Eugene Vindman, Democratic candidate for Virginiaon Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

(JTA) — WASHINGTON — Eugene Vindman, whose Jewish immigrant story played a role in the first impeachment of Donald Trump, has been elected to Congress.

Vindman, a Democrat, won a close race in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, which stretches south from Washington’s Virginia suburbs to Richmond. He will replace Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat and CIA veteran who did not seek reelection before running for state governor next year.

Vindman defeated Derrick Anderson 51-49%. Both men were veterans in a region where many in the military work and retire.

The win elevates Vindman’s status at a time when Trump, who was returned Tuesday to the presidency, has promised “retribution” against those who he feels sabotaged his first term in office.

Vindman came to prominence in 2020 when Trump forced him and his twin brother Alexander out of their jobs as National Security Council staffers.

Both men were officers, and on loan to the White House from the military. Trump had them in his sights after Alexander Vindman in 2019 testified to Congress about the contents of a phone call from Trump to Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky in which Trump sought to leverage aid to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on Joe Biden, who was gearing up to challenge Trump in the 2020 election.

Among the officials that Alexander, a Ukraine specialist at the White House, first notified was his brother Eugene, an ethics specialist in the White House.

The twins’ story of coming to the United States as toddlers from the Soviet Union, fleeing persecution of Jews and seeking freedom, featured in Alexander Vindman’s congressional testimony during Trump’s impeachment trial. In his opening remarks, Alexander Vindman assured their father that here in the United States, one was free to expose wrongdoing by the president.

Anderson had cast Vindman as being on a “revenge” tour against Trump. Vindman did not focus his campaign on his role in Trump’s impeachment, though he recently began a fundraising email, “It’s been 5 years since Trump made the corrupt phone call that forever altered the lives of me and my twin brother.”

He also told Jewish Insider in March that he pursued the House seat after seeing that Trump would be the Republican presidential candidate. “As we got toward the end of last year, it became obvious to me that Donald Trump was going to be at the top of the ballot, and I just couldn’t sit on the sidelines, when I thought that I can contribute in a meaningful way,” he said.

Vindman’s win was one the Democrats need in their hopes of regaining the U.S. House of Representatives, which is still up for grabs as around 40 close races have yet to be called. Republicans seized control of the Senate, and if Republicans keep the House, Trump will govern for the next two years without opposition.

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