If you need evidence that Virginians love an election, look no further than the impossibly crowded primary races in the commonwealth’s 7th and 10th congressional districts, two of the most competitive races in the D.C. region.

Twelve Democrats and seven Republicans have tossed their hats into the proverbial ring in party primaries for the 10th District, centered in Loudoun County. Just south, in the 7th District, seven Democrats and nine Republicans are running, along with an independent candidate. (Candidates won’t officially file to appear on the ballot until April.)

Both seats are currently held by Democrats — Rep. Jennifer Wexton in the 10th and Rep. Abigail Spanberger in the 7th — but both incumbents are stepping down, Wexton for health reasons and Spanberger to run for Virginia governor.

That leaves primary voters with a lot of candidates to sort through, and candidates with the difficult task of differentiating themselves from the rest of the field. But the first round of campaign finance filings in the races, which cover the final quarter of 2023, offer some clues as to whose campaigns could have the resources to break through.

In the 7th District, Democrat Eugene Vindman, who won national attention when he blew the whistle on then-President Donald Trump’s request that Ukraine open a corruption investigation into Joe Biden, has raked in more than $2 million. That’s by far the largest haul of any candidate in either district, and far ahead of his closest Democratic competitor, current Prince William County supervisor Margaret Franklin (D-Woodbridge), whose campaign tallied just under $123,000. Meanwhile, Republican Derrick Anderson, an attorney and former Green Beret endorsed by U.S. House GOP Conference chair Elise Stefanik and other Trump-orbit Republicans, posted the largest fundraising total of the GOP field, at $464,000.

Among Democrats running in the 10th District — which skews bluer than the 7th — Del. Dan Helmer, an Army veteran and the campaigns chair for the House Democrats in the General Assembly during the party’s successful 2023 election campaign, led the pack, raising $622,000. (Helmer narrowly edged out national security industry expert Krystle Kaul, who raised $604,000, mostly in the form of personal loans to her own campaign.) On the Republican side, attorney and tech executive Mike Clancy, who previously ran for the party’s nomination in 2022, has the fundraising edge, with $229,000.

All that money will help candidates get out their messages to primary voters, an expensive proposition in the D.C. media market. In 2022, for example, Spanberger’s winning campaign raised almost $9 million, with millions more coming in from outside groups.

“We feel that these resources make it possible for us to meet people where they are and tell them what a champion Dan’s going to be for them in Washington, to make sure that we protect our democracy and stop Donald Trump and his allies from undermining the things that we care about,” said Brendon Mills, Helmer’s campaign manager.

Campaigns with significant fundraising totals typically tout them as an indication of grassroots support and energy.

“I am humbled by the outpouring of support we have received the past few months” from Virginia conservatives, said 10th District Republican candidate Mike Clancy in a statement on the campaign’s year-end fundraising total.

“Colonel Vindman’s grassroots fundraising numbers from the first five weeks of his campaign demonstrate that his message of stopping the MAGA extremists who want to ban books and abortion access is resonating with supporters all across the district,” said Jeremy Levinson, Vindman’s campaign manager.

But that doesn’t mean the candidates with the most money are shoo-ins for their party nomination.

“There are minimal differences between the nominees,” said David Ramadan, a professor of politics at George Mason University’s Schar School of Public Policy and a former Republican member of the House of Delegates from Loudoun County. “Therefore, it becomes a personal choice. It becomes, the voter is going to vote for the person that knocked on their door, or a voter would vote for someone they identify with.”

In fact, Ramadan believes some of the leading fundraisers may have a steeper climb than others in the field. Some will be introducing themselves to the primary electorate, while other contenders already hold public office in the districts they’re running in. He noted that in the 7th district, Vindman, for instance, is a first-time candidate and a newcomer to Virginia politics, a fact which raised the ire of some local Democrats upon his announcement. In the Democratic contest for the 10th District nomination, Ramadan says a similar dynamic may apply: Helmer and former Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, both top fundraisers, have represented Fairfax County, not Loudoun County, where the main part of the Democratic electorate in the 10th District is based. (Helmer’s campaign notes his old district did cover parts of Prince William and Fairfax counties that fall within the boundaries of the district.)

Vindman, for his part, is leaning into his anti-Trump bona fides and his national security background, which could help his chances in Northern Virginia, home to thousands of military and civilian personnel who work in the area’s defense industry. Helmer and fellow VA-10 Democrat Atif Qarni, an ex-Marine, may also be able to reach voters with military backgrounds. On the other side of the aisle, Republican Derrick Anderson has also focused on his military experience, portraying himself as a conservative fighter ready to take on the political establishment.

But other candidates in both races may also be able to tap into other background characteristics to connect with voters. In the 10th District, Ramadan thinks candidates like State Sen. Suhas Subramanyam (D-32nd District) and former state Sec. of Education Atif Qarni could get a boost if either campaign is successful at turning out South Asian, Muslim-American, and other nonwhite voters, a powerful voting block in Loudoun County.

Factors like that could prove especially significant in crowded races, where the victor may win their party’s nod with a relatively small percentage of the vote — perhaps as little as twenty percent of the vote, Ramadan says.

This story has been updated with information about Dan Helmer’s previous House of Delegates district.