(The Center Square) — Democrats in Virginia have retained power in the General Assembly following Tuesday’s special elections to fill three vacancies.
The special election was held to fill the seats left by two state senators elected to Congress and a delegate running for one of the open Senate seats.
Since Democrats hold both chambers by a thin margin, there was talk of a possible shift in the current balance of power – but both parties were able to retain the seats that belonged to them before November.
Del. Kannan Srinivasan, D-Loudoun, ran to replace former state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Loudoun, now a U.S. representative for Virginia’s 10th Congressional District.
Shortly after 9 p.m., with more than 95% of the votes in, the New York Times live election results showed Srinivasan as the clear winner of state Senate District 32, with over 61% of the vote to Republican Tumay Harding’s 38.7%.
JJ Singh, who ran for Srinivasan’s seat in the House of Delegates, defeated Republican candidate Ram Venkatachalam by almost the exact same margin – 61.6% to 38.4%.
Singh holds a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Like Subramanyam, Singh worked for the White House under the Obama administration. He’s passionate about the environment, clean energy, affordable housing, preventing gun violence and preserving women’s reproductive freedoms.
Republican Luther Cifers won almost 60% of the vote in deep red state Senate District 10, replacing former state Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland. McGuire ousted the former chair of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., with the help of an endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump.
A “serial entrepreneur” and defender of the Second Amendment, Cifers has founded YakAttack, Bonafide Kayaks, MagPump and the Cifers Foundation to help victims of the Russia-Ukraine war. He’s also a member of the GO Virginia Strategic Planning Committee, a private-public statewide economic development initiative.
He plans to champion tax reform, empower farmers in the face of environmental restrictions and regulations, promote transparency in education and fight for an economy that enables home ownership.