Democrats in Virginia swept all state-wide elections winning the governorship, attorney general, and lieutenant governor seats, Tuesday night. Abigail Spanberger will now become the first female governor of the state of Virginia, Ghazala Hashmi will become the first South Asian, Muslim female elected to the lieutenant governor’s office in Virginia and Jay Jones will be the first black Attorney General in the state of Virginia. In Harrisonburg, Republicans are narrowly holding on to the House of Delegates District 34 seat with Republican Tony Wilt taking the lead over Democratic challenger Andrew Payton by only 4.57%, according to data from the Virginia Public Access Project. Wilt won the 2023 District 34 election by 13.9%.
Laura Dent, a Democratic City Council member in Harrisonburg described how she feels following Democratic state-level wins.
“I’m thrilled that Spanberger, Hashmi, and Jones won. I’m especially thrilled for Jones’ win in the Attorney General race, because he has promised to sue the Trump administration for all of the illegal and unconstitutional things that the administration is doing. This is a very hopeful message that Virginia is sending to the country and the rest of the world,” Dent said.
Former Harrisonburg City Council candidate, Javier Calleja attended Wilt’s watch party, and described how he felt from an independent’s perspective.
“I feel that the American people have spoken, and Virginia has gone to the polls today, and I am grateful that we live in a country that has a democracy and where people are able to choose their own government. Sometimes you get the representative that you want, and sometimes you’re not going to get the representative that you want, but this is part of democracy and this is a day to celebrate,” Calleja said.
In the shadows of state-level elections, district 34’s race saw new tactics such as smear ads that both sides of the aisle utilized. One Ad from Payton’s campaign team claimed that Wilt took and kept $700,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans during the onset of the COVID pandemic; however, Wilt reiterated that he paid it back in full with interest.
“It was obvious that whoever put those ads out there knew nothing about the program. We took the loan because we weren’t sure what was going to happen in terms of the pandemic for my business, but after six months, we paid back the loan in full including interest,” Wilt said.
Smear ads were a first for Wilt this campaign season.
“My previous campaigns, I never dealt with smear ads or hit pieces, me and my opponents always went toe to toe debating the issues, but this just exceeded all of that and it went in a completely different direction. I’d hoped that those tactics wouldn’t come to the Valley, but it did and we dealt with it,” Wilt said.
Payton responded to the use of smear ads from both sides in this election.
“Our campaign released several ads aiming to call him out for the hypocrisy of him using taxpayer money for his business during his time of need, while he voted against using taxpayer funded programs to help working families during their time of need,” Payton said.
Smear ads directed towards Payton’s campaign from Wilt, claimed that Payton was “too extreme for the Valley”.
“I’m not really focused on Wilt’s ads, I was more focused on talking with voters and building my campaign around the issues of the voters,” Payton said.
Major news outlets like the Washington Post and The New York Times have not called the race between Payton and Wilt yet, as more ballots continue to be processed in both Harrisonburg City and Rockingham County, according to both local boards of elections. Payton continues to wait as votes are counted.
“I’m waiting for the official results to come in. The race is still too close to be called, according to The Associated Press, so I’m just waiting for the democratic process to continue,” Payton said.
