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Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va.-7th District, spent $38,783 via two March campaign donations to a Miami-area bookstore that hosted his brother’s book promotion efforts, labeling the expenditures a “fundraising expense,” according to campaign finance data from the Federal Election Commission.
Per the commission’s reports, the Vindman campaign initiated two payments to the Coral Gables location of Books and Books on March 7 and 20 – worth $7,809.55 and $30,972.97, respectively.
The congressman’s twin brother, Alexander Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a key whistleblower in President Trump’s first impeachment, had signed copies of his new book, “The Folly of Realism,” at the store’s Coral Gables location on March 9. The book criticizes Western policy toward Russian expansionism and lends insight into the containment thereof.
The book was released Feb. 25 at a market price of $30 and briefly appeared on the New York Times’ hardcover nonfiction bestseller list for the week ending March 16. The list typically requires a minimum of 5,000 copies sold per week, according to Novlr, a writing and publishing advisory platform.
Alexander Vindman posted images of himself at the Coral Gables store on X twice, March 9 and April 12, saying he had signed an additional 800 copies on the latter date.
The New York Post first reported the campaign expenditures and corresponding bookstore events.
A spokeswoman for Vindman declined InsideNoVa’s request for comment on this story.
The National Republican Congressional Committee ripped the campaign expenditure, calling it an effort to “prop up Alexander Vindman’s book.”
“Eugene Vindman is a grifter,” committee spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole said in the statement. “ … and is now refusing to apologize to Virginians and the donors he swindled.”
Vindman won Virginia’s 7th Congressional District seat last November with 51.2% of the vote, defeating Republican Derrick Anderson and laying claim to Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s vacant seat. Spanberger did not seek reelection in order to run for governor.
The 7th District, redrawn after the 2020 Census, includes eastern Prince William County as well as all of Stafford, Spotsylvania, Orange, Culpeper, Greene, Madison, King George and Caroline counties; the city of Fredericksburg, and a small portion of northern Albemarle County.
