Rep Beyer gets a progressive challenger
Mohamed “Mo” Seifeldein, a former member of the Alexandria City Council, is challenging Rep. Don Beyer in the 2026 Democratic Primary for Virginia’s 8th congressional district.
All seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for re-election in the 2026 midterms.
Seifeldein, the son of Sudanese refugees, says he is entering the race “with a bold progressive vision and a deep commitment to justice, equity, and economic opportunity.”
Related story: Rep. Beyer calls for more regulation of AI
He recently resigned from his position as an attorney at the U.S. Department of Labor, citing a “moral imperative to challenge Trump-era policies and a political system that continues to fail working families.”
“I didn’t leave my federal job because I gave up on public service. I left because this moment demands more,” Seifeldein said. “We need leaders who don’t just vote the right way. They fight the right way. I’ve lived the struggles of this district, and I’ve delivered real change. Now I’m ready to take that fight to Washington.”
He says he has “a lived understanding of the challenges facing families across the 8th District” because he was raised in a working-class immigrant household and worked alongside his mother and siblings at McDonald’s to make ends meet. He says he experienced life without health insurance, carried student debt, and faced housing insecurity.
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In his one term on the Alexandria City Council – he was elected in 2018 – Seifeldein said he worked to protect renters, prevent union busting, reform policing, expand mental health access, strengthen the city’s human rights code, and advance green policies to combat the climate crisis.
He says his congressional campaign will focus on universal healthcare, housing justice, affordability, workers’ rights, food safety, and immigration reform.
Mo’s platform sounds like it would take America in a positive direction. However, he still needs to address food security and affordability.
Mo needs to propose and campaign on establishing a permanent program of dedicated government funding for government-owned and operated grocery stores throughout the USA. If he does that, I will not only vote for him but donate to his campaign.
Beyer is too old and just another one of the Democrat Party’s geriatric leadership who has made the Party repellent and irrelevant.
Beyer must make way for fresh young leadership.
Yess!! I’m excited to see what kind of positive changes he can make to the district! Don Beyer needs to step up his game.
We really need younger representatives, Beyer is fine but he doesn’t know the moment. I think its unlikely he gets sick like Connoly but there is no way we should make that risk, Republicans are doing power grabs in every state. We need people to understand the old politics of their time is outdated and republicans are playing with zero rules and no accountability in their obvious attack and plans to hurt every single American. Beyer has been an advocate for Ranked choice voting and I hope Mo does the same and pushes on all the legislation Beyer has
No, we really do not need younger reps. Ageism is an ugly bias every bit as bad as sexism or racism. Hearing such a claim from an alleged Democratic candidate is both shocking and offensive.
It it really ageist to want Representatives who aren’t a decade past the age of retirement?
If representation matters, then as much as it’s not racist or sexist for minorities or women to want minorities and women in office, it’s not ageist to want people who are closer to the middle than to the end of their lives.
God you are so ignorant, this mentality is why fascism is so strong it’s not ageist to want our party to be remade from the ground up including key leadership players by people who aren’t in their 70+ and have several congressmen die even when they replaced other dead congressmen like in Texas. Having ineffective out of touch and uncharismatic old leaders degrades the reputation, energy and effectiveness of people fighting fascism.
Age is just a number. The media attacked Biden on age but ignored Trump’s age and obviously ignores Trumps’ gaffs while they publicized all of Biden’s. Beyer has been an effective congressman though I don’t always agree with everything. We threw Biden out because of his age and got an equally old man with less knowledge.
Its funny you say that, Biden was effective sure but it didn’t matter precisely because he was old. We let him cling onto power because of that and it is exactly why we lost in 2024. Had he done what he implied he was going to do in 2020 which was to be a bridge to other leaders then he would have retired and the attack against our state, local workforce wouldn’t have happened. Connoly bless his heart should have retired, he knew he was sick around the election happened. The Big ugly bill passed in the slimmest of votes, had he retired and the texas democrat who filled in the seat of another recently passed representative wassn’t in his late 70s then so much would be different. That is not to say about how weak our oppositon, we have allowed so many trump nominees to go through with GOP voters to vote against it. How about we do what republicans did post Obama and obstruct this evil authortarian president.
As someone not in Alexandria City, what positive outcomes took place as a result of his election? What was the “real change” he delivered. Did they match those campaign promises. Politicians are silver tongued – both parties. They will say whatever to whomever to seek the vote.
If there is “housing justice”, perhaps the federal law can require equal distribution of affordable housing, not just into already overcrowded southern Fairfax but maybe northern, in Great Falls, McLean and other NIMBY areas.
But the real gaff in this is that, our politicians aren’t doing their jobs by allowing tax code to be filled with benefits for the billionaires like Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, or Trump. If they paid an appropriate level of taxes, most of the the funding failings in federal, state, and local governmental projects would be resolved.
Neither Don Beyer nor this fellow has given me a reason not to support the incumbent. My vote is still Beyer.