As a consequence of the many members of the General Assembly who have been called to cabinet positions by Governor-elect Spanberger, the Commonwealth has had many special elections and more on the docket for the coming year, and all in reliably Democratic seats.
The first special election of what we’ll dub the “Spanberger Babies” season was held on the 6th of January, which decided both the State Senator from the 15th district (to replace incoming Lieutenant Governor Ghazala Hashmi) and the delegate for Mike Jones’ former district, the 77th, as he ran for Hashmi’s old seat.
The Democratic primary, however, was the real general election in a seat as reliably Democratic as this one. The match set Jones and Debra Gardner, once colleagues on friendly terms, at variance with one another after an attack ad aired against Jones in the waning hours of the December primary. The ad claimed that Jones has “a history of alleged violence against women,” citing news reports from 2011 of “family abuse and harassment charges filed by his wife”. Jones’ then-wife did file for a protective order against him in 2024, but a judge later found that the standards for such an order were not met and had the order dissolved, per reporting from WTVR. Jones regarded the claims as “unequivocally false”. Support from Ghazala Hashmi and Lamont Bagby did not wane, and Jones spent much of his campaign’s money on advertising as the primary inched towards the finish line.
Jones, too, circulated ads during his campaign, only his highlighted popular Democratic platform positions and track record in the General Assembly; across the broad banner of ‘affordability’, healthcare, education, and housing were key issues mentioned. Jones faced Republican John Thomas, a former defense contractor, on the general ballot. Thomas had previously challenged Gardner for her seat, HD-76, in November. To the surprise of none, Jones won against John Thomas.
Jones’ victory, in turn, necessitated a special election to choose his replacement in the 77th. Enter Charlie Schmidt, a community activist and former ACLU attorney, and Michelle Mosby, former Richmond City Council member for the 9th district. Mosby was the heavy favorite going into the primary, notching endorsements from Richmond Mayor Danny Avula, Lashrecse Aird (SD-13), and even Jones himself.
Not one to heed the anointment, Schmidt ran on a strong affordability platform and hosted an AMA on the r/rva subreddit where he answered questions on topics ranging from right-to-work laws, zoning, data center regulation, firearm restrictions, and the redistricting amendment. The forward-facing digital campaign paid off, and he defeated Mosby in a primary upset, carrying the winning wave to a 42.8 point victory over Republican Richard Stonage.
On Tuesday, January 13th, two more delegates were elected– the 11th and 23rd districts are in Northern Virginia, and both of the erstwhile Delegates received secretary positions in the Governor’s cabinet. David Bulova of the 11th will serve as theSecretary for Natural and Historic Resources, and Candi Mundon King of the 23rd will be the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
In the race to replace David Bulova was his wife, Gretchen Bulova, who won the Democratic primary for HD-11 in December in a five-candidate race. Gretchen Bulova is a longtime member of the Fairfax Democrats and serves as the chair of the Fairfax County history commission, as well as the director of the Office of Historic Alexandria. She faced Republican Adam Wise, who ran against David Bulova in his last bid for the seat, and won by 38 points. This is a Harris +35.4 seat, which her husband overperformed by a little over 11 points in November– roughly on par with Spanberger’s performance of +49.3.
In the 23rd, Margaret Franklin beat challenger Muhammad “Cef” Casim 225-109 in the Democratic primary, and faced Republican Verndell Robinson on Tuesday. Franklin serves on the Prince William Board of Supervisors and has held various legislative positions in her career; she was a legislative assistant to Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC) and Senator Kristen Gillibrand (NY), as well as legislative director to Congressman Al Lawson (D-FL). Robinson, a real estate agent and Navy veteran, made an unsuccessful bid for a seat on the Prince William Board of Supervisors in 2019; her run for the seat focused on limiting data center development in Prince William County, as well as concerns with the high cost of living, taxation, and crime. Ultimately, Franklin kept the seat in Democrat hands by a margin of 54.6 points, far outperforming Harris’ 2024 margins for this seat. Franklin’s performance was almost laser level with Spanberger’s (52.5).
In Virginia’s 17th House of Delegates District in Fairfax County, Mark Sickles was chosen as the Secretary of Finance by Governor-elect Spanberger. This is the first time Mark Sickles will not appear on a ballot for SD-17 since 2004. The race to replace him in the district comes down to Democrat Garret McGuire, a lobbyist from AT&T and board chair of United Community, and Republican Christopher Cardiff, a “second-generation homeschooler” and former data analyst. McGuire narrowly won the Democratic primary, securing victory with a margin of 54 votes. This will be the only special election held on January 20th.
The last currently scheduled special election of the year for the General Assembly that is scheduled to occur before the federal midterm elections is for Alexandria’s State Senate District 39, which will happen on February 10th. Adam Ebbin will take the role of senior advisor for the Cannabis Control Authority. To replace him, two well-known candidates threw their hat in the ring– Democrat Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (HD-05) and former Delegate Mark Levine. In a statement on January 8th, Levine announced his candidacy via Facebook:
Our country is in crisis, with a corrupt Presidential Administration determined to take away our freedoms, weaken our democracy, and unloose ICE to terrorize our communities. The people of Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax face an affordability crisis, with a tough job market, students struggling with student loans, high home prices, and runaway inflation caused by the Trump tariffs.
Levine served for three terms in the House of Delegates for then-House District 45 until he was unseated by Bennett-Parker, who was then the Vice Mayor of the City of Alexandria, in 2021 as Levine ran for an unsuccessful bid to become the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor. Ebbin did not indicate an endorsement towards one candidate over another for the primary, but Bennett-Parker was the favorite in campaign finance and name recognition. It all clicked into place for her in the four-way primary, when Mark Levine scraped together 17.4% of the vote, while Bennett-Parker ran away with the lion’s share— 70.6%.
When it comes to this race, Bennett-Parker is the certain victor against any who appear on the general special election ballot; when she wins this seat against Republican Julie Robbens Lineberry, it will trigger– you guessed it– another special election to determine her replacement in the House of Delegates in District 5.
Two candidates have announced their bid for Bennett-Parker’s preemptively vacant seat at the time of this writing— former Alexandria school board member Eileen Cassidy Rivera and Kirk McPike of the Alexandria City Council. McPike, who worked as a consultant on Adam Ebbin’s 2011 State Senate bid, has notched the endorsement of Rep. Don Beyer from Virginia’s 8th Congressional District. Such political provenance could benefit him in a firehouse primary contest, where success is largely built off of name recognition and local endorsements. Beyer also endorsed Elizabeth Bennett-Parker in her contest.
There is something that all of the outgoing State Senators and Delegates have in common; all come from solid blue districts that have an almost nonexistent chance of flipping to Republicans. Of the special elections, all but two take place in Northern Virginia. In naming her cabinet, Spanberger’s challenge is to weigh experience and suitability against the composition of the legislature. Democrats made massive gains in the General Assembly last November, and naming a cabinet member from a district with a strong challenger means running the risk that they may beat out the desired replacement. Picking nominees from reliably Democratic districts should be no surprise to anyone who knows the risk-averse Governor-elect.
