Republicans scored massive victories in elections held in Virginia on Tuesday, returning two GOP politicians to local legislature following the departure of the incumbents.
While it has leaned to Democrats in recent elections, Virginia is seen as an important battleground state ahead of the 2024 election, with Republicans winning in the latest gubernatorial election in 2021 and political commentators labeling it a competitive purple state.
Tammy Mulchi defeated Democrat Tina Wyatt-Younger by 63.9 percent to 36.1 percent of the vote to win the 9th state Senate District in Southside. She will succeed state Sen. Frank Ruff, who is retiring after being diagnosed with cancer, Cardinal News reported.
"In Richmond, I am ready to get to work for our rural communities, family farmers, and southern Virginia," Mulchi said in a statement. "I know I have big shoes to fill with Sen. Ruff retiring, but I am ready to get to work."
In the 48th House District, also in Southside, Eric Phillips beat Melody Cartwright with 70.8 percent of the vote to Cartwright's 29.2 percent. The vote was triggered by the resignation of Republican Les Adams, who is seeking a judgeship in Danville.
"With Democrats in control of the General Assembly, Republicans need a fighter who will stand up for our way of life and push forward Gov. [Glenn] Youngkin's conservative agenda," Phillips said in a statement.
The victories took place in Republican strongholds, replacing GOP incumbents. Speaking to Newsweek, Scott Lucas, a professor in international politics at University College Dublin, said the Virginia results do not "mean that much at a national level."
"Both of the seats were solid Republican seats before they went to special elections," he said.
"If the Republicans had lost them, then that would have been a bit of a shocker because that would be an upset and it would portend that Virginia, at the local level, might be swinging very much to the Democrats ahead of the 2024 elections."
He added that a lot of races in the 2024 elections could go "either way" and Virginia does not give a sense of "which way the pendulum will swing."
Nevertheless, the results might galvanize Republicans ahead of the upcoming federal elections in November. In both the votes, the margin of victory was higher than what Donald Trump's party achieved in those districts in 2020.
Meanwhile, in 2020, President Joe Biden won the state with 54.4 percent of the vote to Republican Trump's 44.2 percent in the presidential election.
The Democrats enjoyed similar success in the Senate elections, with Mark Warner winning 56 percent of the votes and beating his challenger Daniel Gade, who won 44 percent of the vote.
There were also votes in Virginia's 11 districts for the House of Representatives. Neither party flipped a seat, meaning Democrats maintained control of seven seats to the Republican's four.
Glenn Youngkin won the race for state governor in 2021. In November 2023, Democrats in Virginia won control of both the state's chambers of government by taking control of the General Assembly
Whether the balance of power changes in November remains to be seen, but latest polling conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy has suggested Biden could beat Trump 49 percent to 43 percent in the upcoming election, meaning he would keep the state, but with a smaller majority than in the 2020 election. The survey was of 625 registered voters and was conducted between December 15 to December 19.
Newsweek has contacted representatives of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party via email to comment on this story.
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Kate Plummer is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. politics and national affairs, and ... Read more
