Va. will hold 2 special elections to fill empty state Senate seats

Updated Nov. 10

Two Virginia State Senate seats are now open, with the election of state Sens. John McGuire, R-Goochland, and Suhas Subramanyam, D-Loudoun, to the U.S. House of Representatives this week, so the state will hold special elections to fill those seats in districts 10 and 32 ahead of the Virginia General Assembly’s new session beginning in January 2025.

Republican McGuire, elected Tuesday to replace U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-Farmville, in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, is the Senate incumbent in bright red Senate District 10, which covers multiple counties to the west and southwest of Richmond. Four Republican candidates have announced their bids for the seat as of Friday, the most prominent of which is former state Sen. Amanda Chase, who lost the Republican primary to state Sen. Glen Sturtevant in 2023 and moved from Chesterfield County to Appomattox County to establish residence in District 10.

Chase, who served in the state Senate for eight years and called herself “Trump in heels,” was censured by the Senate in a bipartisan vote in January 2021 for “failure to uphold her oath of office, misuse of office and conduct unbecoming of a senator,” a resolution related to her “propagating unfounded claims” about the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, as well as a laundry list of other issues. In 2019, Chase left the Senate Republican Caucus and was stripped of all committee assignments, so it is unclear what her party affiliation would be if she is re-elected to the Senate.

She faces Republican candidates Shayne Snavely, an Amelia County-based Army veteran who was Chase’s head of security when she was a state senator and a founder of Executive Protective Services; Powhatan County GOP grassroots activist Jean Gannon; and Louisa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Duane Adams, a former insurance executive. So far, the state GOP has not announced a date for a primary or a caucus to choose the party’s nominee, and no Democrats have announced a bid.

Subramanyam, the Democratic incumbent state senator in eastern Loudoun County, defeated Republican Mike Clancy in the state’s 10th Congressional District on Tuesday to replace U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat who announced last year she would not run for re-election due to her diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy.

Subramanyam’s open seat has attracted six Democratic contenders, who will run in a Nov. 16 firehouse primary to determine the party’s nominee. Del. Kannan Srinivasan, a CPA who represents House of Delegates’ District 26 in Loudoun County, has received endorsements from Subramanyam, U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell and House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott since declaring his candidacy Wednesday.

Other candidates include Hurunnessa Fariad, director of outreach for the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network; former Loudoun County commonwealth’s attorney Buta Biberaj; former delegate Dr. Ibraheem Samirah, who lost to Subramanyam in the 2023 Democratic primary for the state Senate nomination; Sree NagiReddi, an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors in 2019; and Puja Khanna, a business owner in Aldie who also ran for the Loudoun County board.

Ommair Butt, a Loudoun County parent who vocally opposed the county school board’s gender-inclusive bathroom policy and supports ridding Virginia of the car tax, declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the district Thursday on WJLA Channel 7.  Rafi Khaja, an Indian immigrant who ran unsuccessfully for the House of Delegates, also is running for the Republican nomination. Local Republicans have announced a firehouse primary on Nov. 16.

The state has not announced when the special general elections for both Senate districts will take place, but according to state law, vacancies must be filled within 30 days of the vacancy or receipt of notification of the vacancy. The Virginia State Senate is closely divided, with 21 Democrats and 19 Republicans holding the 40 seats, and Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears making tiebreaker votes when necessary.