'Ammo for Democrats': Swing district GOP rep forced to put Trump ahead of her constituents

18 June

House Speaker Mike Johnson on March 4, 2025 (Joshua Sukoff/Shutterstock.com)

When the House of Representatives narrowly passed H.R. 1 — President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" — by a 215-214 margin, the deciding vote very likely came from Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.). And her vote may come back to haunt her in the 2026 midterm election.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Kiggans, who narrowly ousted Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) in 2022, was on the fence regarding H.R. 1 given her status as a Republican in a competitive district that would be directly impacted by H.R. 1 should it become law. The GOP megabill would end billions of dollars in renewable energy tax credits that former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act made available, and Kiggans' Virginia Beach-area district stands out as one in which hundreds of millions of dollars of those credits could be ripped away from her constituents, costing jobs and economic activity.

And on the statewide level, Virginia itself would be dealt a significant economic blow from Trump's domestic policy package. According to Bloomberg, the Old Dominion State stands to gain $37 billion in economic activity from renewable energy projects within the next decade. Kiggans said in a statement that her support for the bill was due to its $1 trillion military budget and its extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts (which are overwhelmingly skewed in favor of the wealthy).

"I’ve always believed in an all-of-the-above energy strategy that keeps costs down and promotes innovation," Kiggans said.

However, the competitive nature of Virginia's 2nd Congressional District could mean that Kiggans' vote may cost her the seat itself in 2026. The two-term congresswoman won reelection last year by less than 16,000 votes out of more than 400,000 ballots cast, according to Ballotpedia. The district broke for Trump in 2024 by just 0.2%. While voting against H.R. 1 may have preserved the clean energy tax credits that benefit her district, it also may have incurred Trump's wrath should Kiggans have been the deciding vote in killing the legislation.

"This provides ammo for Democrats, and obviously Kiggans is one of their top targets this cycle,” Cook Political Report House of Representatives editor Erin Covey told Bloomberg. “She has to walk this fine line between both appeasing the more middle of her district and also appeasing Trump.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has made VA-02 a top target to flip next year. DCCC spokesman Eli Cousins told Bloomberg that Kiggans' "brazen flip-flop on supporting clean energy tax credits is exactly what voters hate about D.C. politicians: She says one thing back home, but turns around and votes another way in Washington."

Click here to read Bloomberg's full report (subscription required).

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