The Election Night returns had Andrew Payton, the Democratic Party nominee in the 34th House District, which represents Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, coming up short by 1,309 votes, 4.8 points, in his bid to unseat Republican incumbent Tony Wilt.
The final numbers tightened up dramatically.
Wilt ended up winning by a mere 257 votes from among the nearly 29,000 cast in the election, or 0.89 percent.
Because the election was within a 1 percent difference, Payton would be entitled, under state law, to file for a recount, with the proviso that, because the margin was greater than half a percentage point, the Payton campaign would have to pay the costs of the recount.
I reached out to Payton to see if he was planning to request a recount.
The answer: no.
“We are not considering a recount. We missed the state-funded recount threshold by 80-some votes. There was also a very low spoil rate on the provisional ballots (less than 2% in Harrisonburg), so we don’t expect a recount would alter the outcome of the race,” Payton replied, by email.
Damn.
So close.
That district should get outsized attention from the Ds in the 2027 cycle.
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Chris Graham
