Two Virginia Beach state Senate races came down to the wire Tuesday night, with Republicans appearing to have won both. The victories would run counter to a Democratic wave on a night when the party won control of both houses of the General Assembly.
Republican Sen. Bill DeSteph held on to his seat in the 8th Senate District, according to unofficial election results, with Democrat Missy Cotter Smasal trailing by about 2,400 votes, or just over 3%.
Smasal said Tuesday night she wasn’t conceding the race because not all the votes had been counted.
And the GOP candidate in the open 7th Senate seat, Jen Kiggans, was beating Democrat Cheryl Turpin by about 500 votes. As of 11:20 p.m., that race was within the 1% margin that would let Turpin request a recount.
Democratic control of the Senate didn’t come down to these Virginia Beach races as predicted, but to races in Northern Virginia and the Richmond area. As of press time Tuesday, unofficial vote totals showed Democrats winning 21 of the 40 Senate seats.
The 7th Senate seat became open following the retirement earlier this year of Frank Wagner, a Republican who’d held the seat for 19 years.
Turpin, who served one term as delegate in Virginia Beach’s 85th District, ran on her record of expanding Medicaid and her desire for more gun control after the Virginia Beach mass shooting.
Kiggans, a Navy veteran who now works as a geriatric nurse, boasted of being a political outsider, a newcomer tired of the divisiveness in Richmond.
At a watch party with other GOP statehouse candidates at the Crowne Plaza in Virginia Beach’s Town Center, Desteph said his win came down to grassroots efforts and local money raised.
“We’re showing Virginia Beach we’re not for sale,” he said, hinting at the outside money his opponent raised from national groups like Everytown for Gun Safety.
“This has been a very, very, very close election,” he said. A lot of people have been on the edge of their seats tonight.”
Kiggans and Turpin ran in a district that has been trending blue, with 54% of voters choosing Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in 2017. President Donald Trump, a Republican, narrowly won the district in 2016, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
The contest for the 7th was one of the most expensive in the state, with each candidate raising more than $1 million, and Turpin topping $2 million.
In the last few weeks of the election, both candidates blasted mailers attacking the other’s positions on abortions and gun control.
Healthcare became a central theme of both candidates’ campaigns, with Kiggans saying she’d work to improve healthcare costs and protect people with pre-existing conditions, and Turpin saying she’d fight for women’s healthcare — including a woman’s right to choose — and protect Medicaid expansion.
In the 8th Senate District, gun control became the central issue facing voters after the Virginia Beach mass shooting.
Smasal, a Navy vet who owned a small business, attacked DeSteph and his Republican party for not voting on gun policies during the July special session on gun control.
DeSteph fired back, saying Smasal was politicizing the Virginia Beach tragedy.
Results are unofficial until canvassed.
7th Senate
Cheryl Turpin, D 29,073
Jen Kiggans, R 29,587
49 of 49 precincts reporting
8th Senate
Bill DeSteph*, R 28,622
Missy Cotter Smasal, D 26,228
44 of 44 precincts reporting
