Republicans chose their nominee to face Wexton
The counting of ranked-choice ballots finished in the early hours of Sunday morning.
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Republicans choose congressional candidates
Virginia Republicans chose their congressional nominees in three districts on Saturday as they look to do their part in flipping the House of Representatives from Democratic control. Two of the three races were uneventful but the counting process in Virginia’s tenth congressional district went well past midnight.
First, in Virginia’s eighth congressional district Republicans chose Karina Lipsman to run against Rep. Don Beyer (D) in the November general election. Beyer is also facing a primary challenge from Victoria Virasingh.
According to an analysis on VPAP, the eighth district voted for Democrat Terry McAuliffe by 45 points in 2021.
In Virginia’s fifth congressional district, Rep. Bob Good easily earned the Republican nomination after a challenge from Dan Moy. Good earned 85% of the vote. Josh Throneburg is the Democrat seeking to defeat Good in November.
The VA-05 seat is reliably Republican as Glenn Youngkin won the district by 21 points in 2021 according to VPAP’s analysis.
Virginia's tenth congressional district party canvass turned out to be a tedious task for the committee as they had to count the ranked-choice ballots throughout the night for their eleven candidates. The party canvass had several different voting locations scattered across the district and four hours of early voting this week. In total, 15,174 ballots were cast in the tenth district.
Hung Cao won the nomination in the early hours of Sunday morning after taking the lead in the first round and never losing it.
Cao is a retired Navy Captain who served in Special Operations for twenty-five years. He and his family have lived in Purcellville for the last five years. His campaign website says that he was a refugee from Vietnam after his family escaped to the United States in 1975.
He then relocated to West Africa and was educated at French schools before returning to live in Annandale in 1982. He was a member of the inaugural graduating class at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
Cao is tasked with trying to defeat one of Virginia’s three vulnerable Democrats in the House in Wexton.
“Virginians know they can always count on Jennifer Wexton to show up and deliver for them, day in and day out,” said DCCC Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney, “As a Loudoun County prosecutor, advocate for children, state senator, and now member of Congress, Jennifer has never backed down from a tough fight. Northern Virginia is Jennifer Wexton country – Virginians will reject Hung Cao’s toxic politics and re-elect her this November.”
The other two vulnerable Virginia representatives are Abigail Spanberger (VA-07) and Elaine Luria (VA-02). They are facing tougher reelection bids than Wexton, however, with Youngkin winning their districts by wider margins in 2021. The challengers in their districts will be decided on June 21 in a primary.
Wexton, Luria, and Spanberger all flipped their seats from Republican control in 2018.