Republicans have primaries in the four House of Delegates seats where their incumbents are not seeking reelection. They also have primary contests in three of the districts where the party is targeting incumbent House Democrats plus two primaries in districts that have safe incumbent Democrats.
Republican operative Jeff Ryer says not having anything at the top of the ticket changes who will show up to vote.
"The type of voters who would show up for a water bond election if it were held in a Tuesday in August. So it does change the dynamic and it changes the focus," Ryer says. "It probably makes these individual primary races a little less expensive because they are going to be marketing to fewer voters."
David Ramadan is a former Republican member of the House of Delegates who is now at George Mason University's Schar School.
"The fact that there's no primary on the top of the ticket is going to make a low-turnout primary even more so," Ramadan says. "And, therefore, I don't expect that these primaries will have any real implications on the general election in November."
Republicans might not have any statewide primaries, but Democrats have hotly contested statewide primaries for lieutenant governor and attorney general plus ten primaries for House of Delegates seats across Virginia.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
