Republican Todd Pillion won his election to the Virginia House of Delegates yesterday. Pillion succeeds Sen.-elect Ben Chafin, also a Republican, in Virginia’s 4th District.
“Todd ran a great campaign focused on the issues important to the people of Southwest Virginia. I know he will be a strong voice for their concerns in Richmond,” said Speaker Howell. “Todd is an experienced businessman with a record of service to his country and community. His experience and expertise will allow him to bring valuable insight to the House and I look forward to working with him in the future.”
This brings the current make up of the House of Delegates to 67-31, with two special elections upcoming January 6 to fill the seats of State Sen.-elect Rosalyn Dance (House District 63) and Congresswoman-elect Barbara Comstock (House District 34).
In the 63rd, it’s highly unlikely that the GOP will pick the seat up and that it is effectively a Democratic contest [1].
However, in the 34th, the GOP must defend the seat with Craig Parisot against a strong Democratic opponent in Kathleen Murphy. Murphy narrowly was defeated by Comstock in the last election in 2013, but that was during a gubernatorial election that gave us a Democratic sweep of all the statewide offices.
“We’re very confident about Craig,” said Matt Moran, spokesman for Speaker Howell. “He is running a great campaign and we’re doing everything we can to support him.”
Should the GOP lose both special elections, they would still retain the supermajority (two-thirds) in the House 67-33 going into this session and an election year where the entire General Assembly is up for grabs.