Jen Kiggans Must Go!

Jen Kiggans was elected to Congress on November 8th, 2022, touting her past experience as a Navy pilot and geriatric nurse to win voters over. But while her resume looks good on paper, it has become a convenient cover for avoiding the real work of representing The People of CD2. She repeatedly casts votes in D.C. that are absolutely contrary to helping veterans, seniors, and the working class. And when you call her out on it, all she says is, “No, no, look at my resume—I was a Navy pilot, I was a nurse.”

Despite repeated calls from her constituents to hold a town hall, she refuses (*1) —following orders from Hill leadership, who want to shield her from backlash over unpopular votes, (*2) like raising the debt limit by $4.5 trillion while cutting Medicaid, food assistance, and firing federal employees. In fact, Kiggans has never held an open-access town hall.(*3) What kind of representation is that? Her only guidance is to “reach out to my office,” yet countless reports describe her office as unresponsive or dismissive. Jen Kiggans is a cookie-cutter politician who hides behind platitudes in her service to the oligarchs. Virginia deserves better. How Has She Voted?

On February 25, 2025, Kiggans voted in favor of the House budget resolution for fiscal year 2025 (H.Con.Res.14). This bill proposed raising the federal debt limit by $4.5 trillion while making deep cuts to essential programs supporting the poor and

middle class—all to benefit the top 1%.(*4,5) It included $880 billion in Medicaid cuts, affecting the nearly 2 million veterans who rely on it (*6), a $50 billion reduction in retirement and health benefits for federal workers—impacting Virginia’s 2nd District, which has one of the highest concentrations of federal employees in the nation—and a devastating 20% ($23 billion) cut to SNAP, jeopardizing food assistance for millions of low-income Americans, including 1.2 million veterans.(*7) These cuts would have devastating consequences for seniors. More than 6 million seniors rely on Medicaid for nursing home care, and reduced funding could lead to fewer available beds, lower-quality care, and increased out-of-pocket costs.(*8) 

On April 26, 2023, Kiggans voted in favor of H.R. 2811, the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023(*9), which aimed to increase the federal debt limit by $1.5 trillion while implementing significant spending cuts.(*10) Although Kiggans refuted claims that the bill would hurt veterans, she neither requested nor ensured that the bill include any exemptions or protections for the VA—something not uncommon in larger spending bills. Even the VA itself stated that the bill would cut $2 billion from its annual budget, leading to reduction in medical services, staffing shortages, mental health services reduction, and other serious concerns.(*11)

Twenty-four separate veterans’ groups wrote an open letter to Congress, urging them not to pass this without exemptions or protections, yet their concerns went ignored by Kiggans.(*12)

On February 7, 2024, Kiggans voted in favor of H.R. 48513, a bill that would eliminate the Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) metric. The QALY is a tool that helps federal health programs, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), determine which treatments provide the best value by measuring both how long and how well a person lives after receiving care. Every major health insurance system—public and private—uses some form of cost-effectiveness analysis like QALYs to balance costs and ensure patients receive the most beneficial treatments. The ACA depends on QALYs to keep healthcare affordable while prioritizing treatments that provide real value.(*14)

H.R. 485 would ban QALYs without providing an alternative metric, leaving Medicare, Medicaid, and ACA plans with no way to evaluate cost-effectiveness. This would result in these programs paying for high-cost treatments regardless of their actual benefit,

which would then be passed on as higher premiums, reduced subsidies, or shrinking coverage options—hitting ACA enrollees the hardest.(*15)

The bill’s real goal isn’t fairness, but sabotage—by eliminating a key cost-control mechanism without a replacement, it aims to destabilize the ACA, making it unsustainable. Meanwhile, Big Insurance and pharmaceutical companies stand to gain billions, as they would be free to charge unlimited prices for treatments and coverage without scrutiny over their actual benefit to patients.(*16,17)

Kiggans has taken $167,250 in campaign contributions from these industries—including $104,500 from the insurance giants UnitedHealth Group, Elevance Health, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and $62,750 from pharmaceutical companies, such as

Pfizer.(*18,19) She voted in line with their interests, prioritizing profit over patients and higher costs over affordability for struggling Americans.

Through H.R. 485 and other Republican-led efforts, Kiggans has demonstrated a clear intent to dismantle the ACA, jeopardizing healthcare access for the poor, women, and veterans. Repealing the ACA would strip protections for pre-existing conditions, allow

insurance companies to charge women and veterans higher premiums(*20,21) and eliminate Medicaid expansion, leaving millions uninsured. Women would face higher costs for maternity and reproductive care, veterans would lose access to affordable

healthcare and prescription drugs, and seniors would see rising premiums and out-of-pocket costs for essential services and medications.(*22)

Don’t be fooled—Jen Kiggans hides behind her resume while actively supporting well-documented congressional measures that harm veterans and seniors, all to benefit her donors.

On April 22, 2020, as a state senator, Jen Kiggans voted against the Virginia Fairness in Lending Act (Senate Bill 421) (*23), which aimed to protect financially vulnerable Virginians by capping interest rates on predatory loans at 36%. Payday lenders often target those struggling financially, including military personnel, due to their steady paychecks, frequent relocations, and, in some cases, limited financial literacy. Despite the bill's clear benefits, Kiggans sided with the payday lending industry, which funneled at least $100,000 into the GOPAC Election Fund—an organization that contributed $40,000 to her campaign, once in 2019 and again before the vote on SB 421 in April 2020. This fund received at least $100,000 from payday lenders, including Amscot Financial, Check Into Cash, and Advance America. When pressed by reporters to explain her decision, she dodged the question and refused to acknowledge the impact of her vote.(24) By prioritizing predatory lenders over working-class Virginians, Kiggans made it clear where her loyalties lie—not with those struggling to make ends meet, but with the financial industry profiting off their hardship.

Recent Cuts:

Kiggans will do anything to appease the oligarchs, even at the expense of thousands of veterans: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has faced sweeping cuts under the Trump administration’s so-called government efficiency initiative, DOGE, announced on March 5, 2025. These cuts slashed 875 contracts supporting critical services like medical care, cancer treatment programs, doctor recruitment, and burial services for veterans—all while eliminating 80,000 VA jobs.(*25)

Despite claims that core services would remain intact, internal reports indicate these cuts are devastating veterans’ healthcare and benefits. Among the recent layoffs, 12 employees from our very own Hampton VA lost their jobs(*26)—most of them veterans themselves. Shockingly, this included two crisis line employees who provided suicide prevention support for struggling veterans.(*27) These cuts aren’t just numbers on a budget sheet; they are lives and livelihoods being sacrificed to benefit the top 1% and to garner favor from donors who profit while veterans and other hard-working Americans suffer.

Jen Kiggans is a fraud and the 2nd district deserves better.