Virginia's congressional races are heating up in anticipation of the June 18th primary.
Thursday, April 4th is the final deadline for candidates who want to run for Congress this year, which means that the politics for this year's congressional races have already starting to take shape. The only incumbent to face a primary challenge so far is Republican Congressman Bob Good. He fell out of favor with supporters of former President Donald Trump when he backed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
J. Miles Coleman at the University of Virginia says it's difficult to know what will happen in this primary.
"This is a little new territory for him in that this is the first primary he's had to run in," Coleman says. "His past two times, he won at these somewhat shady, you could argue, conventions."
The primary election that's currently attracting the largest number of candidates is the 10th Congressional District in northern Virginia, which is opening up because Jennifer Wexton is vacating the seat. Sam Shirazi is a Virginia political analyst.
"It's very unusual," says Shirazi. "You have two state senators running. You have three current delegates running. You have a former Speaker of the House running. And you have a former education secretary in Virginia running. So, just a lot of people throwing their hats into the ring here."
Candidates in the race for president may have already been decided. But voters will choose candidates in seven out of Virginia's 11 congressional districts, plus Republicans will choose a candidate to go up against incumbent Senator Tim Kaine.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
