Democrats started this election cycle with a head full of steam, eager to run against Republicans in an environment that was supposed to the best possible election cycle for them to take back the House of Delegates. But, as Michael Pope reports, that’s not how things turned out.
After Donald Trump won the election in 2016, Democrats were energized and eager to run against Republicans. And a historic number of candidates came out of the woodwork to challenge Republicans. But then something happened. Quentin Kidd at Christopher Newport University says it didn’t really work out the way Democrats hoped.
“That enthusiasm turned into some people running for office who had never done anything like this before. And some of them are proving not to be as good at it as others.”
Geoff Skelley at the University of Virginia Center for Politics says one problem for Democrats is that they have to face so many Republican incumbents — incumbents who are re-elected about 97 percent of the time.
"Incumbents are tougher to defeat, and so for Republicans to have just two open seats in races that were going to be tough to hold on to in the 2nd and the 42nd was pretty good news for them.”
Looking into his crystal ball, Skelley sees 15 competitive seats with Republican incumbents and three competitive races with Democratic incumbents. That means Democrats are unlikely to capture control of the House this year.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
