It’s a chilly October evening and a crowd is gathered to hear from the three GOP candidates who aim to win Richmond’s suburban House and Senate districts this November.
Virginia’s House and Senate elections are just over a week away, and races in the Richmond area have been some of the most headline making this cycle.
Headlined by Governor Glenn Youngkin, and backed with his rockstar-style production, 57th House District candidate and commercial and industrial general contractor David Owen takes the stage.
“It’s common sense to support our law enforcement. It’s common sense for parents to have a say in their children’s education. All our policies are common sense," Owen told the crowd. "But unfortunately, in the Commonwealth of Virginia with Democrats in control, those things aren’t common sense.”
The candidate's comments were echoed by incumbent Senator and practicing OB-GYN Siobhan Dunnavant.
“If you want to improve the cost of living, if you want to make sure your children learn math and English, if you want to have safe communities, and if you want someone at the General Assembly and get the things done that matter to your families, you know where you’re voting,” Dunnavant yelled.
Promises of increased support for police departments, and allegations of trouble in Virginia’s schools, have been constant themes since Youngkin won the governor’s office on a similar message in 2021. But after the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back abortion access, the Virginia GOP has worked to moderate its stance on the issue with many Republican candidates, including Youngkin calling for a ban on the procedure after the 15th week with some exceptions. Many conservative states, especially in the south, have almost completely banned abortions.
No where is that moderation better on display than with 58th House District candidate Riley Shaia. An independent contractor for a fitness education company and first-time candidate, Shaia told Radio IQ she wouldn’t vote to change Virginia’s abortion laws but disagreed with what she called Democrats' support for “unfettered access” to the procedure.
“We can improve the foster care system, we can improve adoption, access to contraceptive care," Shaia said ahead of the rally. "We know when we can put things like that in place, we can decrease the abortion rate and we can give women other choices.”
On the Democratic side of the Richmond-area ticket, in a quiet auditorium at Deep Run High School for a League of Women Voters debate, sits current Delegate Rodney Willet, now running in the newly drawn 58th district.
“What the parents are saying is ‘I love my kids' teachers; I want to keep them.’ You guys have to pay them, you’ve got to have their back, give them the support staff they need. You need to support them,” Willet, who's fending off a challenge from Shaia, said.
This advice came from what he said he’s hearing from voters as he knocks doors this campaign cycle. And next to him is current Delegate-turned-16th Senate district candidate Schuyler VanValkenburg.
A Henrico County public school teacher who's hoping to unseat Dunnavant, VanValkenburg said gun violence is a top concern he’ll focus on if elected.
“We’ve seen a lot of gun violence locally, we’ve seen guns brought to schools, we’ve got metal detectors in the schools now, and the constant drum beat about gun violence across the country," the candidate said. "People are very concerned about that, and they want the state to act.”
VanValkenburg and Willet were the only area-candidates to show up for the early-October debate, and that includes Democrat Susana Gibson.
A nurse practitioner running in Virginia’s 57th House District, Gibson entered the national spotlight after footage of her having sex with her husband on a live cam website was discovered by political opponents. Just this week the Republican Party of Virginia paid for thousands of mailers featuring explicit screenshots of Gibson to be sent to voters' Houses.
Gibson has since threatened to use revenge porn laws against the politicking, and she’s gotten less public support from her local Democratic colleagues in the video's wake. But Virginia Senate President pro tempore Louise Lucas, whose district includes parts of Norfolk, has turned the viral moment into a fundraising effort, calling out the GOP for boosting videos which feature consensual sex between Gibson and her husband while the effort to politicize the video lacks such consent.
The effort paid off, with Gibson outraising Owen as of late October.
Gibson did not respond to requests for an interview -she’s avoided most press since the videos were discovered- but she and her campaign volunteers have reportedly knocked thousands of doors to support her run.
Among those supporters is Amanda Pittman. A Henrico resident who works with Repro Rising; she supported Gibson before working with the abortion access group which endorsed the candidate prior to the video leak. And while Pittman said the topic raised some eyebrows among voters, even Democrats, she thinks the candidate's medical background is more important than the political scandal.
“That’s not going to affect her ability to legislate, she’s still an incredible candidate. She knows what she’s talking about," Pittman said. "It’s just a bummer it’s still part of the conversation honestly.”
2021 Redistricting arguably favors Democrats this cycle, but Richmond-area voters will have the final say, and the results in these three districts could well determine control of the General Assembly after Tuesday, November 7th.
