Republicans will be choosing a candidate to go up against incumbent U.S. Senator Tim Kaine in the primary Tuesday, June 18th.
Republicans don't usually have statewide primaries to choose their candidates. But a recent change to the law upended that, and now Republicans across Virginia will be heading to the polls to select a candidate to take on incumbent U.S. Senator Tim Kaine.
Former Republican Congressman Tom Davis served as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and he says the frontrunner in this race is Hung Cao, who ran against Jennifer Wexton in the last election cycle.
"And I think he ran a better race in the 10th District last time than anybody expected because the national Republicans really weren't in there to give him much backup," Davis says. "And the Democrats spent a lot of money, and still this was a single-digit race. So, I think he walks into this the favorite."
David Ramadan is a former Republican delegate who’s now at George Mason University's Schar School, and he says Cao seems likely to lose Repuin a general election against Kaine.
"He's not the exciting candidate that’s going to bring in thousands of people more than others," Ramadan explains. "He was not an excitable candidate in Virginia 10, and he's certainly not the excitable candidate on the state level."
Whoever wins the statewide Republican primary, they'll be facing a very popular incumbent. In 2018, Kaine won with 57% of the vote against Republican Corey Stewart. And in 2012, he took 53% of the vote against Republican George Allen.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
