Republicans celebrate apparent sweep of top 3 state offices; Henrico Democrats can't stave off Republican majority in the House
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As Republicans celebrated an apparent sweep of all three statewide offices in Virginia early Wednesday morning, incumbent Democrats in three House of Delegates races involving Henrico breathed a sigh of relief after holding off their Republican challengers thanks to absentee and early-voter ballots. For a time early Wednesday morning, it appeared their wins had staved off a Republican majority in the House, but once Republicans flipped their seventh seat of the election, the GOP held a 52-48 majority there, too.
Republicans Glenn Youngkin (governor), Winsome Sears (lieutenant governor) and Jason Miyares (attorney general) each appeared headed for victory Tuesday night, though their margins were shrinking as more absentee and early voter ballots were reported. Several major networks, including CNN, called the gubernatorial race for Youngkin shortly after 12:30 a.m., and Democrat Terry McAuliffe conceded the race Wednesday morning, trailing 50.6% to 48.5%.
Sears held a very similar lead over Democrat Hala Ayala, while Miyares led two-term incumbent Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring by only about 35,000 votes.
All three Democrats easily outpaced their Republican counterparts in Henrico, where McAuliffe earned about 58.5% of the vote, while Ayala and Herring each earned 59%.
McAuliffe’s Henrico percentage was about 2% lower than Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam received in the county four years ago. Statewide, Youngkin similarly carved into the deficits Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie suffered four years ago, narrowing those margins in localities that voted for McAuliffe this year, while extending them in the places that voted Republican. It was just enough.
But while Republicans were enjoying statewide wins, Henrico Democrats were exhaling after retaining three House of Delegates seats involving the county – two of which appeared for a time Tuesday night to be slipping from their grasp.
In the 72nd District, two-term Democratic incumbent Schuyler VanValkenburg had a much closer than expected race with Republican challenger Christopher Holmes, who was leading by about 1,000 votes until the absentee and early voter returns were posted, which swung the total to VanValkenburg’s favor by about 2,000 votes – enough for him to claim victory, with only absentee-by-mail ballots still outstanding. (Those ballots will be counted if they were postmarked by Tuesday and arrive to the Henrico registrar’s office by Friday at noon.)
“I am grateful to the people of Henrico County for returning me to the House of Delegates, and I’ll keep representing them and Henrico values over the next two years as we continue to move our Commonwealth forward,” VanValkenburg said in a statement. “As a civics teacher, there is nothing more humbling and inspiring than to see participatory democracy at work.”
The story was similar in the 73rd District, where Democratic incumbent Rodney Willett also needed the absentee and early voter totals to erase a 400-vote deficit and claim another victory against Republican challenger Mary Margaret Kastelberg, whom he also defeated two years ago.
And in the 68th District, which primarily includes Chesterfield and Richmond but also includes a sliver of Henrico, two-term incumbent Democrat Dawn Adams also made a late surge to claim a close victory over Republican challenger Mark Earley, Jr., leading with 53% of the vote with just a handful of absentee precincts still to report.
