Republican Tammy Brankley Mulchi and Democrat Tina Wyatt-Younger will be facing each other in a Jan. 9 special election for the state Senate seat vacated by Sen. Frank Ruff, R-Mecklenburg County, who is retiring for health reasons.
Wyatt-Younger, a former member of the South Boston Town Council and town vice mayor, was elected to be her party’s nominee shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday in a firehouse primary that Democrats hosted in seven locations across the district. She got a total of 89 votes, defeating Danville Vice Mayor Dr. Gary Miller (82 votes), Trudy Berry (39 votes) and Brenda Rather-Holman (25 votes).
More than four hours later, Mulchi, a member of the Clarksville Town Council and a former legislative aide for Ruff, was chosen after four rounds of voting during a GOP mass meeting that drew hundreds of participants to the Drakes Branch Volunteer Fire Department building in Charlotte County and lasted well past midnight. The final vote was 278 for Mulchi and 226 for Dale Sturdifen, a former Mecklenburg County School Board member and current member of the Virginia Board of Education.
Also vying for the Republican nomination, but eliminated in earlier rounds of balloting, were Del. Jim Edmunds, R-Halifax County; Andy Ferguson, a businessman and pastor from Halifax County; Kade Gravitt, a legislative aide to Del. Tommy Wright, R-Lunenburg County; and Danville City Councilman Lee Vogler.
During one of her speeches on Tuesday evening, Mulchi called herself “an honest Christian farming girl from Southside Virginia” who would be able to get to work on day one in Richmond.
“I am ready to stand up to the Northern Virginia liberals and give them a good dose of common sense,” she said.
At least 833 Republican voters registered to participate at the mass meeting. Organizers opened the fire department’s bay doors on one side to accommodate all the attendees, and rounds of voting were conducted outside as temperatures hovered around the freezing mark.
But the number of attendees dwindled after each round of voting. After the third-round results were announced, the crowd resisted another series of speeches, chanting “Vote! Vote! Vote!”
When meeting chairman Will Pace put to a vote the motion to skip the speeches ahead of the fourth ballot, the crowd responded with a resounding “Aye!”
How the Republican balloting went
Vote totals weren’t released except after the fourth ballot but, under the rules, some candidates were eliminated after each round.
After the first ballot: Andy Ferguson and Lee Vogler were out.
After the second ballot: Kade Gravitt was out.
After the third ballot: Jim Edmunds was out.
Six hours after the meeting began, Sturdifen — the runner-up — successfully moved to nominate Mulchi as the district’s GOP candidate.
The two winning candidates now have three weeks to campaign in the 9th Senate District, which includes Pittsylvania, Halifax, Mecklenburg, Nottoway, Lunenburg and Charlotte counties, parts of Prince Edward County, and Danville. The district leans Republican — Glenn Youngkin, the 2021 GOP nominee for governor, carried the 9th by more than 65%.
Ruff announced Friday that he will retire from the state Senate after 23 years for health reasons by Jan. 10, when the General Assembly convenes for its 2024 session. He was first elected to the state Senate in 2000 after serving six years in the House of Delegates.
Ruff said in a statement that he decided to step down because of a recent cancer diagnosis that will require “aggressive and ongoing” treatment. “I may not be able to devote 100% of my focus to doing the work needed in the General Assembly. Consequently, I believe now is the right time to retire,” he said.
Within hours of Ruff’s announcement, the first candidates declared their intention to run. Berry, a longtime Democratic activist, made news earlier this year when she — her party’s nominee to take on Ruff — was denied ballot access for the Nov. 9 election over an email error. Miller followed suit Monday, submitting his filing paper Tuesday morning.
The eight members of the 9th Senate District Republican Legislative Committee met Saturday to discuss their party’s nomination method, the date and location. Later in the evening, Pace, the panel’s chairman, called Tuesday’s mass meeting in Charlotte County.
Democrats announced their firehouse primary on Monday in the aftermath of a controversy. Berry said that Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, the incoming Senate majority leader, called her Sunday, urging her to forfeit her candidacy in favor of Miller.
Later on Monday, the Mecklenburg County Democratic Committee said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that Rather-Holman and Wyatt-Younger also declared their candidacies.
