Democrats retain control of the Virginia General Assembly; Cifers elected to 10th Senate District

Virginia will continue to demonstrate the system of checks and balances that are the hallmark of American democracy now that special elections have been held for three districts in the state legislature.

Democratic candidates won both a House seat and a Senate seat in northern Virginia while a Republican candidate won a central Virginia Senate seat. That means Democrats will continue to hold a narrow majority in each house of the General Assembly.

In the Senate the make-up is 21 Democrats to 19 Republicans. There are 51 Democrats and 49 Republicans.

Cifers wins District 10

As of 9 p.m. on January 7, unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections show that Luther H. Cifers III will be the next holder of the District 10 seat in the Virginia Senate. The Republican received 11,769 votes to 8,248 votes for Jack Trammell. That’s a 58.73 percent to 41.16 percent margin but the numbers will change as mail-in ballots are counted.

Senate District 10 covers a lot of the Fifth Congressional District and Cifers won handily in Amelia County (81.29 percent), Appomattox County (75.59 percent), Buckingham County (65.33 percent), Cumberland County (71.06 percent), Louisa County (60.69 percent), Powhatan County (68.86 percent).

The margin for Cifers was closer in Goochland County (52.71 percent) and Hanover County (52.79 percent).

Trammell carried Fluvanna County (56.7 percent) and Prince Edward County (50.65 percent). The vote for Trammell was unanimous in Henrico County, but there were only ten votes as only a small sliver of that locality is within Senate District 10 in the Shady Grove precinct.

In Senate District 32, Democrat Kannan Srinivasan won election with 61.25 percent of the vote and Republican Tumay D. Harding received 38.62 percent.

Srinivasan resigned from the 26th District in the House of Delegates to run for the Senate seat. Democrat J.J. Singh won that special election with 61.49 percent of the vote over Republican Ram Venkatachala.

Before you go: This article was originally sent out as part of the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter in the January 8, 2025 edition. Both are functions of Town Crier Productions. You can support the work by purchasing a paid subscription or contributing monthly through Patreon. You can also send in a check or send an email, but drop me a line first.