As her Primary campaign nears the finish line, Yesli Vega unveiled a personal story.
In 2005, her brother 15-year-old brother Eric and his friend were outside of an apartment building near Alexandira waiting for a friend. Out of nowhere, an MS-13 gang member shot them. Eric was hit twice and survived, while his friend, Anthony, was murdered.
Vega was at church with her parents when they got the news. "I remember hearing my mom's purse vibrating and vibrating," Vega told Potomac Local News. "She normally didn't bring her phone to church, but she did that day."
In the months after the shooting, Vega's parents moved out of Virginia. Eric, now 32, has had bouts with addiction, had run-ins with law enforcement, and developed a distrust for cops who were supposed to protect him and his friend.
The following year, Vega married Rene, her husband and Army veteran, with whom she shares two children. In 2011, she became an Alexandria city cop.
"What happened to Eric is a major reason I joined law enforcement," said Vega. During her career, she's also patrolled the streets of Manassas Park and secured the courthouse in Manassas as a sworn Prince William County Sheriff's Deputy.
Vega talked about her family's experience for the first time in a new TV ad released this week in the run-up to a June 21 Primary Election. She's one of six Republicans seeking the party's nomination to run against incumbent Democrat Abigail Spanberger.
"We have gang members pouring over the southern border, and President Joe Biden and Democrats have turned a blind eye to immigration," said Vega.
At her campaign kick this spring, Yesli Vega received support from her fellow Republicans, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, and former Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman At-large Corey Stewart.
Since he retired from politics, Stewart has kept low a profile until Vega made a bid to unseat Abagail Spanberger (D) in Virginia's 7th Congressional District.
The daughter of immigrants from El Salvador, Vega was born in Texas and, with her parents, soon found her way to Virginia.
Vega ran for an open seat representing the Coles District on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in 2019. Vega won the Republican nomination and went on to win the district by 13 points, and she credits her win due to her embracing and proclaiming her conservative principles.
Today, she represents five precincts in the 7th District, newly redrawn in December 2021 and relocated from the Richmond suburbs to Northern Virginia. Prince William County is split between the 7th and 10th congressional districts, and Vega lives about five miles from the district line.
Spanberger still lives in the suburbs of Richmond and has not announced plans to move. Congress members are not required to live in the districts they serve.
"It's important to know what the [7th District] looks like and what makes up the territory. I live in Prince William County, which makes up 36% of the electorate, Vega told Potomac Local News at her April campaign kickoff.
Before Vega was a political name in Prince William, the county was at the forefront of the immigration debate. In 2007, the county partnered with federal immigration and customs enforcement for the 287(g) program, where county jail staffers turned over to federal custody inmates suspected of being in the U.S. illegally for deportation.
Many inmates identified during the program's 13-year run were found to have been wanted for rape and murder in their home countries. In 2020, under new leadership appointed by the sitting Board of County Supervisors, the county's Jail Board ended the 287(g) program despite pleadings from the county sheriff, jail superintendent, and conservatives like Vega to keep the program in place.
"It's all on the line, and we have to fight back," said Vega.
Vega will be one of six Republicans on a Primary Election ballot on Tuesday, June 21. Others on the ballot will include State Senator Bryce Reeves, Crystal Vanuch, who chairs the Stafford County Board of Supervisors and represents the Rock Hill District, Spotsylvania County Supervisor David Ross, Gina Ciarcia, an educator who ran for the Virginia House of Delegates in 2021, Derrick Anderson, Green Baret from Spotsylvania County.
Click here to find out if you're in the 7th Congressional District and see your polling place.
