Virginia Democrats sweep legislative races as GOP loses dozen seats

Virginia took on new life Tuesday as a Democratic stronghold, with Abigail Spanberger, Jay Jones and Ghazala Hashmi sweeping statewide elections — marking the party’s biggest power shift in more than a decade as Republicans lost at least a dozen legislative seats.

BEACH ATMOSPHERE

The Virginia Beach and Greater Hampton Roads area seemed to be the biggest boon for his son Jones, who represented Norfolk in the state Legislature and whose namesake father had done so for years before.

Several Tidewater counties that supported Glenn Youngkin in 2021 turned blue this time, helping to strengthen Jones and the Democratic ticket.

The densely populated independent cities of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake joined typically Democratic Suffolk, Norfolk and Newport News in helping propel Jones to victory, according to postmortem maps.

Virginia Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger has come under fire online for refusing to withdraw her support for fellow Virginia governor Jay Jones. (Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post/Getty Images; Getty Images)

James City County — which surrounds Williamsburg — and Surry County, an otherwise right-leaning area across the river from Jamestown — also landed in Jones’ lap on election night.

New Kent County — where Jones was previously cited for driving 116 mph — remained in favor of outgoing Attorney General Jason Miyares.

But, across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel on the Eastern Shore, rural Northampton County also opted for Jones — while its adjacent counterpart, Accomack, remained in Miyares’ hands.

The general trend in this region depicts Jones’ neighbors as a big part of his victory on Tuesday.

DC’S BLUE FOOTPRINT EXPANDS

Meanwhile, in Democratic-friendly Northern Virginia, Republican turnout margins looked anemic compared to 2021, when Youngkin and Miyares secured their victories.

Ticket-splitting in Washington suburbs seemed to help Jones as well as the growing population density fueled by federal workers and others, creating bedroom communities increasingly distant from Washington, DC.

As Washington, D.C.’s population expands south and west, neighboring counties like Stafford and Spotsylvania — as well as Loudoun, Fauquier and Clarke — trend heavily toward Democrats.

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Spotsylvania County opted for Spanberger but eschewed Jones in favor of Miyares. To the north, Stafford County — once returned to rural but now overtaken by subdivisions and expanded I-95 interchanges to accommodate population growth — lost to Democrats up and down the ballot after Youngkin won it in 2021.

In Stafford, Republican Assemblyman Paul Milde lost his seat to the elected Democratic Congressman. Stacey Carroll, who managed to overcome a residency dispute during her difficult race that was ultimately ruled in her favor.

In Loudoun, Prince William and Fauquier counties in western Washington, Democrats unseated otherwise popular Republican incumbents Geary Higgins and Ian Lovejoy — foreshadowing the overall victories of Spanberger and Jones.

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The fallout from the election was also felt across the mountain, in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, where on Wednesday morning, social media was buzzing with comments and memes similar to the way Floridians were addressing New Yorkers — suggesting Virginians either stay where they are and deal with their new left leaning, or not introduce their politics if they move to Jefferson and Berkeley counties.

The two states also originally separated in 1863 due to political differences, after a convention of Virginia delegates unhappy with Richmond’s plans to secede from the Union met in Wheeling to ultimately agree to the “Restored Government of Virginia” – which became West Virginia.

Jefferson County, the easternmost boundary of West Virginia; Neighboring Loudoun became the second most Democratic county in the all-Republican state after Monongalia — home to West Virginia University — as Washington’s blue footprint extends even beyond what was seen Tuesday.

The margin increases Youngkin has seen in and around Loudoun in 2021 were muted Tuesday, helping Spanberger, Jones and Hashmi all claim victory.

The same was evident for the increasingly populated counties around Richmond, as Chesterfield — Hashmi’s home county — turned blue and Henrico saw increased margins for hometown favorite Spanberger.

THE SOUTH-WEST REMAINS RED, BUT FEWER PARTICIPANTS

Elsewhere, the more rural and otherwise Republican-friendly New River Valley also lurched to the left on Tuesday — with Montgomery County falling into Democratic hands according to several media outlets’ postmortem percentages.

Del. Chris Obenshain, a member of a prominent Virginia Republican political family, was unseated as part of the blue wave — and Spanberger and Jones took the county won by Youngkin that includes Virginia Tech and Christiansburg.

In 2021, Youngkin “ran up the score,” as the pundits put it, in deep-red southwest Virginia.

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This year, Republicans still held their legislative seats there and voted for Miyares and Winsome Earle-Sears – but the election was closer and with smaller numbers.

In remote Lee County — longitudinally west of Detroit and closer to the Mississippi than to Washington, D.C. — 1,000 fewer Republicans turned out for Earle-Sears than for Youngkin.

This trend continued along the mountainous, diagonal border with Kentucky – as Wise, Dickenson, Buchanan, Tazewell, Bland and Giles counties all turned out to be in much lower numbers for regionally favored Republican candidates.

CRUNCHED ROAD; LIGHT POINT

A small positive point remained on the map for the Republicans on Wednesday.

The area comprising Virginia’s famous “Crooked Road” — considered the birthplace of country music and bluegrass along present-day U.S. 58 in the Appalachian hills — provided similar numbers for Earle-Sears and Miyares as it did for Youngkin and Miyares four years ago.

Just as NASCAR fans filled Martinsville a few days earlier, Republicans from surrounding counties showed up in slightly lower numbers than four years ago.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

A Republican official told Fox News Digital after the results were announced Tuesday that politics in Virginia can often be a “rubber band” that stretches in one direction and releases another over time.

For 70 years of Democratic control over Virginia politics by the “Byrd Machine”, which eased at the end of the 20th century after the death of the ex-governor. Harry Byrd, there have been ebbs and flows of partisan power in Richmond, often depending on who is in the White House.

Youngkin’s 2021 victory was seen by political observers as an indictment of the Biden administration, just as Spanberger and Jones’s was of President Donald Trump’s.

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Previously, Governor Ralph Northam won in the second year of Trump’s first term, and so on.

But Virginia hadn’t experienced such a drastic tidal change until Tuesday.

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Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, is up for re-election in 2026, and already one conservative — state Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Orange — has announced his candidacy against the incumbent.

In her concession speech, Earle-Sears said she was “not going anywhere” — but it remains to be seen whether she, Youngkin or another Republican could give Reeves company and try to use Warner’s run as the same type of response to the possible shortcomings of the Spanberger-Jones era.