Ericka Kopp

Who’s Running Against Wittman in CD1?

December 1, 2025
By: Colleen Bohlman

There’s been a lot of churn with candidates for the Democratic nomination in CD1 with several candidates joining the race and others ending their campaigns. Here’s an update on the Democrats hoping to unseat Rob Wittman next November:

Letter to the Editor: Compassion & Courage

October 5, 2025
By: Ericka Kopp

Compassion and courage. The heart of a public servant with the grit of an ice hockey player. That’s me. I’m Ericka Kopp, candidate for Congress in Virginia’s First District. I stand for access and accountability, and I’m putting people and communities over partisan politics.
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2026 Challengers to Congressman Rob Wittman and Senator Mark Warner

September 20, 2025
By: Heather Massey

Two 2026 races are heating up: more candidates entered the VA1 Congressional Democratic Primary, and an underdog candidate launched a bid to challenge Senator Mark Warner.Read More

“I want a better society for my kids. I’m passionate about healthcare. I’m a physician, my wife is in public health and the way healthcare is going right now is very frightening and I just want a candidate who is willing to go against what is happening on the national level. The vaccination piece is definitely scary, I think it’s really important to stay up to date with those things, the pandemic changed so much about how people trust the healthcare system, and while there are a lot of ways the healthcare system needs to improve, leadership from the top down needs to be solid and it’s just not solid right now”.

“I’m mostly concerned about the SNAP funding. Because in my profession, I know some people through Virginia Cooperative Extension who were doing nutrition education for SNAP beneficiaries, all of those programs were cut as kind of a ripple effect from the (Big, Beautiful) bill, but they lost those programs, which is important to me – nutrition information. I’m concerned about out healthcare, I’m concerned about what’s happening with immigration right now and for me personally, I’m soon going on Medicare, and I’m concerned with what’s happening with that. Things are so divisive, you can’t even really talk about issues in a calm way”.

“I am passionate about gun safety regulation. I am passionate about enforcement of the anti-trust laws. Those are two big ones for me. And also intelligent AI regulation and data center/environmental regulations. I have concern about the kind of Wild West style lack of regulation of artificial intelligence. I think we need to take a systematic thoughtful approach so that we targeted AI rather than just an uncontrolled profit for a few big companies”.

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