vindman’s twin brother Alexander told him about a phone call in which Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate now-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The brothers, career Army officers who came to the United States as small children after emigrating from Ukraine, expressed their concerns with others. The alarm they raised soon became the centerpiece of Democrats’ first impeachment inquiry into Trump.

In 2020 they were firedand the Ministry of Defense The inspector general later said Eugene Vindman likely faced retaliation. He was assigned to the Army until his retirement in 2022.

Despite the scandal, Vindman said he has no desire for revenge.

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

Vindman was distinguished by his prominent past in a crowded area codewhere he was a newcomer to a group of professional politicians. The impeachment also helped him raise campaign funds – which he almost did $3 million in the bank at the end of September, compared to Anderson’s $1 million. More than half of the $9 million Democrats spent on general election advertising came directly from Vindman’s campaign account, while Anderson relied heavily on outside Republican groups.

But in a diverse district with a small group of independent voters stretching from the Washington suburbs to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the race is tough. Vindman’s ties to Trump’s impeachment could impact his ability to influence moderate voters.

Anderson, meanwhile, is trying to win those votes by portraying Vindman as a partisan Democrat. Along with his criticism of Vindmans military rank and recordAnderson said the liberal candidate’s unique history with the former president will cost him.

“He thrives on division because he focuses on his past — his revenge on President Trump — while we focus on the future,” Anderson said.

Vindman believes voters will respect his actions.

“Civility is a rare thing and the most valuable of all qualities,” Vindman said. “That’s the biggest difference between me and Mr. Anderson.”

The Trump factor

The race experienced some turmoil, including Anderson sending a campaign photo in which he posed with a woman and her three daughters. To some it may have looked like a family photo, except the people accompanying him were not his family.

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

A bigger challenge for Anderson could be winning a ticket with Trump at the helm.

In a district where approximately are at home 60,000 federal employeesAnderson deflects questions about Trump’s pitch Relocate 100,000 government workers from the Washington area. His team has said he rejects the idea.

Trump performed worse in the district compared to his Republican colleagues. Under the redrawn boundaries, voters supported Biden by seven points in 2020, according to data, 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.”

Democrats spend more than twice as much on advertising as Republicans and have emphasized Anderson’s ties to Trump. Vindman himself has repeatedly criticized Anderson for this run a campaign “funded by MAGA extremists,” tying him to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” platform. But Anderson, who Trump supportedhas vowed to be an independent voice in Congress.

“When I was overseas in the military, it didn’t matter whether you were a Republican or a Democrat — your race, your 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 divisions in America rather than closing them.

“If Democrats,” Vindman began to say.

He paused and thought about his words.

“If democracy wins these next elections, we will have a lot to rebuild.”

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

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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.