Republican Del. John Avoli announced Friday that he is running for re-election to the 20th District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Avoli, the former long-time Staunton mayor, is wrapping up his first term representing the 20th, which includes the cities of Staunton and Waynesboro, Highland County, and portions of Augusta County and Nelson County.
An Augusta County Democrat, Randall Wolf, announced back on Jan. 1 that he will challenge Avoli in the November election.
Avoli won his first race for the seat in a contest with Democrat Jennifer Lewis, receiving 58.5 percent of the vote – with the bulk of his 4,299-vote margin coming in the Augusta County precincts, where he outpolled Lewis by 4,099 votes.
Avoli’s predecessor in the 20th, Republican Dickie Bell, had won his last election with 54.5 percent in a three-way race with Democrat Michele Edwards and Libertarian Will Hammer.
The way the district lines are drawn now, Democratic candidates can be competitive in the cities and Nelson County, but the Augusta County part of the district – keep in mind, Donald Trump got 72.8 percent of the vote in Augusta County in 2020.
Yeah.
“I look forward to building on my pledge to uphold our Second Amendment freedoms, protect the lives of the unborn, and ensure that the people of the 20th District have a representative who works for them,” said Avoli, playing to a base of voters in Augusta County that want to hear those kinds of things.
“We have seen an erosion of our God-given rights under Democratic control of this Commonwealth. It is crucial, now more than ever, that Republicans take back the majority in the House of Delegates to preserve our freedoms, restore responsible leadership, and guarantee that Virginians are served by their own interests rather than a radical agenda aimed at tearing down the very institutions our Commonwealth built in these great United States of America.”
Sad that this kind of rhetoric actually works here.
Story by Chris Graham
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