Despite winning a seat in the US House of Representatives earlier this month, state Sen. and Congressman-elect John McGuire (R–Goochland) has not yet resigned from the Virginia General Assembly, preventing a special election from being called for his replacement.
“We are working through timing and will be resigned before being sworn into Congress, as required,” McGuire told VPM News in a text message.
Special elections for other vacancies in the House of Delegates and the State Senate are being held on Jan. 7, so the winners can be sworn in for the 2025 General Assembly session opening on Jan. 8. Congress convenes on Jan. 3, 2025.
It is unclear what timing consideration McGuire is referring to and he did not respond when VPM News sought clarification. Fellow U.S. Representative-elect Suhas Subramanyam has already resigned from the 32nd Senate District. And the winner of the Democratic nomination to replace him, Del. Kannan Srinivasan, has filed his resignation from the 26th House District effective Jan. 7.
A resignation or vacancy is required for the Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas (D–Portsmouth) to call an election since the General Assembly is technically still in a special session.
Republicans will pick their nominee on Dec. 13 in a mass meeting, after originally planning a mass meeting on Dec. 12. Seven candidates are running for the GOP nomination, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. They include former state Sen. Amanda Chase; Jean Gannon, the former chair of the Powhatan County Republican Committee; and Shayne Snavely, a veteran and former legislative aide of Chase’s.
Virginia’s 10th Senate District, which is one of the state’s largest geographically, is located west of Richmond and covers an area that has historically been dominated by Republicans. McGuire won his seat after running unopposed in 2023: 65% of his current district voted for him in the congressional election, and 63% voted for President-elect Donald Trump.
Carey Allen, chair of the 4th Congressional District Republican Committee, said in an email that Chase is ineligible to campaign as a Republican.
“She is currently barred from participating in any party activities until April 19, 2028, pursuant to her most recent Article I violation,” Allen wrote to other Republicans in September.
But RPV Chair Rich Anderson told VPM News on Tuesday that Chase is indeed eligible to run on the GOP ticket in the 10th Senate District.
Chase, who represented the former 11th Senate District from 2016 until 2024, was formally removed from the Republican Party in 2019, and again in 2024, after controversies like threatening to run against the winner of a Republican nomination contest. She was also censured by the Virginia Senate in 2021 — the first censure vote since the 1980s — after repeating debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election results were fraudulent.
“Party is afraid of her, but I’m not,” Allen told VPM News in a recent phone call. “They’re afraid she’ll run as an independent.”
Chase did not directly answer a question about whether her candidacy was a consideration in the formation of the party’s Dec. 12 nomination process. During the “mass meeting,” voters would need to be in line by 6:30 p.m. to participate in multiple rounds of voting.
“Everyone knows that I support primaries over nomination processes that suppress voter turnout,” she told VPM News Tuesday, saying no location could accommodate enough of her voters and parents and those who work in the evening may not be able to commit to driving across the large district for multiple hours of voting.
GOP officials met Tuesday night to finalize the plan, pushing the date back to a Friday rather than a weeknight, and set the venue: the Goochland County Rec Center.
While 45 days of early voting are not required for special elections as they are for other Virginia elections, it is allowed. The 45-day period before Jan. 7 began on Nov. 23.
Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle (R–Hanover) said Monday that he “expected there to be an election by Jan. 7.”
The Republican hopefuls except for Chase met Friday in Cumberland County for a candidate forum, according to Cardinal News.
Democrats only have one prospective candidate at the moment: Jack Trammell, a Randolph-Macon professor who unsuccessfully ran against former Congressman Dave Brat (R-7) in 2014. Democrats will choose their nominee on Dec. 9 in an unassembled caucus.
The seating of McGuire and Subramanyam’s successors would bring the number of state senators first elected in a special election to 12 out of 40 seats (30%). About 20% of Virginia’s 100 delegates were first elected in special elections.
Editor’s note: Virginia’s electoral boundaries for statehouse and congressional offices were redistricted and relabeled in 2023.
