Election Recap: Democrats win big in Tuesday’s election

By WILLIAM PAINE

Patriot Publishing

The Democratic party in Virginia swept all three statewide races in the Nov. 4 election, winning the contests for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General by wide margins. The Democrats also won big in the General Assembly elections and will enjoy a supermajority in the House of Delegates in 2026.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger bested Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears in her bid for governor with 1,961,990 (57.5%) votes compared to Sears’ 1,442,817 (42.3%) vote tally. Spanberger will become the first female governor of Virginia.

Democrat state senator Ghazala Hashmi will become the first Muslim woman to be elected to statewide office in Virginia garnering nearly as many votes as Spanberger with 55.6% of the vote compared to Republican John Reid’s 44.2% of votes cast.

Former state delegate Jay Jones defeated incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares by a lesser but still substantial margin winning 53% of the statewide vote compared to 46.5% of statewide votes cast for Miyares.

Pulaski County voters sided heavily with the Republican candidates with 8,564 (68.7%) votes cast for Sears compared to 3,880 (32.1%) for Spanberger. Both Miyares and Reid won more votes than Sears in Pulaski County with Miyares garnering nearly 400 more votes than the Republican Gubernatorial candidate.

Montgomery County and Radford City were the only localities west of Roanoke where a majority chose to vote for all three statewide Democratic candidates, though by slightly smaller percentages relative to statewide averages.

42^nd District Delegate Jason Ballard, a Republican representing most of Pulaski County and the City of Radford, retained his seat garnering 20,412 votes (62.98%) to Democrat challenger Biko Agozino’s 11,947 votes cast for him.

Mitchell Cornett was successful in his run for the 46^th District seat, which includes the town of Pulaski, with 23,281 votes (77.55%) compared to 6,684 votes (22.26%) garnered by Democratic challenger Jamie R. Hendry.

In regional races, Chris Obenshain, Republican incumbent for the 41^st District, which includes parts of Montgomery County and Roanoke County, lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Lily Franklin who garnered 57% of votes cast in that contest.

Obenshain’s loss was representative of Republican delegate candidates’ losses statewide as several incumbents lost to Democratic challengers in November 2025 giving the Dems a 13-seat gain in the General Assembly.

What was a narrowly defined House of Delegates with 51 Democrats and 49 Republicans will be heavily dominated by Democrats in 2026 with a 64 to 36 seat majority. The Virginia Senate also has a Democratic majority, but it is a slim 21 vs. 19 Republicans.

The race for Radford’s Commissioner of Revenue was close as Republican Angel Turpin

appears to have won against Democrat Kelsey Marletta by only 57 votes. Democrat Joy Morrison bested Republican Tracy Trump by 340 votes in the race for city Treasurer. Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Rehak (D) and Sheriff Mark Armentrout (R) were both re-elected, as neither candidate faced opposition.

Absentee ballots will play a role in finalizing winners in the contested races, as the victory margins are slim.  Absentee ballots must be postmarked by election day and received by end of day Friday, November 7^th.

Voters elected Jared Smith and Douglas Poe for the two open seats on the Dublin Town Council, essentially splitting the vote. This was a special election for two recently vacated seats on council with both terms ending on Dec. 31, 2026. Both men will be up for re-election in the Nov. 3, 2026, election.

As has been the case in the past, voters in heavily populated and overwhelmingly blue northern Virginia propelled statewide Democratic candidates to victory. Voter turnout

was high in these counties as well.

Fifty one percent of Pulaski County’s 17,630 registered voters cast their ballots in Tuesday’s election, whereas 54% of Loudon County’s 307,244 came to the polls Tuesday with almost two-thirds of those voting for Democrats. Voters in far west Virginia favored the Republican candidates by margins of 4 to 1, but smaller populations and weaker overall turnout doomed the Republican cause.

More than 80% of Tazewell County voters opted for the Republican ticket but less than half of the 28,036 registered voters went to the polls, whereas 54% of the 808,743 registered voters in Fairfax County voted in Tuesday’s election and nearly three-quarters of those voted Democrat.

Compared to the last Gubernatorial election in Virginia in 2021, turnout was generally lower across the board and most notably in Republican Districts, which saw a nearly universal decrease in voter participation. Only Republican leaning Northampton County and the City of Radford saw a slight increase in participation in this Gubernatorial election versus 2021. Democrats dominated cities with Richmond, Fredericksburg, Petersburg and Williamsburg all seeing increases in voter participation in 2025.

The Democrats’ domination extended beyond the borders of Virginia, as Democrat Mikie Sherrill defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli by more than 400,000 votes in New Jersey’s gubernatorial contest. Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won the mayor’s race in New York City, beating both former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was running as an Independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

Lastly, Californians passed Proposition 50, which will allow Democrats in the state legislature to redraw Congressional districts to favor Democratic candidates in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.