Republican voters in Danville are showing more interest in the House of Delegates primary in their area than voters in any of the other eight Republican primaries in the state.
That’s based on the numbers from the first day totals on Friday. While just one day, those first-day totals are often a good indicator of overall interest in a race.
There are 17 primaries — eight Republican, nine Democratic — to settle House of Delegates nominations this year. It’s difficult to gauge voter interest on the Democratic side because all their House primaries overlap with statewide Democratic primaries for lieutenant governor and attorney general. Also, some of those Democratic primaries are in large localities where there are multiple districts, with multiple primaries. For instance, there are separate Democratic House primaries in Chesterfield County, which makes it impossible to determine which race is drawing the most interest.
By contrast, Republicans have no statewide primary, which makes it easier to identify which localities are showing the most early interest.
Based on the opening day numbers, the one drawing the most voter interest is the one in the Danville area, where Madison Whittle and Vanessa Scearce are competing for the party’s nomination for the seat being vacated by Del. Danny Marshall, R-Danville, who is retiring for health reasons.
On Friday, 33 voters cast ballots in the Republican primary in Danville. That’s up from six on the first day of early voting a year ago, when Republicans held a statewide primary to pick a candidate for U.S. Senate.
Democratic turnout in that district was lower on opening day, even though Democratic voters also have those two statewide races on the ballot besides the House nomination between Jasmine Lipscomb and Gary Miller. Only nine Democratic voters were recorded in Danville on Friday.
The first day of early voting also saw elevated Republican numbers in Craig County, Botetourt County and Grayson County, all localities that have both a Republican primary for the House of Delegates as well as at least one Republican primary for a board of supervisors nomination.
Grayson County saw 26 first-day voters in the Republican primary, up from four a year ago. Botetourt County saw 24, up from one a year ago. Craig County saw 10 early voters, up from three a year ago. However, being such a small county, Craig has the highest rate of early voting anywhere in the state so far, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
By contrast, Republican primaries for House seats drew five voters in Virginia Beach and two in Prince William County, even though both are in swing districts whose fall races are considered competitive. Part of the reason for the low turnout may be explained by the fact that Republicans tend to be less enthusiastic about early voting than Democrats, which makes the numbers in Danville even more noteworthy.
To see who’s running in this year’s primaries, see our Voter Guide. VPAP will update the early voting numbers daily, and I’ll have a first-week wrap-up and analysis in Friday’s edition of West of the Capital, our weekly political newsletter.