The elections never end in Virginia, right? I mean, since we have odd-year elections for Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General and House of Delegates, plus the usual even-numbered elections for US Senate (six-year terms), US House (two-year terms) and president (every four years), plus Democratic and Republican nomination contests, plus local elections, plus SPECIAL elections when someone resigns, dies, gets elected to another office, etc., that keeps things hopping most of the time, with rarely a dull moment politically speaking! In this case, just a few weeks since election day on November 4, we’ve now got a special election scheduled (see below for a screenshot of VA Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas’ announcement) for January 6, 2026 to fill the seat being vacated by State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-SD15), who was of course elected Lt. Governor.
Also note, as the announcement from Sen. Lucas explains, that the last day for candidates to file for that January 6, 2026 special election is December 7, this coming Sunday. Which means, of course, that Democrats and Republicans will have to select their nominees by then, so expect likely “firehouse” primaries this weekend (I’m hearing Sunday for the Democrats). By the way, it’s particularly important for Democrats to not have this seat be vacant, as currently Democrats hold only a narrow 21-19 majority in the State Senate – and after Sen. Hashmi’s resignation takes effect prior to her being sworn in as Lt. Governor, Democrats could theoretically be down to just a 20-19 majority. My understanding is that a constitutional amendment requires 21 votes out of 40 in the State Senate, so obviously that could be problematic if the seat were vacant for long, as Democrats are clearly aiming to pass the new redistricting amendment QUICKLY in January 2026, in order to get it in front of voters 90 days or so later. Hence the rush to get this seat filled.
As for SD15, this is a heavily “blue” district in Chesterfield County (77.5%) and Richmond City (22.5%), which Kamala Harris won by 28 points in November 2024, so it’s not a question of whether Democrats will hold it, only a question of who Democrats will nominate this Sunday, as that person is almost guaranteed of being the next State Senator from SD15. So far, the two Democratic candidates who appear to be the only ones running are Del. Debra Gardner and Del. Mike Jones. Each candidate has received multiple endorsements, including Sen. Hashmi for Jones and Sen. Lucas for Gardner. So we’ll see how this goes…but with just a few days until the weekend, there’s not much time to have a debate, send out mailers, raise money, inform voters, etc. Which could mean very low turnout and put a lot of pressure on each campaign to get *their* voters out to the polls. Stay tuned…
