Campaign finance numbers from the summer show Democrats pulled ahead of Republicans in several campaigns for the General Assembly.
Democratic challengers in seven key races for the General Assembly pulled ahead of Republican incumbents over the summer in the competition for campaign cash. Numbers posted to the Virginia Public Access Project show some of the challengers outraised the competition significantly.
Democratic strategist Ben Tribbett says, "most of the races where you saw dramatic increases for the Democratic candidates actually tend to be the less competitive races that the Republicans aren’t paying as much attention to but that the Democratic candidate is a good candidate and just happens to be raising a lot of money.”
Republican Strategist Dan Scandling says Democrats are clearly energized.
“The question is some of the seats that they probably shouldn’t have won before: Are they going to be able to hold on to them? But I think right now clearly the momentum is on the Democrats’ side," says Scandling. "And I don’t see that changing between now and Election Day.”
One Republican incumbent who raised significantly more money than his Democratic challenger is Delegate Nick Freitas of Culpeper. He won’t be on the ballot and is running as a write-in candidate to keep his seat in the House of Delegates.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
