Star of Trump’s first impeachment, Eugene Vindman, wins Democratic House primary in Virginia

Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman has won the Democratic primary in Virginia’s seventh congressional district and will go on to represent his party in November as Democrats hope to keep the seat held by retiring Representative Abigail Spanberger.

Vindman, 49, is a native of Ukraine and moved with his family to the United States in 1979. He joined the Army, and it was his military service that led to him and his brother working with the White House National Security Council during the Trump administration in 2020.

The brothers were ultimately drawninto the first Trump impeachment saga when they reported Trump in a whistleblower complaint over a phone call where the president pushed Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to open an embarrassing criminal investigation into Joe Biden during the election year. The complaint led to Trump’s first impeachment by the House of Representatives, though he was acquitted in a Senate trial.

The race on Tuesday was called just after 8.00pm with about 15 percent of the vote counted. Vindman was sitting above 50 percent when the outcome was declared; his closest rivals had split the vote and thus failed to break 20 percent. His total shrunk to just under half of the electorate as more votes came in, but his lead remained commanding.

The lieutenant colonel’s victory on Tuesday was hardly a surprise: an internal poll released by his campaign earlier this month showed him as the clear favorite, thanks in part to his national prominence at Trump’s first impeachment.

The would-be congressman also entered the race with powerful national allies, including the anti-Trump conservative Lincoln Project as well as California Rep. Adam Schiff, a prominent House Democrat who served as impeachment manager for