By Jenny Hellwig
Rockbridge County voters will likely see some unfamiliar names on their ballots this November because of Virginia’s redistricting process.
This is the first election using the new map of voter districts, which were redrawn by the Virginia Supreme Court. And the stakes are high as Republicans and Democrats battle over all 140 seats in the Virginia General Assembly.
One big change for local voters is a change in state Senate districts. Rockbridge County will now be part of state Senate District 3 instead of District 25. State Sen. Creigh Deeds is running for District 11, so he will no longer represent local voters.
Several legislators chose to retire because their districts drastically changed, said J. Miles Coleman, associate editor for University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
“The state Supreme Court did not care about incumbent preferences,” Coleman said.
State Sen. Emmett Hanger, who represented the 24th district for 27 years, opted to retire rather than run in the redrawn 3rd District.
Candidates Jade Harris and Christopher Head will face off in that district. Both would be newcomers to the state Senate.
Harris, the Democratic candidate, served as the vice-mayor of Glasgow. Head, the Republican candidate, has served as a state delegate since 2012.
The new district map also means Rockbridge County voters are now split between two state House districts.
Some parts of Rockbridge County fall within House of Delegates District 36, where Republican incumbent Ellen Campbell is running against Democratic candidate Randall Wolf.
But most of the county is within the 37th District, where Republican incumbent Terry Austin faces off against Democratic candidate Stephanie Clark.
Ellen Campbell is a familiar name for many Rockbridge residents, as she currently represents the county after winning a special election earlier this year to replace her late husband, Ronnie Campbell, who served in the House of Delegates since 2018.
But Douglas Smith, chairman of the Rockbridge Area Republican Committee, said that it’s important for voters to know that Campbell is running to represent only part of the county, while Austin is running to represent most of it.
“It’s our duty, our job, to get the word out through sample ballots, literature drops, and we’re about to start running newspaper ads and probably will have radio ads in the coming weeks,” Smith said. “I want to make sure voters know when they enter the polls—whether it’s early, or on the day of November 7—that they understand who is going to be on the ballot.”
Some veteran legislators did choose to run in their new districts—and lost their primaries. Five state senators were defeated by primary challengers, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
Deeds narrowly fended off a primary challenge in his new district by securing 50.9% of the vote, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.
Statewide stakes
The November election will determine which party controls the House of Delegates and state Senate.
The state Senate is leaning slightly towards the Democrats, Coleman said, but the House of Delegates is a true “toss-up.”
He said that these statewide races have been extremely expensive for an off-year election.
“You see just millions of dollars being thrown around on advertising and campaigning, and though it would not surprise me at all, if for all these millions, the legislature stays exactly the same as it is now in terms of its composition,” Coleman said.
However, even if Democrats were to gain control of both chambers, they would still experience challenges due to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s veto.
“I would say in terms of stakes, for the Democratic candidates, they’re really not going to be able to pass a lot of their big ticket priorities on spending or infrastructure or education until they get a Democratic governor,” he said.
Meanwhile, if the Republicans manage to flip the state Senate, they could secure a government trifecta. Coleman said that Democrats are essentially playing on defense this November.
“They are playing so that the Republicans don’t get everything, and Virginia doesn’t start looking like, say, a Florida [under] DeSantis,” he said.