This story was reported and written by our media partner the Virginia Mercury.
U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans is facing renewed scrutiny over her votes to roll back consumer financial oversight after receiving tens of thousands of dollars from political committees tied to the financial services industry, including a Republican group that has received substantial funding from payday and title lenders.
The Virginia Beach Republican supported repealing federal rules governing major payment apps and bank overdraft fees in 2025, five years after opposing Virginia’s overhaul of payday and car title lending.
The record is drawing attention as Kiggans seeks reelection in a district with Virginia’slargest veteran population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, and a substantial active-duty military community.
“Jen Kiggans is a pay-to-play politician who cashes checks from predatory corporations that target veterans and service members, and then does their bidding in Washington. That’s corruption in plain sight,” a spokesman for her Democratic challenger, former U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria, said Wednesday.
The Cook Political Report rates the Kiggans-Luria rematch a toss-up race.
Kiggans campaign spokesman Calvin Moore did not answer a list of questions from The Mercury about the congresswoman’s votes and contributions, instead providing a statement defending her record.
“Democrats have tried pushing these debunked attacks for years, and Virginia voters have rejected them every single time,” Moore said in an email.
He pointed to Kiggans’ experience as a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, military spouse and mother.
“Jen knows firsthand the sacrifices military families make and the challenges they face,” Moore said. “Which is why her top priorities in Congress have been standing up for our service members, lowering costs for military families, and making sure they have the pay, housing, healthcare, and support they’ve earned.”
The federal votes did not eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s authority over payday or “buy now, pay later” lenders. Instead, Kiggans voted to repeal two specific Biden-era rules involving large digital payment companies and overdraft fees.
The CFPB separately deprioritized enforcement based on its buy now, pay later rule under the Trump administration.
Alex Keena, an associate professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, said an incumbent’s voting record can become a liability when opponents are able to connect it to voters’ everyday concerns.
Keena said Kiggans’ support for Republican priorities, including rolling back consumer protections, gives Democrats an opportunity to make that connection to household finances.
“This is a bad look, and it will be very easy to show that her voting record has directly affected the economic interests of voters in the district,” he said.
What the federal votes changed
On April 9, 2025, Kiggans voted to overturn a CFPB rule that subjected the largest nonbank digital payment companies to routine federal examinations. The resolution passed 219-211, with every voting House Republican supporting it and every voting Democrat opposing it.
The rule applied to companies processing at least 50 million transactions annually, including major payment wallets and money-transfer apps. Repealing it removed that basis for routine CFPB supervision but did not exempt the companies from federal consumer protection laws.
Nor was the rule aimed specifically at buy now, pay later lending. The CFPB explicitly distinguished payment services from lending and declined to extend that rule to that market.
The Trump administration took separate action on buy now, pay later products the following month, when the CFPB announced it would deprioritize enforcement of an earlier interpretation that extended credit card-style protections to those loans.
Buy now, pay later services commonly allow consumers to split purchases into four interest-free payments. They differ from traditional payday loans, although missed payments and multiple overlapping loans can pose financial risks.
Kiggans cast another vote on April 9 to overturn the CFPB’s overdraft rule, which would have required banks and credit unions with more than $10 billion in assets to cap overdraft fees at $5, limit them to costs and losses, or comply with additional credit protections and disclosure requirements.
Republicans argued the rule would make banks less willing to offer overdraft services. But consumer advocates said it would curb excessive fees that can disadvantage consumers living paycheck to paycheck, including military families.
Moore, however, pointed to other parts of Kiggans’ record that he said show her commitment to service members.
In September 2025, she introduced the Pay Our Troops Act of 2026 to maintain military pay during government shutdowns and worked on legislation aimed at reducing barriers to VA-backed home loans.
Another bipartisan measure Kiggans sponsored would broaden mortgage eligibility for some National Guard and Reserve members.
Contributions and an earlier lending dispute
The campaign money at issue came from several types of political committees, and not all of it can accurately be described as coming from payday lenders.
State campaign filings show Kiggans received $17,500 from GOPAC in 2019, when Kiggans ran for the Virginia Senate in the 7th District. Federal filings list another $10,000 from the GOPAC Election Fund for her congressional campaign in 2021 and 2022.
GOPAC is a Republican political organization, not a lending company. But a 2018 Louisville Courier Journal review of the organization’s finances found substantial contributions from payday and title lending businesses.
Kiggans also received a combined $22,000 from PACs associated with Ally Financial, American Express, Capital One, Regions Financial and Experian.
Those companies operate in different parts of the financial industry. Experian, for example, is a credit reporting company rather than a lender, while some installment-payment products offered by the companies operate through traditional credit cards.
Combined, the two categories account for $49,500 in contributions. Some of the money arrived long before Kiggans’ federal votes, and some afterward, including a November 2025 contribution to her leadership PAC.
The contributions do not establish that donors influenced Kiggans’ votes.
However, questions about Kiggans’ relationship with the lending industry date to her time in the Virginia Senate.
During her 2022 congressional campaign, WAVY questioned her about her opposition to the Virginia Fairness in Lending Act and contributions she had received from GOPAC. Kiggans repeatedly declined to explain her vote before ending the interview.
“I would never vote for anything that I thought would be considered to be hurtful or harmful to veterans,” Kiggans told the network.
The 2020 law overhauled Virginia’s rules for payday, title and other small-dollar loans. Among other changes, it capped certain costs, imposed repayment requirements and closed regulatory loopholes that had allowed some lenders to avoid existing restrictions.
VCU’s Keena said bringing the issue back before voters could matter even if it does not persuade many people in the 2nd District to change their minds.
“I think it is a useful line of attack, but it may not necessarily change voters’ views,” Keena said. “Rather, it may undermine Kiggans’ ability to mobilize the constituency that put her into office in 2022.”
The criticism could also mobilize Democrats and left-leaning independents to support Luria, Keena said. Many voters are unfamiliar with their representatives’ congressional votes, he said, giving campaigns an opportunity to connect an incumbent’s record to broader concerns about the economy.
“In the context of an economic downturn, voters have a tendency to blame the party in power, so campaigns use mass marketing to draw contrasts between a challenger’s positions and an incumbent’s record on these issues,” Keena said.