No surprises in Virginia with our congressional primaries on Tuesday, with the favorites on both sides advancing to the Nov. 3 general election.
The only thing that got me to look twice was Shannon Taylor in the First District Democratic Party nomination race getting just 53.1 percent.
It was a seven-candidate race there, and second place, Salaam Bhatti, got 19.7 percent, so, it’s not like Taylor was in any political danger.
The other six getting a combined 46.9 percent wouldn’t have me feeling the greatest, if I was in the Taylor camp tonight, and going forward.
The Taylor campaign put out a statement from the candidate Tuesday night focusing on the MAGA Republican incumbent, Rob Wittman, who will go into the general election as a big underdog – FiveThirtyEight data analytics guru G. Elliott Morris has Taylor with a 60 percent shot at flipping the seat to the Ds.
“For nearly 20 years, Rob Wittman has been part of a broken Washington that has made life more expensive for Virginians while politicians of both parties and powerful corporations get richer,” Taylor said in her statement.
“Families are paying more for groceries, health care, housing, and utilities because of Wittman’s votes while his personal net worth has grown by up to 40 times,” Taylor said. “In November, voters will have a clear choice between a career politician who has used his office to enrich himself while Virginians struggle and a prosecutor who has spent her career holding powerful people accountable and protecting her community.”
Elaine Luria, next door, in the Second District, coasted to victory in a four-candidate race for the Democratic Party nomination, getting 80.5 percent of the vote.
Luria is a former two-term member of Congress from the district, before being upset in the 2022 cycle by the current incumbent, Jen Kiggans, a MAGA Republican.
Morris has Luria as a prohibitive favorite in the Second – his model has her with an 88 percent shot of winning in the district, which went to Abigail Spanberger by a 7.4-point margin in the 2025 cycle.
“I spent 20 years in the Navy serving on combatant ships, deploying six times to the Middle East and Western Pacific before opening a small business and fighting for and delivering for Virginians in Congress. I’ve fought for my country before, and I’m ready to fight for it again,” Luria said in a statement from her campaign released on Tuesday night.
“Jen Kiggans broke her promise to be an independent voice in Washington, voting 100 percent of the time with Donald Trump to raise prices on working families on everything from healthcare premiums to gas prices. Virginians want lower costs and less corruption, and I’m ready to serve and deliver for the people of Hampton Roads who are being left behind by Jen Kiggans and Donald Trump,” Luria said.
The other November race that has our attention is in the Fifth District, our neighbor to the east, where Tom Perriello, a former one-term congressman, representing the district from 2009-2011, will be the Democratic Party nominee, after winning a three-candidate race with 78.4 percent of the vote.
Perriello will face the incumbent MAGA Republican, John McGuire, who also had a primary challenger, another far right MAGA, Melanie Lucero.
McGuire won the head-to-head with 84.6 percent of the vote.
The Fifth will be an uphill battle for Perriello – the district went for Spanberger’s opponent, Winsome Earle-Sears, last fall, by 6.6 points, as Earle-Sears overall lost in a massive statewide landslide.
Morris, in his rendering, has McGuire as the clear favorite – with an 80 percent shot at winning re-election.
“For months, I’ve visited every corner of the district to hear from thousands of local families. Folks are struggling to make it to the next paycheck, and they are fed up with this Congress making everything more expensive, more corrupt, and just plain stupid,” Perriello said in a statement released by his campaign on Tuesday night.
“My top priority will be to cut costs and bills by getting rid of the trade war, Iran war, and war on common sense. Our communities deserve a real fighter who refuses to take money from the lobbyists and corporate PACs, and people around here know they can trust me to do just that,” Perriello said.
The one bummer for me on Primary Night – Adam Dunigan, the former CIA analyst challenging incumbent Don Beyer for the Democratic Party nomination in the Eighth District, came in a distant third in a five-candidate race, with a tick under 9 percent of the vote.
Nothing against Beyer, who is a solid congressman on our side, but I wanted to see Dunigan do better in the final accounting than distant third and 9 percent.
Final note: the quiet as a church mouse Republican U.S. Senate primary went to the favorite in that race, Bert Mizusawa, a retired U.S. Army major general, who received a tick under 51 percent to win a three-candidate race.
His reward: a landslide loss in November to the sitting U.S. senator, Mark Warner, who Morris has as a greater than 99 percent favorite to win re-election.
We’ll let Warner have the last word on the night.
The stakes in November could not be higher. We need a Congress that will hold this administration accountable for gutting access to health care and forcing working families to pay more for everyday expenses while the president, his family and well-connected insiders profit off the presidency.
I’m proud to be on the ballot alongside this exceptional Democratic ticket, and I know that if we knock doors, make calls, and organize, we can hold this Senate seat, protect our path to a Democratic Senate majority, help Democrats win back the House, and begin to turn the page on the politics of chaos, corruption and division in Washington.
Now the primary is behind us, and it’s time to come together. I look forward to working with Democrats up and down the ballot to earn every vote between now and Election Day.
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Chris Graham
