For those who may have missed it, Virginia had two special elections yesterday and the results were…interesting.
In the race to fill the Senate seat being vacated by lieutenant governor-elect Ralph Northam, Democrat Lynwood Lewis leads Republican Wayne Coleman by just 22 votes.
Some Virginians still seem to be in the mood for recounts. Brian Schoeneman, call your office.
Still, this result was a blow to the conventional wisdom:
Northam’s 6th District seat, which is centered in Norfolk and includes the Eastern Shore and a sliver of Virginia Beach, leans Democratic; President Obama won it with 57 percent of the vote in 2012. But turnout is typically low and notoriously hard to predict in special elections, particularly in Tuesday’s frigid weather. Just fewer than 20,000 voters turned out, roughly two-thirds the number that cast ballots when Northam won reelection in 2011.
That pesky Polar Vortex…
Meanwhile, the race to replace Onzlee Ware in Roanoke’s 11th house district was not in doubt, as Democrat Sam Rasoul cruised past Republican Octavia Johnson:
[Rasoul] rak[ed] in 70 percent and [won] all but three of 27 precincts on a punishingly cold day on which just 14 percent of registered voters turned out.
Obviously, this lopsided outcome is our fault.
