It’s all but official: Roanoke author Beth Macy will be the Democratic nominee for the 6th Congressional District seat.
Her last remaining rival for the nomination — retired educator Dave Kennedy of Arlington County, who was running an out-of-district campaign — announced Thursday that he will withdraw and endorse Macy.
The move came a day after Ken Mitchell, the party’s nominee two years ago, dropped out in favor of Macy.
“As it says in 3rd Chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes, To every thing there is a season,” Kennedy said in a statement. “It is the season to support Democratic candidate, Beth Macy, to represent the great people of the 6th Congressional District in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Beth is the candidate who will be 1,000 percent, all-in, to fight for working-class Virginians who are hurting, big-time.”
If no other candidate files for the Democratic nomination by May 26, there will be no need for a primary election to pick the party’s nominee. That would set up a fall campaign between Macy and Republican incumbent Ben Cline, in a district that stretches from the Roanoke Valley through the Shenandoah Valley.
Cline won reelection two years ago with 63.12% of the vote.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has designated three of Virginia’s Republican-held seats as “targeted” races, meaning they’re in line for special attention. However, the 6th is not one of them. The targeted districts are the 1st (now held by Rob Wittman), the 2nd (Jen Kiggans) and the 5th (John McGuire).
We’ll update our Voter Guide after the Department of Elections announces who has qualified for the Aug. 4 primaries. For now, only the individual pages for Lynchburg, Montgomery County and Roanoke are up to date to account for local nominations in those localities, party-run nominating processes in Lynchburg for Republican city council nominees on May 30 and in Montgomery County for a Republican candidate sheriff on June 20 and a state-run primary in Roanoke on Aug. 4 for Democratic candidates for the city council.
