By Jeffrey A. Leach
Recently I sat down with Arthur Purves of Vienna, who is running for Congress in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, to ask him what voters should know about him and what sets him apart.
Born just after the second world war in Allied-occupied Germany, where his father served in the U.S. occupation government, Arthur moved with his family to DC in 1953. He first developed an interest in politics during the Eisenhower-Stevenson campaign in 1956. After high school, he attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned an MBA from the Wharton School and an MS degree from the engineering school.
Arthur married his wife Carol in 1973, and in 1976 the couple moved to Vienna, where they raised two children. Arthur was a computer programmer for 40 years, a career he enjoyed. He and Carol were also active in their church and volunteered extensively, including at the Fairfax County Public Schools that their children attended. Arthur has also served as the President of Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance for 30 years. Carol, sadly, passed away in 2019.
When asked what a congressman from our district should focus on at the national level, Arthur quickly replied, “Our out-of-control federal spending,” warning that we are headed towards a financial collapse worse than that of 1929. He pointed to the $40 trillion debt, $2 trillion annual deficits, and the $1 trillion interest on the debt. Excessive federal spending causes high inflation, and the mounting 10-year treasury yields drive up mortgage rates.
Not only does Arthur say that he is the only candidate not side-stepping the pending economic disaster, but also that he is the only one providing a solution, one that “slashes trillions of dollars of spending without cutting a program.” He notes that of the $7 trillion that the U.S. spent last year, around $2 trillion was on healthcare. Why? Because America has a chronic disease epidemic: per RealFood.gov, 50% of Americans have diabetes, 75% of adults report having one chronic condition, and 90% of healthcare spending is on chronic disease. Key contributors to the epidemic are the thousands of unregulated chemicals in our ultra-processed food and the old federal high-carb, lean-meat food pyramid, which was, in fact, a prescription for diabetes. Chronic disease is bankrupting federal and state governments and is a hardship for local governments, businesses, and families.
Arthur’s solution? Stop chronic disease by eating real food, as Americans did a hundred years ago: eggs, saturated fats, and red meat, along with fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Follow the new food pyramid. This solution requires policing additives and educating citizens, neither of which will be easy since Big Food and Big Pharma have financial incentives in making and keeping us sick. Their lobbies spend more than $1 million per senator and representative.
On international issues, Arthur says that the Iran war has proven that Iran wants the atomic bomb. Cries of “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” should be taken seriously, since the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps currently controlling Iran has fomented war against both the US and Israel, and shown by its missile strike on Diego Garcia that Israel and Europe are already within striking distance.
That the IRGC slaughtered tens of thousands of protesters shows that its religious fanaticism devalues life (and that gun control is an effective tool for violently suppressing dissent).
Iran is a tough opponent. History teaches us that the longer we take to oppose tough opponents (like Hitler in the Sudetenland), the worse the conflict.
For all these reasons we should support the President in his actions against the IRGC and resist Democratic support for the regime.
While recognizing that the earth’s climate is warming and that humans may be part of the cause, Arthur opposes costly climate alarmism. Democrats have no evidence of a climate crisis due to rising CO2. “The Democrats are hypocrites when they criticize the Iran war for raising oil prices,” said Arthur. “The Democrats want high oil prices to get people off of fossil fuels.” As to where he obtains his climate data, Arthur pointed to Hot Talk, Cold Science, by Fred Singer and Climate4You.com.
Arthur thinks the Democrats do not want to enforce immigration law or even deport illegal alien criminals, but that, instead of saying this explicitly, they encourage obstruction of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is dangerous to officers and protesters alike. He supports vetting immigrants at entry points in a closed border.
With respect to running a political campaign in our polarized country, Arthur says: “I have made it a goal . . . to always be civil, collegial with my opponents.” He spoke in friendly terms of past rivals, such as Janet Howell, Jeff McKay, and Stu Gibson, who beat him in various past campaigns.
Finally, I asked Arthur if there was any other topic he’d like to address. “The importance of faith in God,” he replied. “Edmund Burke said, ‘Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their appetites.’ We need divine help to rein in our passions and appetites, to defer gratification, to be our brother’s keeper, and to overcome greed,” the cause of many of the problems he seeks to resolve.
The final day for voting in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District is November 3, 2026.
This article was submitted to WMAL by Jeffrey A. Leach, who resides in Northern Virginia. A graduate of Oxford and UVA, he is a member of the District of Columbia and Virginia bar associations.
