Republicans in the 48th House of Delegates District on Thursday nominated Eric Phillips, a small-business owner from Henry County, as their candidate in the Jan. 9 special election for the vacancy left by Del. Les Adams, R-Pittsylvania County, who announced earlier this week that he would step down after five terms in the legislature.
At a mass meeting at the Old Dominion Agricultural Center in Chatham, Phillips defeated Will Pace, the former chairman of the Pittsylvania County Republican Committee. Meeting organizers said 198 people voted but did not publicly release the vote totals.
At this point, no Democrat has announced a bid in the heavily Republican district, which includes parts of Henry and Pittsylvania counties and the city of Martinsville, making it likely that Phillips will serve as the district’s next delegate come January, when the General Assembly is set to reconvene for its 2024 session.
Phillips would be the first legislator from Henry County since 2011, when Democrats Ward Armstrong and Roscoe Reynolds lost their reelection bids to the House and Senate respectively to Republicans from outside the county.
Phillips’ victory came after several days of controversy. On Wednesday, Phillips denounced the process for selecting the date, location and nomination method. He said they were all decided by Pace, who until that day had been the chair of the 48th District Republican Legislative Committee.
Although Pace resigned as the head of the three-member committee when it met Wednesday to determine the specifics of the nomination process, W.C. Fowlkes, a Republican from Martinsville representing that city and Henry County on the panel, said that he and Phillips were never allowed to present their suggestions.
Pace and his allies, Fowlkes said, had already made up their mind to host a mass meeting in Pace’s hometown, which is more than 30 miles from Martinsville and about 40 miles from Henry County.
Rich Anderson, the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, also expressed concern with the committee’s decision to call a mass meeting at a location inconvenient for many voters on such short notice.
“I am troubled when a situation develops in any Republican Party nomination process anywhere in Virginia that creates an unfavorable public perception that a party nomination process, date, time, or location is selected to accrue an advantage to one candidate over another,” Anderson said in an email to Del. Wren Williams, R-Patrick County, that was obtained by Cardinal News.
“During normal working hours for most citizens and with only 24 hours notice … is artificially rushed and potentially disenfranchises voters,” Anderson wrote, adding that the latter is particularly true because the filing deadline for the GOP nomination isn’t until Monday, “leaving ample opportunity for a nomination process on Saturday, Dec. 16th, a date that respects the working schedules of 48th House District voters.”
Anderson said that from his perspective as the state party chair, he was “concerned that this move has the potential for eroding Republican and voter confidence in our party nomination processes. This runs counter to the role that the Republican National Committee expects me to play in assuring that the Republican Party of Virginia, our 125 subordinate units, and all Virginia Republicans are confident that our nomination processes are conducted in a fair and transparent way.”
In a phone interview Thursday afternoon, Anderson clarified that despite his concerns, the state party or the district chair are not empowered to reverse the decisions made by the local legislative committee.
“The authority that I have here is a moral authority,” Anderson said. “Even though I am less than satisfied with the process by which the nominee is selected, I will get behind our nominee, because that’s what successful elections are made of.”
After the controversy, Phillips says the vote in his favor “hopefully means reconciliation.”
“These things, inner-party, a lot of times are ugly, and it’s not right,” he said. “I’m not against having inner-party methods necessarily, but this should never happen with one guy knowing 48 hours out and the other guy knowing ahead of time.”
Phillips also said that two voting locations or a Saturday vote would have served the voters better.
“We could’ve had a place here and a place there,” he said. “This doesn’t really serve the voters, and that’s what I was most upset about.”
Pace didn’t speak to reporters after Thursday’s mass meeting, but in a brief phone interview on Friday he defended his decision to call a mass meeting in his hometown.
“The law only allows us a certain time to select nominees in a special election and the Republican Party of Virginia Plan of Organization is very flexible of when it can be held within that short time frame, so as long as it doesn’t go over the maximum amount of days allowed in the writ of election, which is normally no more than five days, ” he said.
But some voters at the mass meeting still had concerns.
Axton resident Barbra Helmick said she thought the scheduling was unfair and put Phillips at a disadvantage. It would’ve been better to have had multiple voting locations, she said.
“At least one in each county,” Helmick said. “I could’ve gone to my registrar’s office, that’s about 15 minutes from me.”
Instead she drove about 45 minutes, she said, and was worried about driving home in the dark. Helmick said she knew of other people who wanted to come vote but didn’t because it was inconvenient.
“Or they didn’t even know about it,” she said, because it was announced so last minute.
Several voters came to the 5:30 p.m. meeting straight from their jobs.
William Finch Wyatt said he came directly from his work on a farm near Gretna, which was about a 25-minute trip. His wife, however, was unable to come vote because she was still working, he said.
And Michael Minter Jr. drove about an hour from Henry County right after work.
“There wasn’t a lot of notice, but you’ve got to come out for things you support and people you support as well,” said Minter, who was supporting Phillips.
He said he was encouraged by the turnout, even though it wasn’t an ideal time or location, because it means people care about the area.
Phillips said he’s looking forward to getting into the campaign process for the special election Jan. 9.
“We’re going to take tonight and enjoy this for a few moments, and then I’m sure tomorrow we’ll be right back at it to get ready,” he said. “We’ll see if we have an opponent. I don’t know that we will, but we certainly might.”
