(Update from Sen. Mark Obenshain) Republicans choose their final seven senate nominees

Congratulations to Tommy Norment (3rd), Dick Black (13th), David Nutter (21st), Tom Garrett (22nd), Jeff Frederick (36th), Jason Flanary (37th) and Miller Baker (39th) on receiving the nomination from voters in today’s earthquake-rattled Republican primary.

“The enthusiasm we are seeing among the rank-and-file in our party is unprecedented,” noted Republican Caucus Chairman Stephen D. Newman (R-Lynchburg). “There is genuine excitement about our nominees, and about the opportunity to elect a Senate that will actively support Governor McDonnell in his efforts to create jobs and grow Virginia’s economy.”

Republicans have fielded candidates in 36 of 40 races.

“What is most important now is that we concentrate on taking back the Senate from the majority Democrats, who seem to care about little else than scoring political points against Governor McDonnell,” said Tito Munoz in his release conceding to Frederick. “In order create jobs, we must keep taxes low, control spending and reduce government regulations. To do that, we must elect more conservative candidates to the Virginia Senate.”

There were several close races.

Black defeated Stirrup by 113 votes in a race that turned out 6.7% active voters; and Garrett defeated Bates by 171 votes with 10.5% turnout.

At the time of this writing, Jason Flanary leads Steve Hunt in the 37th by over 200 votes with just six precincts left to be counted. Flanary defeated Hunt by 565 votes with 4.9% turnout.

View the results from the State Board of Elections.

Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins stated, “As Teddy Roosevelt once said, ‘The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood…’ All these candidates are to be commended for caring enough to be involved, for investing their time, talents, and treasure. They’ve all made our party, our Commonwealth, and our country – our democracy – all the stronger.”

Of note, of all the primaries, the 3rd District achieved the most turnout at nearly 11% of active voters (15,478). Minority Leader Tommy Norment had little difficulty receiving 11,225 votes – more than all cast combined in most of the districts voting today (only the 22nd had more at 12,482 votes). Something to think about.

Update from Sen. Mark Obenshain:

“After months of waiting, we have the Republican ticket that will bring a conservative majority to the Virginia Senate,” said Obenshain. “Dick Saslaw and the liberal democrats spent months trying to gerrymander a map that would ensure a Democratic majority, but no matter how they tried to slice and dice Virginia, conservatives are poised to take a majority.”

Currently, Democrats hold 22 seats, and Republicans are challenging 18 of those seats. Of these 18 districts, Governor Bob McDonnell took at least 50% in 11 and at least at least 45% in 13.

“Over the past two years, we have seen what happens when Republicans run common sense conservative candidates who stay true to the core values that the Republican Party stands for: we win. We saw it in 2009 with the election of Governor McDonnell and a six seat gain in the Virginia House of Delegates. We saw it in 2010 with Republicans winning three congressional seats in Virginia. And we will see it in 2011 with a Republican majority in the Senate of Virginia,” stated Obenshain.

“The path to 21 is not going to be easy, but with candidates like Dave Nutter, Tom Garrett, Dick Black, Miller Baker, Jason Flanary, and Jeff Frederick we are going to take back the majority. With a conservative majority, we will be able to bring the conservative change that the people of Virginia want: charter school reform, VDOT reform, tax reform, and other common sense solutions. It’s an exciting time to be a Republican in Virginia. To my fellow Republicans and all those who stand for common sense conservative principles, I say: Let’s go win it!”

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About the author

JR Hoeft

Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.