I’ve eternally complained about Democrats ceding territory in my part of Virginia, frustrated that we don’t even try in the I-81 corridor, down in Southwest, in Southside.
At least on paper, we’re trying harder than Republicans are this year – Democrats are running a candidate in all 100 races for seats in the House of Delegates; Republicans are sitting out 16 races, primarily in Northern Virginia and urban districts in Central Virginia and Hampton Roads.
Step #1, then, good job, we’ve got candidates in every race.
This should have impact on the three statewide races, because we’ll have candidates in every nook and cranny of the Commonwealth, theoretically knocking on doors, shaking hands and kissing babies at local fairs and festivals, the rest.
Maybe that gets some people to the polls that wouldn’t have otherwise been engaged.
Even Rob Wittman, a Republican congressman, is noting the disadvantage this is creating for Republicans with respect to the governor’s race and the other two statewide races, telling folks at a campaign rally in Midlothian on Thursday that “they’re all-in, we need to be all-in,” which, too late there, Congressman, but, I agree with the sentiment.
***
The next trick for the Dems is to have the state party apparatus in Richmond provide something in the form of material support to the folks running in districts that are likely to go the MAGAs’ way.
Back to my years of complaining: Richmond isn’t helping us yet, and based on past experience, I doubt that they will.
For example, here in my home district, House District 36, where we have Democrat Makayla Venable challenging Republican incumbent Ellen Campbell, the Venable campaign is reporting just $16,833 in campaign donations as of June 30, with $10,000 coming from a single source, an Arlington woman, Renee Z. Ding, a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland who manages a philanthropic fund supporting Democratic candidates.
Campbell reported $82,670 in campaign money, a big chunk of that coming from Dominion Energy, which wrote her a big, fat $30,000 check.
Campbell also has PACs lining up to put money in her coffers, the traditional advantage that incumbents from either party enjoy.
We see this in House District 35, which stretches from Rockingham County into Augusta County, Bath County and Highland County, and where the incumbent is Chris Runion, a Republican who had raised a whopping $274,552 in the 2025 cycle through June 30.
Holy bejeezus, indeed – Runion’s haul includes (gulp!) $85,000 from Dominion Energy, among the 13 donations of $10,000 or more.
What Runion needs an $85,000 check from Dominion for in a district that went 70 percent for Donald Trump last year is anybody’s guess.
His Democratic opponent, Jena Lisa Crisler, a doctor who lives in Rockingham County, had raised $2,527 for her campaign as of June 30, which will barely support a modest Facebook ad campaign.
The incumbent in our other local House district, Tony Wilt, in House District 34, which represents Harrisonburg and the western portion of Rockingham County, had raised $147,234 through June 30 – $52,500 of that coming from Dominion Energy.
The Democratic challenger, Andrew Payton, a Fulbright Scholar with an MFA in creative writing who lives in Harrisonburg, had raised $35,036 as of June 30, from a long list of individual donors.
Where is Richmond here, where is Clean Virginia, where are the other Renee D. Zings?
Payton, in House District 34, in particular, that’s a winnable seat – Trump got 52.7 percent of the vote in the 34th in 2024, which is as close as 50/50 as we’re going to see out our way.
Even my home district, the 36th, is one where, if we just could get lightning in a bottle – Trump got 58.6 percent here in 2024.
***
I got a phone call from an activist this week asking me to write an article touting how Democrats have candidates running in these races, and in every district statewide, because we haven’t done that in a minute, and it’s something to at least make Republicans defend their territory.
Done.
I’ll say here, though – we have to do more than just ask these people to work their daily jobs, try to campaign at nights and on weekends when they can, pretty much on their own, so that we can say we have a candidate running in every district.
Step #2 is giving these folks a reasonable shot at winning.
Where I’m from, our folks out here aren’t benefiting from having Republicans representing their interests in Richmond.
What we get for having MAGAs in our seats is people resisting putting more money toward Medicaid, toward our K-12 public schools, toward public safety; people inciting culture wars that put women, minorities, immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community in danger; people who are subservient to the whims of a wannabe dictator in Washington.
I continue to be frustrated that Richmond Democrats don’t take Rural Virginia seriously.
Great, we have candidates running; stop treating us as tokens.
Support AFP
Share
Chris Graham
