Riggleman served in the Air Force for 15 years. After initially serving as an enlisted avionics technician, he received a commission and went on to serve as an intelligence officer. Riggleman founded NSA contractor Analytics Warehouse, LLC, in 2007, and was its CEO until 2015. In 2014, Riggleman and his wife opened Silverback Distillery, a 50-acre craft distillery in Afton, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley outside Charlottesville. He has pushed for deregulation of distilleries in the state and changes to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority; together with other distillers, the Rigglemans established a "loosely formed distillers guild" and hired a lobbyist. Riggleman has "criticized the state's alcohol and tax laws as unfairly harsh toward spirits producers and spoke of a new 'whiskey rebellion.'"
In the 2018 elections, Riggleman was the Republican nominee for the United States House of Representatives election for. He defeated Cynthia Dunbar, who had lost the Republican nomination in the 6th district just weeks before, in the final round of voting to win the nomination. The Republican incumbent, Tom Garrett, did not run for reelection. In the November 2018 general election, Riggleman defeated Democratic nominee Leslie Cockburn with 53% of the vote to Cockburn's 47%. During the campaign, Cockburn accused Riggleman of being a "devotee of Bigfoot erotica", based on an image he shared from his Instagram to promote a book titled The Mating Habits of Bigfoot and Why Women Want Him. In an interview with CRTV Riggleman said the image was an obvious joke, but that he had an interest in Bigfoot, and co-authored the actual self-published book Bigfoot Exterminators, Inc.: The Partially Cautionary, Mostly True Tale of Monster Hunt 2006, with ESPN writer Don Barone. In a phone interview with The Washington Post, he clarified that it was an "anthropological book sort of based on parody and satire" and said, "I thought it was funny. There is no way that anybody's dumb enough to think this is real."
2020 election
The Rappahannock CountyRepublican Party criticized Riggleman after he officiated a same-sex wedding between two of his friends, and in September he was censured by party officials who claimed that he had "abandoned party principles" over fiscal and immigration policy. On September 26, 2019, Campbell County's Board of Supervisor Bob Good—who also worked as an athletics official at Liberty University—announced his intention to challenge Riggleman in the 2020 Republican primary. In his announcement, Good accused Riggleman of "betraying" the trust of conservative voters in the 5th district along with casting votes that were not in his constituency's best interest. Riggleman secured key endorsements on the right, including from Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr. The local party leaders of the 5th Congressional District Republican Committee chose to determine the 2020 nominee for the fifth district by a convention instead of a primary election. On June 13, 2020, Good defeated Riggleman at the nominating convention with 58% of the vote to Riggleman's 42%.
Tenure
Committee assignments
Committee on Financial Services
*Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy
Congressional Service Women and Women Veterans Caucus
Electoral history
Personal life
Riggleman has been married to Christine Blair Riggleman since 1989. They reside in Nellysford and have three daughters. In July 2019, Riggleman was the officiant at a same-sex marriage for two of his friends and campaign volunteers.
