Wittman Truth Files #2: Jobs and the Economy
VA-01 suffers, Wittman shrugs
Welcome back to WTF: the Wittman Truth Files. Last week we opened the affordability file. This week, we shift our focus to a related topic: jobs and the economy.
Here in VA-01, “the economy” might be a federal job at Dahlgren or Quantico, a shift at the shipyard in Newport News, a soybean harvest in Westmoreland, an oyster boat out of Reedville, or the small business your neighbor runs in Mechanicsville, Tappahannock, or Glen Allen.
By every measure, people in all of those places (and many more besides) are hurting right now. And Rob Wittman voted for every policy that caused them harm.
The job market is breaking down
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) April 2026 jobs report showed unemployment stuck at 4.3% and just 115,000 jobs added — well below historical norms. February 2026 payrolls were revised down to a loss of 156,000 jobs, the first outright monthly decline in years.
As Dwayne Yancey reported yesterday, UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center’s analysis shows that Virginia lost 10,400 jobs in 2025 and that we’re projected to lose another 17,800 this year. Even with projected improvement in 2027, the number of jobs will grow at the slowest rate since 2016. As Yancey noted:
“Whichever way you look at things, this is not good. Virginia hasn’t lost jobs in a non-pandemic year since 2009, when the country was in the Great Recession and every state lost jobs.”
Yancey goes on to state the situation quite plainly:
“In 2024, Virginia ranked 10th in the country for job growth… In 2025, it fell to 38th — and into the negative range.
What happened? Trump took office.”
Virginia’s tumble in the national rankings demonstrates that Virginia’s economy is suffering disproportionately compared to the rest of the country — and Wittman unequivocally supports the Trumpian policies creating that suffering. No congressman should inflict this kind of damage on the state whose interests he’s supposed to represent.
While AI and the long-term trend of disappearing American manufacturing jobs played some role in the job losses (despite Trump’s claims that he’s bringing those jobs “back”), their impact is minimal compared to the Trump economic policies that Wittman continues to vote for.
Consumer sentiment follows suit: the University of Michigan’s final May 2026 reading came in at 44.8 — the lowest in the survey’s 74-year history. Roughly 30% of respondents specifically named tariffs as a source of worry.
Moody’s Analytics now puts U.S. recession odds at 48.6%. According to chief economist Mark Zandi: “There is an uncomfortably high 48% probability that the U.S. economy will suffer a recession in the next 12 months.” Q1 2025 GDP actually contracted by 0.3% as importers tried to front-run Trump’s tariffs.
That’s the backdrop. Now let’s look at what Wittman has been doing about it.
Current jobs aren’t keeping up with the Trump economy’s destruction
To date, Wittman has supported every economic policy proposed and implemented by the Trump administration. He and the administration’s smiling apologists insist that the US economy is “the hottest” in the world, and that these are good times for us all, despite the evidence we can see and feel every day. The facts show the undeniable economic reality.
When Trump entered office, inflation was 2.6% and on a downward slope toward the Federal Reserve’s target of 2% – precisely what the country needed. Under Trump, from April 2025 to April 2026 the inflation rate has spiked up to 3.8%. Meanwhile, wage growth in that same period was only 3.6%. Here’s why these numbers are vital: people with jobs can now afford less than they could in April 2025. This is not how compensation is supposed to work.
At the same time, Virginia’s economy is shrinking; state gross domestic product (GDP) went down by 0.2% this year – down from 6.2% just two years ago. The Weldon Cooper Center analysis says, “Economic conditions are projected to stabilize later in the year, but not enough to offset declines. Recovery, the report notes, depends on national-level economic changes” (our emphasis).
Recovery – if it happens – will require that Wittman and people like him change how they vote, assert their power as members of Congress, and push back on the Trump administration’s unhinged economic policies.
Wittman’s support for everything the Trump administration is doing to the economy – which we address more later here – is destroying household budgets. So even if you have a stable, long-term job, whether you are a Republican, Democrat, Independent, or resolute non-voter, you are losing in the Trump economy whenever you need to buy anything.
The “scalpel” speech and the sledgehammer votes
If you don’t have a stable job, Wittman definitely isn’t helping you. In May 2025, Wittman published a Richmond Times-Dispatch op-ed (also available on his website) on “fiscal responsibility,” in which he said:
“To address this [the rising national debt that threatens Social Security and Medicare], we need to pursue targeted savings — not reckless cuts. That means using a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, when it comes to rightsizing the federal workforce or realigning federal spending. We must always remember the real people behind the numbers — families depending on paychecks, seniors relying on benefits, and communities counting on services.”
—Rob Wittman, May 2025
Pay attention to that phrase: “a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.” Because his next move was to vote for the sledgehammer — twice! First he cast a yes vote on the February 2025 budget resolution that authorized the DOGE-style cuts, dismissing it as “a procedural vote, which didn’t make any policy changes.” Five months later, he cast another yes on the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, the law that codified those same policy changes.
In addition to the GDP shrinkage described earlier, the results in Virginia were (and continue to be) devastating to jobs and our economy:
23,500 civilian federal jobs lost in the Commonwealth through November 2025 - six years of growth, gone in 11 months
The Department of Veterans Affairs alone cut nearly 30,000 employees in 2025 - including over 2,700 nurses, 1,000+ medical officers, and 1,000+ psychologists and social workers serving the substantial veteran population in our Yorktown, Fredericksburg, and Northern Neck communities
That’s not a scalpel; it’s a chainsaw. WTF, Rob?
The tariff votes that hit Virginia farms and seafood docks
While Virginia agriculture braced for the worst trade shock in a generation, Wittman voted three separate times to make sure Congress wouldn’t even get to vote on stopping it.
April 9, 2025 - Roll Call 94 (216–215): Voted YES on the procedural rule that disabled the National Emergencies Act review of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs through September 30
September 16, 2025 - Roll Call 268 (213–211): Voted YES on the rule blocking a disapproval vote on Trump’s 50% Brazil tariff
February 10, 2026 (214–217): Voted to prevent Congress from considering blocking the tariffs.
On October 28, 2025, the Senate passed Sen. Tim Kaine’s resolution to terminate the Brazil tariff emergency, 52–48, with five Republicans crossing over. The House never got to vote because of the procedural blockade Wittman repeatedly supported.
What does that mean for us in the First District? In March 2025, Virginia Tech agricultural trade analyst Xi He warned that retaliatory tariffs would “particularly affect Virginia soybeans, poultry, pork, and tobacco” — the four crops VA-01 farmers grow most. More than 90% of Virginia’s roughly 40,000 farms are small operations without financial cushion. Virginia’s $1.3 billion seafood industry, which employs nearly 25,000 people across the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula, depends on inputs and export markets which have been disrupted by the tariffs.
Wittman has not issued a single public statement opposing the tariffs that are slamming his own constituents.
The “shipbuilding champion” who said nothing
Wittman calls himself a shipbuilding champion. He is Vice Chair of the House Armed Services Committee and a ranking member of the Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee. There is no member of Congress currently better positioned to promote and defend Virginia shipyard jobs.
On May 30, 2025, Newport News Shipbuilding furloughed 471 salaried shipbuilders without warning. In November 2025, the company announced that roughly a third of them — more than 150 workers — would be permanently laid off.
Wittman’s public response? An April 16 photo-op with Navy Secretary John Phelan. No press release. No statement opposing the furloughs. No demand for answers from the Navy on contract delays. No public pressure on leadership to stabilize the workforce. At a May 20 Armed Services hearing on the proposed new battleship program, his stated concern was that the program “stay on schedule” — ignoring his own constituents who’d been laid off without warning.
If you’re the Vice Chair of Armed Services and 471 shipbuilders in your state get furloughed on your watch, silence speaks volumes.
The tax break with his name on it (again)
We covered this in WTF #1, and it bears repeating in the jobs-and-economy context. The same One Big Beautiful Bill that authorized the federal layoffs hammering Virginia families will, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, save Rob Wittman personally between $19,900 and $59,300 a year, thanks to a pass-through deduction tailored to his two rental properties.
The average Virginia working family’s benefit from the same bill: $40-50. The benefit to the shipyard worker who just got laid off in Newport News: nothing.
Wittman supported the 43-day shutdown
From October 1 to November 12, 2025, the federal government endured the longest shutdown in American history. White House data counted approximately 189,000 Virginia federal workers furloughed or working without pay. Virginia lost an estimated $396 million per week in gross state product. 825,000 Virginia SNAP recipients faced delayed benefits. Haymarket Regional Food Pantry reported a 200% jump in applications.
Throughout, Wittman voted with House leadership to perpetuate the shutdown. His most visible in-district appearance was a sparsely-attended visit with furloughed TSA workers at Richmond International Airport on November 6, five weeks into the shutdown.
What all of this means for you
Our elected representative voted for the federal layoffs, voted to protect the tariffs, stayed silent on the shipyard furloughs, voted himself a tax cut of up to $59,300, and won’t take your questions in person.
Wittman’s “moderate” label is doing a lot of work to hide his immoderate, MAGA-aligned record.
Next time Wittman calls himself a shipbuilding champion, ask him about the 471 workers at Newport News. If he repeats “scalpel, not sledgehammer,” ask him about the 23,500 Virginians who lost their federal jobs. When he says for the umpteenth time that the One Big Beautiful Bill helps working families, ask him about the $59,300 it could save him. Then call his office in Glen Allen, Yorktown, or DC, show up at his next staff-only office hours, and remind him to whom these jobs — and this district — belong.
The Wittman Truth Files (WTF) is a weekly series profiling the gap between Rep. Rob Wittman’s public claims and his voting record. If you found this useful, share it with a neighbor and your social channels, and subscribe to get next week’s installment right in your inbox.