How many Republican-held seats will Democrats be contesting this year?
House Speaker Don Scott has a list of 13 Republican-held seats he wants to flip from red to blue. But the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is spotlighting only eight of those 13 races.
"It is intended to put a light on a handful of candidates that represent the opportunity," says Heather Williams at the DLCC. "It is not intended to be a perfect target list but rather really to highlight the opportunity both incumbents and challenged races and diversity across the state, across all spectrums."
That means five Democratic candidates are in races that might not get the attention or the financial resources that other candidates will be getting.
"Donors have to figure out where can their money can be best spent, and that means very viable candidates may not be as appealing to a donor as somebody else is," Stephen Farnsworth at the University of Mary Washington says. "It's a painful reality of politics that donors engage in triage, figuring out campaigns that are most effective users of donations versus those that may be good users but not at the top of the list."
The party that wins in a presidential election year usually suffers in Virginia's odd-year elections, which means that if tradition holds, Democrats are poised to do well in the three statewide races and add to their one-vote majority in the House of Delegates.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
