Republican incumbent Del. Chris Obenshain and Democratic challenger Lily Franklin squared off on stage Monday night in a forum that laid bare the differences between the two candidates and their campaigns.
Around 70 attendees filled the room at the Blacksburg Library on Monday night to hear what the candidates had to say as they vie for the 41st District House of Delegates seat, during a forum hosted by Cardinal News. The race for the 41st District seat is one of the most expensive General Assembly contests of the 2025 cycle.
The Virginia Clean Economy Act, energy sources, campaign donations from energy companies and how to power data centers acted as a wedge between the two.
But there was some common ground. Both Franklin and Obenshain touted strong roots in the New River Valley, with generations of family members who have lived in the region. Both acknowledged a need to take the political temperature down, in a country that has seen a recent uptick in political violence, and both said bringing down the high cost of living was a priority for them.
Franklin began by sharing her working-class background. She started her career as a middle school teacher and went on to work as a legislative aide and then chief of staff for Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke. Her campaign, she said, is focused on making people feel “a little less alone and a lot more heard.”
In Obenshain’s opening statement, he pointed out that his family has been in Montgomery County for almost a full century. An assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Montgomery County, he said that he ran initially in 2023 to be a voice for the people of the New River Valley in Richmond; to make the region prosperous, safe and free; and that he will continue that work if reelected.
The 41st District race is a rematch between Obenshain and Franklin following a nail-biter that saw Obenshain beat Franklin by a 183-vote margin. Both candidates were newcomers after 2023 redistricting mashed parts of three different House districts together to form the current 41st District.
Roanoke College political science professor Jeff Vick moderated the forum and gave each candidate 2 minutes to respond to questions collected from audience members before the event.
From political violence and the Second Amendment to student concerns, here’s where the candidates stand
After opening remarks about their campaigns and themselves, the candidates were asked about a recent uptick in political violence that claimed the lives of a famous Republican media personality and a Democratic state legislator in Minnesota, and gun violence that has led to the deaths and injury of children in schools. The candidates were asked what they would do to protect citizens from senseless violence while also respecting Second Amendment rights.
For more on where the candidates stand
Both Democrat Lily Franklin and Republican Chris Obenshain answered questions for our Voter Guide. See their responses on the Montgomery County and Roanoke County pages of our Voter Guide.
Early voting begins Friday.
Franklin went first. Political violence has no place in America and its politics, she said, and she added that it’s up to political leaders to hold conversations that will help bring down the temperature. She said she has told the people of the 41st District what she is fighting for in her campaign, rather than villainizing her opponent. She added that she is in support of what she called common-sense gun reforms like expanded background checks and policies to keep guns out of schools.
Obenshain agreed that it is vital that civil conversations are held. He added that it is important to have a free exchange of ideas, but that there have been efforts to try to silence people with different views. He leaned on his experience as a prosecutor and argued that Virginia already has dozens of common-sense gun laws. Instead, he said, his approach is to limit gun violence by focusing on its perpetrators. He said he introduced a bill during his term in the General Assembly that focused on criminals who misuse firearms, but that it was not heard.
Next, the candidates were asked how they have engaged students in their campaigns and how they would work to promote the interests of young people in the state legislature. Virginia Tech is located in the 41st District.
Franklin said that she spent months engaging with students where they were — in their dorms, in classrooms and during campus activities — to hear their concerns. She said students told her they’re concerned about their future and that they felt like their representatives aren’t fighting for them. Those concerns, she said, ranged from housing affordability to access to good jobs to protection of their rights, specifically access to reproductive health care.
Obenshain joked that, first, Virginia Tech needs to get its football program turned around, after the Hokies experienced their first 0-3 start of the season in decades. Then he turned serious: He said he has worked with students during his time in the General Assembly and has supported legislation to put sexual assault response kits near campus and another bill to support the Corps of Cadets program. He added that he’s heard student concerns regarding access to good-paying jobs.
The candidates sound off on the Virginia Clean Economy Act, energy production and data centers
The next question focused on the Virginia Clean Economy Act of 2020, which requires the two largest regulated electric utilities in Virginia to eliminate fossil fuel generation by 2050. The candidates were asked if they support efforts to revisit the VCEA to relax or eliminate the requirement to phase out fossil fuels.
Franklin said she has been a vocal opponent of the act since its creation because it missed an opportunity to protect rate payers. She added that the fight over the act, and how to build out the electric grid as more data centers come online, may be the biggest battle going into the next General Assembly session. She asserted that the fastest way to get more energy production in Virginia is through distributed solar power built on brownfields and industrial locations. She added that her campaign does not accept money from Dominion Energy or Appalachian Power. Her top donors include Clean Virginia Fund, the Green Advocacy Project and the Jane Fonda Climate PAC.
[Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Obenshain argued that Franklin misled voters when she said she opposed the VCEA. “She’s been very clear that she supports the goals of the VCEA,” he said, and called the act a “radical climate program” that “forces” Virginia to use wind and solar power to meet energy demands. Dominion Energy is among his top donors.
The candidates were then asked if they support efforts to restrict building new data centers or efforts to protect consumers from electric rate increases attributed to those centers.
Obenshain said he has been an advocate for repealing the VCEA, which, he said, is driving rate increases. He argued in support of an “all the above” energy approach that includes natural gas, nuclear and potentially fusion energy. Data centers are important and don’t need to be eliminated, he said, but companies must pay their share of the increased cost to power the centers. “I’m in favor of adjusting the formula so that these data centers are actually paying for the energy they use,” he said.
Franklin said that localities must be the deciders regarding whether new data centers can be built. Proper regulations and oversight for those centers need to be in place, she said. “We have enough energy in Virginia for residential and commercial. We don’t have enough energy for data centers and industrial, but yet they pay a lower rate than residential users,” she said. “For too long, we have said that families are ATMs for electric monopolies because legislators are taking money from these electric power companies. And in order to stop that, we need to ban donations from public service corporations.”
Franklin and Obenshain on political polarization
The candidates were then asked how they would bridge a growing partisan rift within the communities they serve.
Obenshain said that his voting record is evidence that he has worked in a bipartisan manner while in the House of Delegates, and that some of the bills he worked on had been picked up and passed by the Democratic-controlled body. Those bills included one to address antisemitic language on college campuses and a budget amendment to increase funding for law enforcement co-response teams that respond to mental health emergencies.
“I’ve worked across the aisle; that’s the prudent thing to do,” he said. “What’s more important is to rediscover our sense of civic engagement, to get off of our phones and out into our communities.”
Franklin said bridging that partisan divide is a “fundamental” part of her campaign. “I look to bring people together,” she said, and added that she’s knocked on doors during her campaign in areas that cover the political spectrum. She has heard from supporters of President Donald Trump who have said they plan to vote for her because, she said, they have shared community values. She added that most legislation in the General Assembly is bipartisan, though it seems that the most partisan pieces get the most attention.
For the last question of the night, before closing statements, the candidates were asked to identify an issue or a vote where they would break from their party.
Obenshain pointed out his support for a bill that would have created a regulatory framework for the sale of recreational cannabis, which was vetoed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. He said that having that framework in place is a matter of public safety and that the lack of such a framework is dangerous. He argued that, when Franklin was working for Rasoul, Democrats pushed through a bill to decriminalize cannabis without that framework.
Franklin shot back and said that Rasoul was adamantly against the bill because he felt it had been rushed. She said she would break with her party on its reluctance to eliminate the much-maligned personal property tax, popularly known as the car tax. She said that she discovered that the tax was a main pain point among voters after knocking on thousands of doors during her campaigns. It’s time for the state to come up with a new tax system to make sure localities remain whole and schools are funded in the absence of the car tax, she said.