Democrats from Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District convened today at Fluvanna County High School to choose a candidate to challenge incumbent U.S. Representative Robert Hurt (R-Chatham) in the November general election.
Two candidates had filed for the nomination for the seat once held by James Madison: actor Lawrence Gaughan and teacher Ben Hudson, both from the Charlottesville area. A third option, “no candidate,” was also on the convention ballot. Hudson ran as a write-in candidate for the same office in 2012, and Gaughan had unsuccessfully sought the Green Party’s nomination in 2008.
Approximately 175 delegates gathered to cast votes in the contest. By contrast, there were 440 credentialed delegates at the Fifth District GOP convention on May 17 in Farmville. Interest in the Democrats’ nomination process was so thin that some local parties, such as the one in Charlottesville, decided not to hold a caucus to select delegates to the district convention.
The delegates voted to nominate Lawrence Gaughan with 127 votes to Hudson’s 58. “No candidate” received 9 votes. Results were announced at about 1:20 p.m. and there was no need to go beyond one ballot.
Virginia’s Fifth District was continuously represented by Democrats for over a century, from 1889 until Democrat-turned-independent Virgil Goode became a Republican in 2000. The district voted for Democrat Tom Perriello in 2008 before returning it to Republican hands in 2010 with the election of Hurt, then a state senator. Before Goode and Hurt, only two Republicans had represented the Fifth: Christopher Y. Thomas for a partial term in 1874-75 and John R. Brown for one term from 1887-89.
Libertarian Paul Jones has also put his hat in the ring but he has not yet formally qualified for the ballot. The filing deadline is Tuesday, June 10.
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