| Major new reporting this week from the Virginia Mercury details in depth how vulnerable Congresswoman Jen Kiggans was a major proponent of DOGE – even as it uprooted Virginia’s economy and hurt veterans.
The Mercury reported that “Kiggans embraced the program from the outset,” attending an early meeting with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and championing their chainsaw approach as “so necessary.”
Thanks to Kiggans’ support, “DOGE’s impact on Virginia’s 2nd District has been tangible.” The report notes that Kiggans’ backing of DOGE led to “the termination of more than $8.3 million in grants and leases tied to the district, including funding streams connected to veterans services and facilities.”
Read key details from the Mercury below:
- DOGE, which became a signature initiative of Trump’s second-term agenda, aimed to dramatically reduce federal spending through layoffs, canceled contracts and terminated grants. Kiggans embraced the program from the outset.
- In December 2024, as DOGE was just getting off the ground, she publicly praised her participation in an early gathering with Musk and DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy, describing it as a “productive first meeting” with House Republicans to discuss the new Department of Government Efficiency.
- As DOGE’s cuts began to ripple through the federal workforce, Kiggans continued to defend the effort.
- In February, amid mass firings that disproportionately affected Virginia — home to one of the largest concentrations of federal employees in the nation — Kiggans described the cuts as “so necessary” as displaced workers struggled to find new employment.
- Later in the year, during continued fallout from DOGE-related layoffs, Kiggans drew further criticism after telling laid-off federal workers on the John Fredericks Show that there were other jobs available and that they needed to “go out and get them.”
- The remarks echoed comments made by other Virginia Republicans during the same period — including Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, then the presumptive GOP gubernatorial nominee, who was recorded downplaying the impact of federal layoffs on Virginia’s workforce.
- Beyond rhetoric, DOGE’s impact on Virginia’s 2nd District has been tangible.
- The effort resulted in the termination of more than $8.3 million in grants and leases tied to the district, including funding streams connected to veterans services and facilities, according to nonpartisan policy think tank Center for American Progress. Several of the canceled grants directly affected programs serving military families and veterans — a core constituency in the Hampton Roads region.
- “The support for DOGE is a significant problem because of the way DOGE was handled by Musk and Trump,” he said. “The image of Musk taking a chainsaw to the federal workforce I think was just seared in people’s minds.”
- Democrats have seized on that imagery. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Eli Cousin said Kiggans’ record ties her directly to the fallout.
- “Congresswoman Jen Kiggans was a day-one supporter of DOGE and fully enabled the chaos and destruction that it brought on Virginia’s economy,” Cousin said. He pointed specifically to her comments telling laid-off workers to find new jobs and her praise for DOGE even as veterans’ services were affected.
- “This is a very vulnerable seat,” Holsworth said. “Kiggans has to be very seriously worried about it. This is the most vulnerable time, the most vulnerable moment that she’s running in.”
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