Election 2023: Democrats earn more votes in Staunton, but local candidates lose in House, Senate bids

Election Day 2023 brought 39.6 percent of registered Staunton voters to the polls.

In Virginia’s House of Delegates District 36, incumbent Republican Ellen Campbell, who won the special election to the seat in January 2023 after the death of her husband, Ronnie Campbell, won with 61.2 percent of votes against Democrat Randall Wolf’s 38.8 percent. However, in Staunton, Campbell earned only 42.9 percent of votes and Wolf, who lives in Stuarts Draft, won 57 percent.

Republican Chris Head won the Senate District 3 race with 66.5 percent of votes in Virginia to Democrat Jade Harris’s 33.4 percent. However, in Staunton, Head received 42 percent of votes while Harris received 57.6 percent.

With 63.9 percent of votes, Adam Campbell captured the seat on Staunton City Council left vacant by former Mayor Andrea Oakes in January 2023 and temporarily filled by businessman Terry Holmes since early February 2023. Campbell will serve until December 31, 2024. His opponent Wilson Fauber, a Staunton native who serves on the city’s Economic Development Authority, received 35.6 percent of votes.

J.W. “Buzz” Easterling was elected Soil and Water Conservation Director Headwaters District for the city with 94 percent of the vote.

Of 18,198 registered voters in the Queen City, only 7,201 voted last night.