Former Space Force Col. Bree Fram (D) hopes to become the second transgender member elected to Congress in the upcoming midterm elections, but she’s not sure yet which district she would represent.
Last week, Fram filed to run in the strongly Democratic 11th Congressional District that currently covers a significant portion of Fairfax County. However, her campaign is monitoring whether a mid-decade redistricting push by Virginia Democrats would move her Reston home to the Democrat-leaning 10th Congressional District or even another district currently represented by a Republican.
Fram supports the redistricting process and is prepared to campaign in whichever district her candidacy ends up in.
“This is my way of saying I’m going to represent my friends, my neighbors, when there are new lines,” Fram told FFXnow in an interview. “That to me is important. I hope we have the opportunity to see those sooner rather than later, but getting started now is important, not just from a messaging perspective but from earning the trust of the people that I live around and will hope to represent as their member of Congress.”
Whether that redistricting process will be allowed remains uncertain after a Tazewell County judge ruled on Tuesday (Jan. 27) that state legislators unlawfully passed a proposed constitutional amendment.
The Virginia General Assembly has twice passed an amendment allowing Congressional districts to be redrawn before 2030 and is advancing a bill to put it on the ballot for an April 21 special election. If approved by voters, that would set new districts in motion for the midterm elections this November. Democrats vowed to appeal the judge’s ruling.
Fram is running for Congress after being ousted from the military in late 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s administration banning transgender service members.
She had signed up for military service after the Sept. 11, 2001, first serving as an Air Force member and deploying to Iraq and Qatar. She has served in senior roles at the Pentagon throughout her time with the military, became a founding member of the U.S. Space Force in 2021 and achieved the rank of colonel.
Instead of going into aerospace engineering or defense work, Fram wanted to continue her public service, bringing a deep understanding of how the federal government works.
“If I have the honor of winning the trust of my friends, neighbors, fellow Virginians to do that, that would be incredible to be able to champion the things that really matter to us and push back against this administration creating this environment of fear, where we’re so worried about what the government is going to do to us instead of thinking about what it can do for us,” Fram said.
Fram named restoring faith in the federal government as a top issue for Virginians amid federal worker firings and fears created by current immigration enforcement policies. The candidate has been outspoken about recent fatal shootings by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers in Minnesota and participated in an anti-ICE protest in Reston last Friday (Jan. 23).
“We actually need to have well-educated people that are supporting the government and want to be part of something that makes our lives better, rather than coming after us and our communities, making us afraid that people whose skin color is particularly not like mine have to carry their papers around,” Fram said. “As someone with family that died in the Holocaust — and I’ve seen their passbooks stamped with a ‘J’ on them — that terrifies me to be a society where we have to carry that kind of thing around with us to prove we belong.”
Fram also called for improvements to the effectiveness of federal government services, noting she faced a 60-day appointment wait at the Social Security office in Reston and went to a Maryland office instead.
“That’s not okay. We need to have policies that work and support you and your family on your schedule, not the government’s, particularly when we’re defunding all the programs that actually support us,” Fram said.
Other campaign priorities for Fram include strengthening national security, restoring the country’s reputation on the international stage, supporting economic stability for families, supporting LGBTQ+ and other human rights, and removing federal government interference from local school system policy decisions.
Depending on which district Fram ends up in, she would challenge incumbent Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-11) or Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-10) and other Democratic candidates in the June 16 primary election. However, she sees the opportunity for Democrats to take back the House as the bigger goal.
“These elections are absolutely crucial to the future of our country,” Fram said. “By taking back the House, Democrats will be able to check the worst of this administration’s excesses, identify everywhere with investigative powers what is going on, making sure the American people know just how damaging this administration is being.”
