Election 2026

Independent, source-first accountability

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Candidate record

J. Matt Baker

Independent candidate. The state's candidate list records him as not the incumbent, and the desk found no federal or state legislative office for him. Campaign affiliation: Independent.

Voter guide

Background, stated goals, record, and money

Goals come from the campaign's own platform. Record lines are official actions.

How this guide is built

Background comes from official records, and from the campaign's own biography where the bullet says so; goals are summarized from the campaign's own platform and stay attributed; the record lines are official actions with the government source attached; money is shown as filed, with the filings it covers in the note under the table, and is not evidence of why any position was taken.

J. Matt Baker

Background

  • Holds no office. Virginia's candidate list for this election records him as not the incumbent, and his campaign home page describes him as a retired Marine Corps colonel of 28 years and gives his Naval Academy class as '87.
  • His platform describes him as an engineer who has worked on power systems for utilities and the Department of Defense.
  • His home page says he is running as an independent "because that is the only way I can say all of these things without checking where the party stands first."

What they say they want to do

  • Take no PAC money and reduce the hold large donors have over the courts and policy.
  • Pass honest budgets on time and state the tradeoffs out loud.
  • Make flood resilience funding for Hampton Roads a first-term priority.
  • Restore consensus requirements for lifetime judicial appointments and back independent redistricting nationwide.
  • Negotiate an immigration settlement rather than perform outrage over one.

What the official record shows

  • Holds no legislative record this desk can compare: the desk found no federal or state legislative office for him. The state's own candidate lists, revised September 8 and September 10, 2026, record him in every locality of the district and not as the incumbent.
  • Matt Baker for Congress filed its statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission, giving a Washington, DC address. It is the committee's only filing to date.

Campaign money from other committees, by type

Matt Baker for Congress has filed no report of receipts and disbursements. Its one filing with the Federal Election Commission is a statement of organization received July 22, 2026, and the commission carries no cycle totals for it, so there is nothing to group by type.

Issues in this record

Follow the evidence by issue.

Costs and the economyHealth careVeterans and the militaryGovernment accountability and money in politicsImmigration and the borderThe coast, flooding and the Chesapeake BayReproductive rightsMedicare, Social Security and retirement

Evidence timeline

Dated records, with sources attached.

  1. race event

    Official candidate list revised

    The Virginia Department of Elections revised its candidate lists for the November 3, 2026 general election, the federal-offices list on September 8 and the fuller all-offices list on September 10, each dated by the name of its own downloadable file. Read on September 13, both show the same four candidates for the 2nd District: Luria, Kiggans, Staten and Baker. The state has since replaced both files; the source note records what could and could not be read back.

  2. race event

    Baker's committee registered

    Matt Baker for Congress filed its statement of organization on July 22, 2026, its only filing to date.

  3. race event

    The seat changed hands

    Luria's second term ended and Kiggans's first began on January 3, 2023. Congress.gov records Luria for the 116th and 117th Congresses and Kiggans for the 118th and 119th, so every vote and sponsorship on this page belongs to one of them and to one side of that date.

See something wrong or incomplete? Report it for review.

Sources7 source records

How we use sources

  1. Candidates for the November 3, 2026 general election, federal officeshttps://www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ballot/candidate-list/november-3-2026-gen-elect-federal-offices/

    Virginia Department of Elections · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    Four candidates for the 2nd District: Elaine G. Luria (Democratic, incumbent No), Jen A. Kiggans (Republican, incumbent Yes), Geral D. "Bishop" Staten (Independent, incumbent No) and J. Matt Baker (Independent, incumbent No). Its Campaign Website column names elaineforcongress.com, www.jenforcongress.com and mattbakerindependent.com and is empty for Staten; his row gives a Yahoo campaign mailbox and a Suffolk post-office box that match the contact on his most recent FEC statement of organization. When read on September 13, 2026 the page's downloadable list was named 2026-November-Federal-Offices-Candidate-List-(rev-9-8-2026).xlsx; that file has since been replaced and now returns 404.

    official election record

    For: Current role; Background, goals, record and campaign money; Official candidate list revised

  2. Matt Baker for Congress, FEC committee recordhttps://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00957233/

    Federal Election Commission · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    Principal campaign committee of FEC candidate H6VA02263, one filing to date: a Form 1 statement of organization received 2026-07-22, with a Washington, DC address. No report of receipts and disbursements has been filed and the FEC carries no cycle totals for it.

    fec filing

    For: Background, goals, record and campaign money; Baker's committee registered

  3. Matt Baker for Congress, home pagehttps://www.mattbakerindependent.com/

    Matt Baker for Congress · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    Read live on 2026-09-13. Describes him as "Colonel, USMC (Ret.) · 28 Years" and carries no publication date. It links a Facebook page and instagram.com/MattBakerVA and no X account.

    candidate statement

    For: Background, goals, record and campaign money

  4. Where I Stand, the campaign's platformhttps://www.mattbakerindependent.com/vision

    Matt Baker for Congress · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    His platform page, read live on 2026-09-13: four numbered pillars covering the Constitution, Congress as a system, technology and energy, and Hampton Roads. It carries no publication date.

    candidate statement

    For: Background, goals, record and campaign money

  5. Candidates for the November 3, 2026 general election, all officeshttps://www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ballot/candidate-list/november-3-2026-gen-elect-all-offices/

    Virginia Department of Elections · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    The state's fuller candidate list, revised September 10, 2026 by the name of its own downloadable file and by that file's internal modification stamp, and so more recent than the federal-offices list this desk also cites. The revision read on September 13, 2026 carried a Status column the federal list does not, and that is no longer checkable: the September 8 and September 10 files now return 404, the Internet Archive answered no query for them, this desk holds no capture of the workbook, and the revision the state serves now, read on September 15, 2026, has no status column and contains the word Qualified nowhere. What follows is the row as this desk read it that day, kept as the record of what was read rather than as a claim a reader can reproduce, and no claim on any page rests on its status field. Staten's Virginia Beach City row read, field by field: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY, 3, 5, Member, House of Representatives, 2nd District, 1, 2 year, Qualified, Independent, Geral D. "Bishop" Staten, No, bishopstatenforcongress@yahoo.com, 757-372-7580, PO Box 5, Suffolk, VA, 23439-0005. He is carried in all eight of the district's localities alongside Luria, Kiggans and Baker. The workbook's two order columns are office and party: his row reads 3 for the office and 5 for the party slot, and that 5 is the independent slot he shares with Baker rather than a position on a four-name ballot. This is the state's own record of who is on the ballot and the only basis on which this desk states that any of these four is. The link opens the revision the state serves now, not the one transcribed above.

    official election record

    For: Background, goals, record and campaign money; Official candidate list revised

  6. Representative Elaine G. Luria, terms and legislationhttps://www.congress.gov/member/elaine-luria/L000591

    Congress.gov · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    Two terms, the 116th and 117th Congresses, Virginia's 2nd District, 2019 to 2023; 45 sponsored bills and resolutions plus 2 floor amendments, and 1,002 cosponsorships. The member page refuses automated readers, so these were read on 2026-09-13 through the same publisher's API at api.congress.gov/v3/member/L000591.

    official legislative record

    For: The seat changed hands

  7. Representative Jennifer A. Kiggans, terms and legislationhttps://www.congress.gov/member/jennifer-kiggans/K000399

    Congress.gov · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    Two terms, the 118th and 119th Congresses, Virginia's 2nd District, since 2023; 78 sponsored bills and resolutions plus 5 floor amendments, and 700 cosponsorships. The member page refuses automated readers, so these were read on 2026-09-13 through the same publisher's API at api.congress.gov/v3/member/K000399.

    official legislative record

    For: The seat changed hands