What to Know
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Rep. Barbara Comstock faces a strong challenge from Democrat Jennifer Wexton in a district west of Washington, D.C.
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Comstock stresses "results versus the resistance" in trying to hold a district that went heavily for Hillary Clinton
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But Wexton may be able to capitalize on national reaction to Trump's presidency that experts say is felt especially strong in the district
Warner Workman has met his Virginia congresswoman several times at local events and says he's "always dumbfounded when she actually remembers my name."
Rep. Barbara Comstock's social media pages are filled with photos of her thanking local first responders at 9/11 memorials, posing with families at county fairs, attending Boy Scout events and opening new police stations in Virginia's 10th Congressional District.
The Republican congresswoman is "always out there … getting to know people," Workman said.
Her approach worked in 2016, when she won re-election even as the district voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton by 10 percentage points. But the 2018 midterm election could spell the end of Comstock's tenure in Congress and nearly four decades of Republican control of the district, which stretches along Virginia's northern border from the progressive suburbs of Washington, D.C., into the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Comstock is running against Democratic state Sen. Jennifer Wexton, a former prosecutor from Loudoun County, which experts see as a crucial part of the district. The wealthy and increasingly diverse county has started swinging toward Democrats, as has the state overall.
Comstock, who lives closer to D.C. in neighboring Fairfax County, faces two strong headwinds: the district's burgeoning Democratic bent and those voters' opposition to the leader of her party, President Donald Trump.
Experts say people are looking beyond the boundaries of their own district to inform how they vote in this election, and that makes Comstock one
