Donald Beyer

Congressman Don Beyer, D-Va., will have to fend off four other candidates in the Democratic primary election on Tuesday to return to Capitol Hill for his seventh term.

Because Virginia Congressional District 8 is a safe Democratic stronghold, the primary election has historically served as the de facto general election.

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Four challengers are looking to send someone new to represent the district - which includes Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax County - for the first time in more than a decade.

In this region, affordability and data centers have emerged as top priorities for each candidate.

Cost of living has constantly been a concern for residents across Northern Virginia.

Data centers have typically been an issue in counties further away from D.C., like Loudoun and Prince William counties. But Fairfax County leaders are considering a proposal that would build one of these facilities on a 34-acre plot of land near the Alexandria border.

Beyer, previously an ambassador under the Obama administration and lieutenant governor of Virginia, told 7News his experience and voting record are the biggest reasons why voters should send him back to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Mo Seifeldein is the only other candidate who has been elected to public office, having served on the Alexandria City Council. He was also a federal attorney in the U.S. Department of Labor before resigning in protest of President Donald Trump's policies.

Michael Duffin worked in the State Department, specializing in counterterrorism. However, he was fired as part of the federal job cuts at the beginning of Trump's second administration.

Adam Dunigan served in the Marines, which included a combat deployment to Afghanistan. He left the Marines in 2014 to become a case officer in the CIA.

Lorena Bruner is an educator who was vice president of public policy for the American Association of University Women.

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7News On Your Side asked each of these candidates the same four questions.

You can find their responses to each question below:

How do you plan to address affordability?

Beyer: "We have to continue to resist the excesses, the bad parts of the Donald Trump presidency. We have to stop the war. It was supposed to be two weeks. It's now six months long. I've been leading the fight with a couple of other friends on the Ways and Means committee against Donald Trump's tariffs. We're now seeing very slow economic growth. Two-thirds of Americans are saying they cannot afford groceries. The tariffs have just driven the costs for every American... I'm the co-lead on the bill that would do low-income housing tax credits, so it's two million more new homes built in America over the next eight years. We're two-to-three million homes short right now. It will do a big thing, in terms of the cost of rent or cost of buying."

Seifeldein: "The top issues are accountability and affordability. With accountability, it's making sure that we are spending our money here on the domestic issues, not on endless foreign wars that are also illegal, making sure our Congress members are not trading stocks and are not taking corporate PAC money. Affordability is really simple. It is Medicare for all, which is supported by most Americans, universal childcare. This area has the highest childcare rate in the country, Arlington being number one, Alexandria being top five. And then making sure we're stabilizing the housing market...I served on the Alexandria City Council, where we delivered on affordable housing. We bought a $100 million complex to make sure our firefighters, our teachers can actually afford to live in the community that they served in."

Duffin: "Number one is restoring federal jobs. Our region cannot sustain the job loss. The private sector has not absorbed these jobs. Secondly, it's affordability. Even before the inflation crisis, it was very hard to live in Northern Virginia... In addition to inflation, people who live here and work for the government have student loans. There's a program where they're forgiven after 10 years... Helping people get their student loans forgiven sooner I think will spur not just people growing as a family, but more home ownership and putting more money in people's pockets... I want to cap credit card APR at about 15 %. We can negotiate that. But when you're paying for essential items like medicine and food, diapers, on a credit card that's charging you 29 % APR, that's a predatory loan... I want to encourage home ownership, so for professionals who have 401(k)s or TSPs for government officials, I want to allow them to take out up to $50,000 tax-free from those towards a down payment for a home."

Dunigan: "I think the top priorities for voters right now are affordability, absolutely. But it's, counterintuitively, not a winning strategy to just on that. Voters are angry. They want to see an update in the Democratic party... The second priority is putting a responsible hand back on the wheel of the government. We need to stop starting wars in the Middle East. We need to have some sensible changes to regulations that govern the things that drive the affordability crisis.... I'm trying to get federal workers back to work with back pay if possible."

Bruner: "Getting prices back to where they should be. We're spending too much on childcare, food, rent, also medical care. We should have Medicare for all... I know in my family, I have student loans. I have four children that have been in college and they have student loans. Those are the top things, I believe. There's also price gouging with food and gasoline, so there's a lot going on."

What is your approach to data centers?

Beyer: "We are going to need some data centers. We've had them for a long time. But they need to form a new social contract with citizens because 80 % of Americans don't want a data center in their neighborhood. They still want to be able to use the phone and internet, but the noise problems, the electricity rates that are pushed up, sometimes with the generators you're getting pollution coming off of it... If we're going to build data centers, we need to look for places where citizens want it. There'll likely be places much less populated with a lot of open land, but we need to get the commitment from the data centers they will bear their own burden on the electricity, bear their own burden on the cooling systems."

Seifeldein: "I'm the only candidate to call for a moratorium in Virginia on data centers. We have a data center coming right here to our neighborhood at the Bren Mar neighborhood on the borderline with Alexandria, and neighbors have told me they don't want this data center here. I think Congress needs to have a national standard for what it needs to have data centers. It needs to have a net positive, making sure we protect our electricity, our water, and that they're not getting these tax breaks, which are basically being subsidized by the taxpayers."

Duffin: "I want to make sure community members are involved and they're aware of what's happening. We need to have a plan so that we're not paying extra for our utility bills because of the data centers. I also want to make sure our air is clean to breathe and our water is clean to drink... But we have to compete with China and other countries, in regards to artificial intelligence. I want to protect jobs, but also encourage innovation because we need to win this global competition for artificial intelligence."

Dunigan: "I think data center companies, the AI companies, and the companies constructing these data centers have been extractive from community, rather than constructive with. We do live in a free market economy. I think it's important to acknowledge that, so rather than fight the tide, I think we need to introduce regulations and requirements to make sure businesses are constructive instead of extractive. These companies treat our communities like commodities, and they're not. They're people. I want to put people first, and with any expansion - whether those communities want them or not - should be the first questions asked and they need a voice for whatever happens to them."

Bruner: "They haven't popped up yet in District 8, but the thing about it is they're creeping in. If we want them in, fine, let them pay their own taxes. They need to have a piece of accountability instead of us having to pay for them. We don't want them there because they're taking the water supply... I know, personally, I live alone and I'm hardly home. I'm always on the run, but yet my electricity bill has gone up $300 a month. We don't need them."

How do you plan to operate in a Congress that, at times, can have a deep partisan divide?

Beyer: "From the day I've gotten here, my pledge was to try to do everything in a bipartisan way. Any bill I introduce, we start first - we look as hard as we can - to find a Republican who will go along with it. I also work really hard with my relationship with the Republicans."

Seifeldein: "Lucky enough, I have experience serving on the Alexandria City Council. I know what it means to get to a yes. And that is really politics, the art of getting to a yes. As long as people are willing to do what the American people want, that is democracy. We will be able to work with these folks, reach across the aisle, and get things done."

Duffin: "You have to talk to people, even if you disagree with them ideologically. Even if you dislike them personally, you need to pass anything on the Senate side [with 60 votes] to overcome a filibuster. We need to learn to engage better."

Dunigan: "I started off in the Marine Corps. I deployed to Afghanistan, and I just finished out at the CIA as an operations officer, so I'm used to hostile environments, at the very least. I think a big problem, a more fundamental philosophical problem in our country right now is our inability to listen to each other. We're shouting past each other constantly and our elected officials are either looking up at the next job that they want or they're too worried about their next reelection to ever actually govern half the time. The signaling that you see and the hostility that you see between the sides is more pageantry for their voting base. I'm not interested in that. There's a job I think we need to do when we get in there, and that's make people's lives better."

Bruner: "To be honest with you, we need to replace some of those people in Congress. More of them on the GOP side, but there could be some on the Democratic side, as well... In my canvassing door-to-door, speaking to people on the street, often times it wasn't unusual for me to be able to talk to the person and then when they left me, they would say, 'You know what? I usually vote GOP across the board or I would vote GOP down the line, but I will make an exception for you because we can come to common ground.'"

Why should voters vote for you?

Beyer: "The longer you're here, the more powerful you get, the more you're able to do things. My first couple of years, I loved being here. I'd vote right, I worked hard. But it takes time to build the relationships with Democrats, with Republicans, with the leadership, basically to earn people's trust. I have that right now. I feel that right now I'm at the peak of my abilities to make positive change to our society. I respect all of the new people that are coming around the country, new people that come some day to this seat. But let's face it, they're going to start from scratch, and it will take them many years to get to the point where I am today."

Seifeldein: "If you're looking for a fighter with a proven history, vote for Mo... I'm fighting for Medicare for all, reject all corporate PAC money, I am not supporting foreign wars or genocide anywhere around the world. I think voters are looking for someone who's focused on these issues... We need people who are actually connected to the voters, understand the struggles of the voters, and I am one of those candidates. I think it's time for change."

Duffin: "I'm fighting for federal employees, for people in this community who have lost their jobs. I've had five of my neighbors move because they lost their income. We need fighters. I will fight every minute while I'm in office to restore these jobs. It's an uphill battle, but we need an advocate. I don't think the incumbent is fighting hard enough."

Dunigan: "My pitch to the voters is this, right now: the status quo is untenable. We cannot stay static. Static is decay and decay is death. Our republic is backsliding. Our democratic institutions are fracturing. We, as Americans, are drifting further and further away from each other. The only way we start reversing that backslide is by changing the roster of the people who control our lives."

Bruner: "We don't have equal representation for women and minorities, and that's part of the large problem because they don't have the lens that we have."

Election day is Tuesday, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.