Five Republicans campaigning to run for the 8th congressional district

Five Republicans are vying for the chance to unseat Rep. Don Beyer (D) in Virginia’s 8th congressional district.
Voters will select the winning candidate May 21 at a convention at the Waterford in Springfield hosted by the 8th Congressional District Republican Committee.

On the other side, Victoria Virasingh is running against Beyer in the Democratic Primary on June 21. The 8th District is solidly Democratic. Beyer was re-elected in 2020 with 75.8 percent of the vote.

Here are the GOP candidates:

• Monica Carpio says her top priority is cutting the federal debt by cutting waste from the budget, starting with “fraud and abuse in Medicaid and Medicare.”

She wants to “put a stop to Congress’ “outrageous spending that results in massive increases to the federal debt.”
Carpio has a master’s degree in economics and worked at the U.S. departments of Labor and Commerce.

• Jeff Jordan is an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and currently works as a defense contractor.

Jordan calls schools “an indoctrination system” where teachers push ideologies, such as critical race theory.

He also promises to finish Trump’s border wall, provide more support to law enforcement and small business owners, and “reinvigorate the free enterprise system and reinstate the economic foundation that allows for the standard of living we desperately need.”

Related story: Victoria Virasingh runs against Rep. Beyer

Jordan embraces the hard-right playbook on voter fraud and Covid. Here’s a recent tweet: “We need to investigate the CDC to determine who colluded with China and who profited from the pandemic.”

He ran against Beyer in 2020, getting just 24 percent of the vote.

• Heerak Kim, an immigrant from South Korea, taught in public schools in Virginia and Washington, D.C., and is a registered nurse.

On Twitter, Kim said he is “fighting critical race theory and LGBTQ+ indoctrination in public schools!”

Kim put out numerous anti-Semitic tweets. In one example from 2020, he wrote “American citizens should work toward curtailing the power of Jewish lobby groups and other Jewish groups that seek to practice ‘Witch Hunt’ against Americans who they see as a ‘threat’ to Jews, like they did with Jesus Christ. Americans are NOT SLAVES!”

• Karina Lipsman arrived in the U.S. as a child from Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union. After earning a master’s degree in engineering, she spent over a decade in the national defense industry.

Lipsman supports stronger law enforcement, school choice, cutting wasteful spending, and limiting immigration. She opposes tax increases.

She vows to advocate for “commonsense policies that fight crime, reduce inflation, ease transportation, and improve our educational standards.”

• Kezia Tunnell’s father is a Baptist missions pastor, and she spent her childhood living in several countries.

Her top priorities are school choice; empowering parents to direct their children’s education; advocating for “pro-life causes,” such as prison reform and human-trafficking awareness; and “securing our borders to keep Americans and immigrants safe from human trafficking and cartels.”

Tunnell’s LinkedIn profile says she co-founded Tunnell Enterprises in 2011 in Abilene, Texas. The company, which doesn’t seem to have a website. specializes in “large commercial builds and remodels” and partners with major big-box retailers.

Her Twitter feed is full of baseless attacks on President Biden and Vice President Harris.