Lately, pundits have said that Virginia is “bluing.” In last month’s state legislature elections, Democrats won the state senate by picking up key seats in increasingly liberal Northern Virginia. A Democrat unseated incumbent Republican state senator Jeannemarie Devolites Davis in her D.C.-suburb district despite her moderate record. Democrats won the governorship in 2001 and 2005, and although the state went to Bush in 2004, Northern Virginia favored Kerry. And Jeannemarie’s husband, Republican Rep. Tom Davis, announced one week before his wife’s loss that he would not run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated in 2008 by Republican John Warner. Even if he won the state’s Republican convention, Davis was guaranteed a difficult race against the expected Democratic candidate, popular former governor Mark Warner. Davis even hinted that he might retire from his House seat, although CQ reports that he has a fundraiser today and he has made no formal announcement either way. But this fundraiser is one day after a major Republican victory in Virginia. Yesterday, the GOP won the special election for Republican Rep. Jo Ann Davis’s seat (no relation to Tom). Davis died of breast cancer in October. Republican Rob Wittman won with a whopping 61 percent of the vote in a district that includes parts of Hampton Roads and Prince William County. This win is especially important for Republicans because recently Democrats unseated two Republican state senators in the Hampton Roads area. NRCC Chairman Tom Cole told CQ, “Rob ran a solid campaign on the issues important to Virginians such as lower taxes and fighting illegal immigration.” The Republican victory is evidence that Virginia is becoming another battleground purple state. The Democrats have made some major gains in this longtime red state, but the Republican party certainly isn’t dead in Virginia.
