Alongside Kiggans, US House Speaker Says Virginia’s 2nd District ‘Will Determine the Fate of the Country’

As part of an 18-state tour through more than 30 congressional districts, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said Monday that “Virginia’s 2nd District will determine the fate of the country because this will be a close election.”

U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Virginia Beach, speaks at a campaign event in Virginia Beach featuring U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, on Aug. 17, 2026. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)

As Johnson stumped for U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Virginia Beach, at the Cavalier Hotel on Monday, he and the incumbent congresswoman framed partisan control of the nation’s legislature during this year’s congressional midterm elections as a battle between “common sense” and “chaos.”

“This is not a new fight now we’re in,” Kiggans, who is seeking another term in Congress, said. “It’s a fight right now between craziness and common sense and real civility and communism, socialism, and the direction that the Democratic Party has gone to the left.”

Amid a wave of non-establishment Democrats winning primary elections earlier this month in other states and internal struggles within the party’s centrist and progressive factions, Johnson said: “They don’t know where they stand, what they stand for, and who stands with them — they’re kind of a rudderless ship.”

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana speaks at a campaign event for U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans in Virginia Beach on Aug. 17, 2026. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)

Leftist democrats gained traction elsewhere in the primaries, but Virginia’s establishment democrats prevailed in the state’s Aug. 4 contests.

At the Democratic National Committee meeting over the weekend, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe urged his party to end any  “hand-wringing” over internal differences. Virginia was also confirmed as an early primary state for the 2028 election cycle at the meeting.

Democrats across the spectrum, however, have spent much of this year attacking Kiggans and other Republicans over healthcare policy and the rising costs of living.

As Kiggans and Johnson spoke at the Virginia Beach fundraiser, her opponent, Democrat Elaine Luria, highlighted Kiggans’ record, including her vote in favor of the reconciliation bill Congress approved last summer that put thousands of Virginians at risk of losing their Medicaid health insurance.

Luria also noted that Kiggans voted to allow Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire, which has led to thousands of people in the state losing that form of insurance.

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When asked about the ongoing war in Iran that Republican President Donald Trump initiated without congressional approval earlier this year, Johnson said he believed the conflict will be resolved soon.

“I talk to the president multiple times every day on average. He is laser focused on this,” Johnson said.

Luria — a former member of Congress whom Kiggans ousted from the seat in 2022 — said Kiggans and Johnson “refuse to stand up to Donant Trump, and Hampton Roads is paying the price.”

“As corrupt Jen Kiggans and Mike Johnson meet with wealthy donors today, working Virginians are seeing their gas and grocery bills skyrocket, their friends and family members in uniform sent to fight in another foreign war, and their healthcare taken away to pay for tax cuts for billionaires,” Luria wrote.

Kiggans and Johnson took jabs at Luria over her wealth, as bipartisan efforts to ban congressional stock trading have ramped up over the past year. Kiggans is a co-sponsor of a recent attempt to rein in the practice.

Luria, who previously opposed congressional stock trading while in Congress, has evolved in her support for it as the issue has gained national traction.

With early voting set to kick off Sep. 18 and Election Day on Nov. 3, Kiggans and Luria are escalating their campaigns in one of the country’s most competitive swing districts this cycle.

Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District has been represented by both parties over the years but leans Republican. Still, its nearly 600,000 residents backed Democratic Gov. Spanberger last year by 53%. Luria first flipped it to Democratic control in 2018 before Kiggans flipped it back to Republican in 2022.

While Kiggans did not take questions from the media at the event, Johnson made his pitch for Republicans on ballots nationwide this year.

“If you believe in America, you believe in individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, and fiscal responsibility, and free markets, human dignity —  we have a place for you,” he said.

by Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

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