Big Wins in General Assembly for Democrats
Richmond will turn very Blue in January.
By Hank Silverberg
CORRESPONDENT
When Governor-Elect Abigail Spanberger takes office in January of next year she will have a strong Democratic majority in the General Assembly to work with her on her agenda.
Democrats picked up at least 13 seats in the House of Delegates giving them a 64-35 majority as Midnight approached on Election Night with one seat still to be decided.
One of those flips was in Stafford County where Republican incumbent Paul Milde lost to Democrat Stacey Annie Carrol by 2,027 votes in the run for House District 64.
Meanwhile voters in Spotsylvania and Caroline Counties unseated Republican Bobby Orrock who has served in the General Assembly since 1990 and was the most-senior member of the House of Delegates. Democrat Nicole Cole beat Orrock 52% to 47% in House District 66, with a lead of 1,564 votes when the counting was done.
The Democrats picked up seats in Prince William, Fauquier, and Loudon Counties, and several more in counties near Roanoke and Blacksburg, in Dinwiddie and Surry Counties including the City of Petersburg, and in Henrico County north of Richmond.
The Democratic gains assure they will keep control of the General Assembly for at least the first two years of Spanberger’s term. The Senate was not in play in this election and the Democrats currently have a 21-19 majority there.
Local voters in the Fredericksburg area also re-elected Democrat incumbent Joshua Cole (HD65) who beat Republican Sean Steinway by 17 percentage points in a district that includes parts of Spotsylvania and Stafford counties, and the City of Fredericksburg.
Local voters also re-elected Republican incumbent Phillip Scott (HD63), who defeated newcomer Forrest Miller by 4,681 votes in a district that includes parts of Spotsylvania County and Orange County.
They also re-elected Democrat Candi King (HD23) to represent parts of Stafford and Prince William counties, giving her 75% of the vote.
Republican Hillary Pugh Kent will hold on to her seat (HD67) representing a district that reaches from King George, and part of Caroline County, into Lancaster County.
The General Assembly returns for its 60-day long session in 2026 on January 14th. Spanberger will be sworn in as Virgina’s 75th and first female Governor on January 17th.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”