One day before the new Virginia General Assembly is set to convene for its 2024 session Wednesday, two special elections in overlapping state Senate and House of Delegates districts in Southside will send two new lawmakers to Richmond just in time for legislators to take their oath.
Republican Tammy Brankley Mulchi and Democrat Tina Wyatt-Younger will face each other in Tuesday’s special election for the Senate seat vacated by Sen. Frank Ruff, R-Mecklenburg County, who is retiring for health reasons.
And in a special election that same day for a House of Delegates seat that covers Martinsville and parts of Henry County, Democrat Melody Cartwright is hoping to defeat Eric Phillips, the Republican nominee. That special election was triggered by the resignation of Del. Les Adams, R-Pittsylvania County, who is seeking a judgeship in Danville.
9th Senate District: Mulchi vs. Wyatt-Younger
The 9th Senate District special election is “one of the fastest-run races in recent times,” said David Richards, a political analyst and chair of the political science program at the University of Lynchburg.
Both parties had primaries Dec. 19, just four days after Ruff announced he was vacating his seat, and one day before the Dec. 20 filing deadline.
“[The primaries] were competitive, with multiple candidates in both parties seeking the seat,” Richards said. “In the end, two women will be running for the seat.”
Mulchi, the 9th District’s Republican candidate, said she’s been interested in politics since childhood.
“My father was one of the first Republicans ever elected to the county board of supervisors in Mecklenburg, and I always tagged along with him to county Republican meetings,” said Mulchi, 57.
She worked as Ruff’s legislative assistant for 14 years, starting in 1994 after he won his seat in the House of Delegates. Mulchi also owned a construction company for 30 years and now works in real estate.
Retaining the values of rural Virginians is a key issue that she’d focus on in Richmond if elected, she said.
“I’m a conservative Christian, and I see our state and our nation getting so far away from those values,” Mulchi said. “I want to make sure that we don’t get away from that, our Southern heritage, our rural way of living, our farmland.”
The district can achieve this while still looking for economic development opportunities, which will help with issues like the low supply of tradesmen — something Mulchi has witnessed through her former construction company and her current real estate work.
She called Ruff a very good friend and said she’s been in touch with him about legislative opportunities if she’s elected.
“We’re trying to figure out if I’m going to be able to carry the legislation that he has introduced,” Mulchi said. “The timing is going to be tricky.”
Voters will choose between Mulchi and the Democratic nominee, Wyatt-Younger, to represent a district that includes Pittsylvania, Halifax, Mecklenburg, Nottoway, Lunenburg and Charlotte counties, parts of Prince Edward County, and Danville.
Wyatt-Younger, 54, has served on the town council and as vice mayor in South Boston, where she lives, and is also a minister at Abiding Branch Christian Ministries in the town.
Women’s health care, especially in rural areas, is an issue that’s important to her, she said.
“Across the country, and here in Southside, a lot of the labor and delivery units have been closed,” she said. “It’s alarming and it’s devastating. … It’s hard to imagine that a woman has to travel 45 minutes to an hour outside of where she lives.”
And access to health care affects so much more than patients themselves, Wyatt-Younger said.
“Not only does this affect a woman’s health and family decisions, it also plays a role in the economy when you’re trying to build a community,” she said. “It seems like we’re going backwards, and health care of all things should be easy, accessible and affordable.”
Both candidates said they’ve encountered residents who don’t know how to vote in the special election — and many who don’t even know that it’s happening.
“I’ve been out door-knocking today in Lunenburg County,” Mulchi said in an interview last week. “I would say that 90% of the people that I’ve talked to today do not realize the election is next week. They think it’s in November.”
Wyatt-Younger said this is likely because of the rushed nature of the vote, which is scheduled one day before the General Assembly session convenes.
As a Democratic candidate running in a primarily Republican area, Wyatt-Younger said she’s been working hard to connect with voters.
“I understand there’s a D and an R behind our names and titles, but I am a human first,” she said. “I will be a person and talk to everyone. … No one is 100% right about anything, and everyone deserves a chance to be heard.”
In the November 2023 election, both the 9th Senate District and the 48th House of Delegates District had Republican incumbents who ran unopposed.
“Both of these districts are GOP strongholds,” Richards said. “It would be quite a shock if the Republicans fail to hold onto these seats, so they will not affect the balance of power in Richmond. That said, both of these special elections do have Democratic challengers, unlike the November general election races.”
48th House District: Cartright vs. Phillips
House District 48 voters will have the choice between two candidates to send to the state’s House of Delegates during Tuesday’s special election.
Republican candidate Eric Phillips, 47, and Democratic candidate Melody Cartwright, 66, hope to secure the Southside district that includes Martinsville, Henry County and parts of Pittsylvania County.
Both Cartwright and Phillips live in Martinsville. Each hopes their ties to the community will give them an edge over their opponent.
This marks the first time either Cartwright and Phillips has run for public office, though both say they’ve been active participants in local government. Cartwright, a former graphic designer for the Virginia Museum of Natural History who is now retired, said she has attended and stayed apprised of local boards as a citizen. Phillips is the CEO of the Phillips Group, a real estate management company. Neither candidate has formal governance experience.
Both candidates said they want Southside to continue to have an impact on broader state politics.
“I am running because, like so many in Southside and Southwest Virginia, Richmond has forgotten about our hometown values,” Phillips said, later adding: “I want to be a fighter, not just for our values, but for our people. In Richmond, I will make sure Southside and Southwest Virginia have a conservative advocate who will make their voices heard. Richmond seems to have forgotten small communities like ours, and I want to make sure they know just how loud and how important we are.”
Cartwright said the region is facing issues that are going largely unnoticed by statewide forces. She touched on topics including health care and life expectancy, and she said the district is in need of course correction, to improve the lives of the average citizens through affordable health care.
“The average age of people dying in my district is 67.2,” Cartwright said, referencing last year’s multi-organizational survey of health outcomes in Henry County and Martinsville. “In the rest of Virginia it’s over 80, so that just starts you off with one of my concerns. Why is that and what can we do to make it better?”
The candidates’ respective platforms possess some overlap, like their mutual focus on economic issues.
“People can search [for housing] for two or three years and just not find anything appropriate or affordable,” Cartwright said. “Then you have to pay for utilities, it can get to over $1,000 a month. We need to work on that.”
Phillips emphasized jobs, saying he wants to see the district return to a time when jobs weren’t as scarce.
“I grew up in a community that was once the regional leader for job growth and economic opportunity,” he said. “Right now, so many hardworking Virginians are struggling to get by, and small businesses are struggling to survive. We need good-paying jobs to come to our community and invest in our people.”
Phillips said he felt a need to run for public office following Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s announcement of a special election, whereas Cartwright said she needed a bit of convincing.
“He was looking for someone with passion and willing to put themselves out there,” Cartwright said of Dr. Fergie Reid, who initially reached out to her. A founder of the political campaign 90 for 90, Reid has advocated for increasing voter turnout with an emphasis on gerrymandered districts. Part of this involves efforts to recruit Democratic candidates.
Cartwright said she also spoke with Reid’s father, William Ferguson Reid, the first Black member of the House of Delegates since Reconstruction.
“That really revved me up. How can I say no to this guy?” she said.
Both candidates said they have received support from their respective parties, with Phillips citing endorsements from party leaders including Youngkin, Attorney General Jason Miyares, Rep. Morgan Griffith, state Sen. Bill Stanley and Dels. Danny Marshall and Wren Williams.
Cartwright said she has received encouragement and guidance from party members but has yet to receive individual endorsements. She anticipates that the party will become more mobilized as the election draws closer, despite a strong Republican lean in the district. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, in 2021 the district went 67.8% for Youngkin.
Cartwright believes this shouldn’t dissuade Democrats.
“The Democratic Party is out here,” she said. “We may not have a hold in the area, but we should still give people a choice. I’m serious about this, I think we can win, you don’t know what’s going to happen in a special election.”
In one of their last public appeals, both candidates urged voters to lend them their support.
“Now more than ever, we need Republicans in Richmond who are fighters who will help push forward Gov. Youngkin’s conservative agenda in the General Assembly,” Phillips said.
Cartwright said she is ready to work on behalf of the district, adding that collaborating with other lawmakers is an important part of that.
“My goal is to find ways to support our citizens and make our lives better,” Cartwright said. “I want to find out how we can overlap so these different parties can work for the betterment of the area.”