Challengers are already lining up to take on incumbents in the 2026 midterms — over a year before those elections are set to take place — including a Democratic candidate who announced his campaign for Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith’s seat.
Adam Murphy will challenge Griffith to represent Virginia’s 9th Congressional District next November.
Griffith, who was first elected in 2010, was reelected in 2024 with almost 72.5% of the vote.
“The system is rigged against the average American, and they aren’t [Congress isn’t] upholding their end of the deal to everyday Americans. We aim to break that stranglehold and claim a new future, without compromise that firmly places the American people first,” Murphy said in a statement.
His campaign platform includes Medicare-for-All, universal parental leave and paid time off, access to living wages to benefit both small businesses and their employees, “energy independence and massive infrastructure projects,” including access to broadband, a $10,000 credit for first-time homebuyers and protecting Constitutional rights.
Murphy is a software developer who has touted his experience in the service industry before he moved into his current career. He said, on his website, that he has experienced periods in his life where he lacked access to health care and lost his home during the 2008 housing crisis.
“I have seen the cracks in the system, ones we must fill so that the rising tide of a booming American economy might lift all ships,” he wrote on his website. He lives in the Cave Spring section of Roanoke County. 
