Two Democrats plan to run for Rep. Morgan Griffith’s congressional seat in the 2026 midterm elections.
Joy Powers of Bedford County plans to announce her bid to represent Virginia’s 9th Congressional District at the Blacksburg Community Center on Sunday, according to a press release shared with Cardinal News.
Powers lost her bid for the House of Delegates’ 51st District seat in early November against Republican incumbent Del. Eric Zehr, of Campbell County, by more than 50 percentage points. Regardless, the Democratic candidate appears poised to take on another race in a strongly Republican held district.
Powers joins Adam Murphy, a Roanoke County software developer who announced his plan to challenge Griffith in August, in what will likely be a primary election to determine who goes on to face the incumbent in the midterm election.
That primary could take place in a solidly Republican district where Griffith won with 72.5% of the vote in 2024. He was first elected to Congress in 2010.
Congressional district lines may be redrawn before the election, after the Democratic-controlled General Assembly introduced and passed a constitutional amendment to do so during a special session in early November. The General Assembly will need to again pass the amendment during the 2026 session, and then the measure will go before voters who will have the final say in a referendum. It’s unclear what the new 9th Congressional District could look like — official maps for redistricting have not yet been made available — but it’s likely that the political makeup of the district could remain largely unchanged.
General Assembly Democrats have said that the goal of the redistricting effort is to reduce the number of Republican-held congressional seats after several Republican-controlled states have redistricted to lessen the number of Democratic-held congressional seats, starting with Texas, followed by Missouri and North Carolina. Democratic-controlled California passed its referendum to do so on Nov. 4.
Powers plans to outline a “comprehensive rural policy blueprint” during her announcement on Sunday. Her campaign said that the plan was shaped through months of listening sessions and community conversations across the 9th Congressional District. She plans to focus on restoring trust, strengthening local economies and “ensuring Southwest Virginia has a representative who shows up and delivers,” her campaign said in a statement.
