Virginia Del. Dan Helmer, who recently launched his third congressional campaign to represent the proposed and newly drawn 7th Congressional District, held a town hall at Louisa County Library on April 27.

Helmer, a Fairfax Democrat, is running for the position that currently has 12 other Democrats vying for the seat according to The Virginia Public Access Project. During his opening speech to Louisa attendees, Helmer highlighted that he is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and served tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He also serves as the campaign chair for the House Democratic Caucus, helping Democrats retake the House majority in 2023 and expand it in 2025.

After a controversial and still undecided redistricting referendum, the 7th Congressional District could span 16 localities and stretch from heavily Democratic areas in Northern Virginia to rural areas in the west and south. Helmer jokingly referred to it as the “crazy lobster district” due to its unusual shape. The legal fight over the referendum is currently unfolding, but 3.1 million Virginia voters were for the measure by 3 percentage points according to the Virginia Department of Elections.

Before taking questions from attendees, Helmer cited several bills as recent accomplishments in response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He noted HB1482 which requires law enforcement officers to be identifiable and prohibits facial coverings and HB1441, which restricts local participation in federal immigration enforcement by requiring judicial warrants.

He also noted HB 333, a proposal on Governor Abigail Spanberger’s desk that would require schools, if they teach about the events in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to “teach the truth about what happened that day, not Trump’s version.” The bill requires specific framing and prohibits presenting alternative interpretations or election fraud claims as credible in public schools, which has come under fire from the Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists who have argued it lacks educational value and pushes a “left-wing” narrative.

Helmer also sponsored HB 1344, which was signed into law to end the issuance and renewal of Virginia license plates that honor the Sons of Confederate Veterans and Robert E. Lee, adding that it is his opinion that America should not “celebrate traitors.”

Helmer addressed gerrymandering, citing that the Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments earlier that day and that those, unlike the opinion of the Tazewell judge who ruled that the legislature’s constitutional amendment and referendum were invalid, will be the controlling arguments.

The problem, Helmer said, is that in July of last year, Trump ordered Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to redistrict the state to add an additional five Republicanleaning congressional districts. This would bolster the Republican’s chances of maintaining control of the House in the 2026 midterms. Following this, several other Republican-led states like Missouri and North Carolina have signed new maps into law, while Ohio and Florida have pushed for changes.

“We’re sad that [Republicans] pushed this way. I believe that we need national gerrymandering reform,” Helmer said. “But we’re not going to sit there and let [Republicans] legislate away or draw away democratic accountability for the war in Iran. We’re not going to let them draw away accountability for the big B.S. bill that is robbing rural communities of access to healthcare [and] reducing the number of people who have access to food and medical care. That’s insane. The American people are ready and the Virginians I know are ready to hold this president accountable and we were able to respond to that and I ultimately expect the Virginia courts are going to approve [the redistricting].”

Louisa Democratic Committee member Juanita Jo Matkins asked about gun reform, specifically how to engage with people across the political aisle on the misconception that Democrats want to take away guns from law-abiding citizens.

Helmer introduced HB217 in the 2026 Virginia General Assembly. The bill aims to prohibit the future sale, manufacture, import, and transfer of specific semi-automatic firearms defined as assault firearms. It also bans magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds.

In response to Matkin’s question, Helmer relayed that he is a gun owner who has personally experienced death threats to both him and his family. He noted recent acts of political violence that included the attempted assassination of Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and the Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband who were shot and killed in their Brooklyn home last year.

“I can’t accept that the number one killer of children in the Commonwealth of Virginia is bullets,” Helmer said. “That’s not natural. We are passing common sense gun violence prevention measures to try and change that. The assault weapons ban is simply about making sure the most dangerous weapons — weapons similar to those I carried in Iraq and Afghanistan — aren’t being trafficked in our Commonwealth.”

Helmer reiterated that gun owners can still get magazines up to 15 rounds. The legislation does not apply to firearms or magazines lawfully owned before July 1, 2026; Helmer said the goal is to reduce the number of firearms in a constitutionally protected way.

“In the mass shooting scenarios that happen sometimes, it’s during reloading that somebody is able to intervene,” Helmer said. “If we’re able to make that happen faster in those terrible scenarios, we might be able to reduce the carnage. I think we can respect the second amendment. I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution —- I didn’t carve out one amendment or the other — but at the same time we can have common sense gun violence prevention measures that work for all Virginians to keep us safe.”

Attendee Aleta Strickland asked about the Valley Link Transmission line, the 115-mile 765-kilovolt (kV) transmission line that is planned to extend from Campbell to Culpeper County.

“The truth is most people’s home is the largest investment they will ever have in their lifetime… in this county, there are some pretty strong feelings on both sides of the [political] continuum that has brought people together in fighting this Valley Link transmission line,” Strickland said, asking if he had a position.

Helmer responded that there needs to be a fostering of better dialogue around community engagement and high-power transmission lines, but quickly pointed out their recent prominence due to the proliferation of data centers.

“It is incredibly important that we develop a national framework for data center infrastructure that includes community engagement and includes a lot more thoughtfulness about where we site the infrastructure for that,” Helmer said.

He noted legislation introduced this year that includes the Data Center Transparency Act (H.R. 6984) which requires reporting on the effects of data centers on air and water quality and their electricity consumption, and the No Harm Data Centers Act (H.R. 8033) which aims to ensure data centers pay for their impact on the electric grid.

Virginia has the highest number of data centers in the country and is considered the data center capital of the world. Helmer emphasized a national framework is required to make sure the rural character of communities and agricultural farmland is protected.

“There are communities in Virginia right now who would die for data centers; I’ve talked to several,” Helmer said, citing places like Portsmouth who have stated a desire for a strong tax base.

Helmer also noted that the U.S. is going through a revolution in computing and artificial intelligence (AI) and that a national strategy would need to recognize things like quantum computing, an emerging technology which could make data centers obsolete years from now.

“We have to be very thoughtful because the American economy is dependent on us getting this right,” Helmer said.