With Tuesday’s primaries out of the way, the field is set for November’s elections. The statewide contests have received the bulk of the attention (well, two of the three) but we also have the 100-member House of Delegates contests. My congratulations to all of the nominees. To those not chosen, thank you for offering to serve us.

To summarize, we have the following candidates running statewide:

• For Governor: Ralph Northam (D) vs Ed Gillespie (R)
• For Lieutenant Governor: Justin Fairfax (D) vs Jill Vogel (R)
• For Attorney General: Mark Herring* (D) vs John Adams (R)

The contest for AG has received scant attention: Herring did not face an intra-party challenger and Adams was the last man standing after Rob Bell withdrew and Chuck Smith failed to qualify for the primary ballot.

Note also that Herring is the incumbent, running for re-election. Virginia allows both the LG and AG to run for a second term but is the only state that denies the same for its governor. (Yeah, that’s dumb.)

Hampton Roads has 21 members in the House of Delegates. This year, two-thirds – 14 seats – are contested, including two open seats. Two years ago, only eight seats were contested, also including two open seats. Obviously, there’s some enthusiasm out there.

While I’m working on my initial ratings for each contest, here is the candidates list:

Filed under: 2017 Elections, Hampton Roads, Local, Politics, Virginia