The candidates for the 41st House of Delegates seat stayed in friendly territory on the last Saturday before early voting was set to start.
Incumbent Republican Del. Chris Obenshain hosted a picnic for supporters and attended a fish fry at a church in Blacksburg, where he is a regular. Democratic challenger Lily Franklin met with volunteers at her campaign office and knocked on doors in the largely Democratic area of Blacksburg.
The two candidates will face off on the ballot for the second time. The 2025 race to represent the 41st House of Delegates District became a rematch after Obenshain beat Franklin by 183 votes in 2023.
The candidates are the same, but the dynamic has changed: Obenshain was a newcomer in 2023 despite coming from a Western Virginia political dynasty. Now he’s the incumbent. Franklin said she saw little help from the Democratic Party of Virginia in 2023, but now she has the aid of the full party apparatus.
Obenshain had raised $490,440 through Aug. 31 and had spent $782,602 on political advertisements set to run through the week of Nov. 3, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Franklin had raised $893,914 through Aug. 31 and had spent $573,599 on political advertisements set to run through the week of Nov. 3. Franklin is among the top five highest fundraisers among Democratic candidates for the House of Delegates, as of Aug. 31 reporting.
The Southwest and Southside regions are Republican strongholds with one Democratic representative among 20 House of Delegates seats. Though Democrats are challenging Republicans in most of those districts, many are long shots when it comes to unseating the incumbent. The race for the 41st District seat is the most competitive election in Southwest Virginia.
Despite that competitive nature, both campaigns opted to spend their Saturday before the start of early voting in friendly territory.
Saturday, 10 a.m.: Franklin talks K-12 education platform, addresses recent political violence with volunteers
Lily Franklin addressed a small army of volunteers before they set out to knock on doors on a sunny Saturday morning. Roughly two dozen people had gathered in the small campaign office, shared by Franklin’s campaign and former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger’s campaign for governor. Volunteers who ranged in age from college students to senior citizens collected packets of addresses, which would serve as their assignments for door knocking that day.
“This is what’s going to make the difference in this race — having these door-to-door conversations with people and making them feel a little less alone and a lot more heard,” Franklin told the volunteers. “I think most people in our community are really ready for some new vision, one that uplifts people, one that’s fighting for the future and that’s what we’ve been campaigning on since the beginning and what we’re continuing to campaign on.”
The 41st House of Delegates District includes parts of Montgomery and Roanoke counties and encompasses the Virginia Tech campus. The Franklin campaign launched a student fellowship program — college-age volunteers who focus campaign efforts on campus.
Before she set out to knock on doors, Franklin sat down with the campaign’s student fellows and addressed the most recent instance of political violence to rock the country: the shooting death of right-wing podcast host Charlie Kirk.
“If you feel unsafe, feel free to stop what you’re doing and leave, get out of the situation, your safety is top priority for us. I want to win, but I want to make sure y’all are safe,” she told the group before opening up the floor for questions from the students or concerns they may have that arose from conversations with constituents.
One of the student organizers asked about her child care and K-12 policy. They had spoken on the phone with a voter who didn’t have the resources to send their children to early childhood education centers.
“Right now, child care is one of the biggest gaps,” Franklin said, and added that Southwest Virginia lacks child care facilities.
She said that state lawmakers need to widen the focus of the conversation on K-12 education to include early childhood education. Franklin had worked for Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, as an aide and eventually became chief of staff. During that time, she said, she worked on a number of education initiatives, which included the expansion of grant programs to include social-emotional learning for early childhood development in education.
“There’s a lot of things that we can do. Honestly this is probably one of the most bipartisan issues that we have,” she said, about access to child care. “It’s really about shifting how we talk about it and where we put our dollars.”
Her education platform includes changing the school funding formula to better meet the needs of individual students, to expand access to career technical education and to make sure that schools have funds to improve infrastructure.
Franklin has also worked as a K-12 educator, aside from her work in Rasoul’s office. She started substitute teaching at Montgomery County Public Schools during the election to make time for campaigning.
Saturday, 11 a.m. Franklin’s supporters in their own words
Franklin started door-knocking after the volunteer meeting in a hilly and winding neighborhood about 2 miles from her campaign office. She had a list of addresses to visit, and instead of going door-to-door, she crisscrossed the street or skipped over other addresses. Most of the doors that she knocks, she said, span the political spectrum. But all of the people who answered the doors that she knocked on said they were Democrats or planned to support her.
“It’s based off of a field plan,” she said. “It’s based off of the voter file and who are likely voters, and so we talk to them so we can hear what they’re concerned about and if they’re ready to vote.”
She doesn’t typically knock on a door with an Obenshain sign in the front yard because, she said, their mind is made up for the 41st District race. But she’ll knock on a door with a statewide Republican ticket sign.
As she trudged up and down hills through the Blacksburg neighborhood to knock on doors, the people she spoke with shared a number of concerns regarding politics and jokes about the state of Virginia Tech’s football program.
Residents identified funding for education, the high cost of living, high housing prices and public funding for social services and programs as main motivating factors that will drive them to the polls. Some offered her examples of how she can improve her advertisements and campaign materials. She left a postcard-sized campaign flyer with a personal message that said, “I’m sorry I missed you,” on the doors that were not answered.
Mark, 67, who declined to provide his last name, said his main issues include education funding, along with concerns for the environment, water quality and heightened partisanship in politics.
“I was born and raised a Democrat, during the early Reagan years I became a Republican, and probably for the last 18 years, I’ve been an Independent,” he said. “I don’t think either party should define what those who align themselves with a party should believe … as an Independent, I pick and choose the issues that are important to me.”
John Yankowski, 41, a software engineer, said the main issues that will motivate him to vote include funding for education and making sure taxes are used properly.
“We have an 8- and a 10-year-old, and we want to make sure that their schools are running smoothly and that teachers get paid what they need,” he said. He added that he would like to see some of the funding earmarked for police to be funneled toward education.
Andy Norton, 51, a math professor, said that he has a lot of friends in the LGBTQ community who have been traumatized recently by the rhetoric or actions of politicians. One of his closest friends is in a same-sex marriage, and that friend is worried the marriage could be nullified. He plans to vote Democrat down the ticket, he said.
“I feel like we need to be insulated at the state level from what’s happening federally,” he said. “If the nation is a scary place right now, we need to protect people within the state, especially people who have been scapegoated as the source of problems, whether it’s immigrants or trans people.”
Carrie Hibbert, 21, a student at Radford University, said young voters aren’t typically engaged in “off-year” elections such as the 2025 race but noted that candidates and campaigns have worked to get their message across to younger audiences through social media platforms.
“A lot of young people use Instagram, and that’s mainly how I found out about all these elections,” she said. Main issues for her, as a young voter, included affordable housing, access to reproductive health care and support for LGBTQ communities.
“Overall, just trying to survive right now. Life is very expensive and it’s getting more and more expensive,” she added.
Between doors, Franklin talked about the struggles she has faced in her life and her motivation in seeking office. If elected, she’ll likely be one of the poorest members of the House of Delegates, she said, and that she has experience living paycheck to paycheck while juggling bills to make ends meet.
As the campaign heats up, she likely won’t take a day off from campaigning until after the election.
“Tomorrow I’ll do more doors, and Monday we’ve got the debate,” she said, and listed off a number of other upcoming campaign events — including a plan to tailgate at the Virginia Tech football game later that evening.
Saturday, 3 p.m.: Obenshain shores up support among his base
Later that Saturday, incumbent Del. Chris Obenshain, R-Montgomery County, gathered with a group of roughly two dozen supporters at a picnic shelter in Toms Creek Park, at around 3 p.m. Saturday.
Attendees ranged in age from college students to retirees. Two Republican members of Congress, Rep. John McGuire, of Goochland County, and Rep. Morgan Griffith, of Salem, joined the group and gave short stump speeches in support of Obenshain. Their speech outlined an effort to support parental rights in public schools, qualified immunity for police officers and to maintain the so-called “right to work” law in Virginia.
“The pathway to a majority in the Virginia House is through the 41st District, represented currently by Chris Obenshain,” Griffith said.
“The reason why I decided to run two years ago and the reason why I feel so honored to have the chance to represent this district is because it’s home for me,” Obenshain told the group as they ate burgers, hot dogs and cupcakes surrounded by campaign signs for Obenshain and the statewide Republican ticket. “We don’t want people to have to make decisions between paying the rent and paying the electric bill. That’s not what we want; we want to bring those costs and those taxes down.”
Obenshain added that he had established a record of bipartisanship during his term in office. He worked on legislation with members of the opposite party, and several of the bills or budget amendments that he introduced were picked up and passed by Democrats.
He pointed to his work as a prosecutor and the public safety legislation that his background inspired. Obenshain concluded his stump speech by opening up the floor to questions from attendees.
One supporter asked about his plan to lower energy costs for Southwest Virginians, as rates continue to climb. Obenshain said the Virginia Clean Economy Act was the biggest driver in increased energy costs.
“That act that was passed in 2020 has led directly to power plants closing down, Virginia not producing as much energy, Virginia being forced to convert to less reliable and more expensive sources of energy and Virginia becoming the number one importer of energy on the East Coast,” he said.
He added that he supports the effort to repeal the VCEA and to use more sources of energy production, like natural gas or nuclear, in order to lower costs.
After the picnic, Obenshain took some leftover food to a nearby fire station, where he shook hands and talked briefly with the firefighters on duty that night. Many voiced their support for him in his reelection bid.
Saturday, 5 p.m.: Obenshain supporters on why they plan to vote for the incumbent
Tyler Knutson, 18, a member of the College Republicans at Virginia Tech, attended the picnic at Toms Creek Park. He pointed to the economy as a top-of-mind issue for him as he prepares to cast his ballot.
“As younger generations, we’re growing up and inheriting million-dollar home prices and stagnating wages,” he said.
Alyssa Tamez, 20, also a member of the College Republicans at Virginia Tech who attended the picnic, said this year the group will be setting up booths on campus to get students registered to vote ahead of the election.
“It helps a lot when you have young college students such as ourselves going out there and getting people registered to vote,” she said.
Later that evening, Obenshain made his way to the monthly Mt. Tabor Ruritan fish fry at Slusser’s Chapel Church of God in Montgomery County, a regular event for him where he meets and talks with constituents. There, he bought some art to support Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Montgomery County, worked the crowd, and ate. The Blue Ridge Vocal Connection Choir sang as community members gathered for the last fish fry of the season.
Allan Burke, 80, a former Virginia state trooper, attended the fish fry. He said he’s conservative and “gender sensitive.”
“I think boys should be boys and girls should be girls, they have their own place in sports and so forth, and anybody that supports otherwise, I am not for,” he said. Other issues that will inform how he plans to cast his ballot include crime and support of police.
Sherry Burke, 78, a lifelong resident of Southwest Virginia, said her main issues include crime and supporting police officers.
“These criminals getting out of jail is one thing I don’t like, and transgender, I’m against all that,” she said.
Elly Hoinowski, a retired engineer and current volunteer EMT, said she’s in support of school choice, parental rights and Second Amendment rights.
“Chris has been fighting the electric price increases,” she said. “Small government, small footprint, more freedoms, that’s the bottom line.”
Her husband, John Hoinowski, a retired lab coordinator, expressed concern that taxes could increase and parents could lose control of their children in schools if former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger is elected governor. The Hoinowskis live outside of the 41st District, so they won’t be able to vote for Obenshain, but they contribute to his campaign, they said. They had lived in the district but moved in search of lower taxes.
David and Teresa Carroll, new pastors at Slusser’s Chapel Church of God, had recently moved back to Montgomery County after many years. They hadn’t registered to vote yet, but said they plan to support Obenshain.
“He has made known his positions on social media and his presence at gatherings like this today,” Teresa Carroll said. “Obviously, we’re Christians, so things that align with our Christian biblical views, so the more the candidate is biblically based, the more we’d be for that.”
For more on where the candidates stand, see the Montgomery County and Roanoke County pages on our Voter Guide.