Election in the USA State of Virginia

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Becoming an informed voter
Name
Institution

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Introduction
Elections in USA are held after every five years. The citizens are accorded a chance to
exercise their democratic rights since the country is ruled democratically. Individuals interested
in occupying the various positions are allowed to contact campaigns where they sell their
manifesto to the people who then make decisions individually to vote for the candidate of their
choice. In Virginia the process is similar to that in other states. Members interested to occupy
any seats from the districts campaign within these districts and those who would wish to occupy
the senatorial position also campaign in the entire state. This essay will pay particular attention
on the elections in district 10 and analyze the political background of Virginia as well as one
senator who has achieved various group ratings.
Virginia’s 10th congregational district representation had the highest number of
contestants in the 2018 election. Given that party primaries were conducted by both the
democrats and the republicans on June 12th and some of the contestants were eliminated from
vying for the position (Moulton, Waller & Wentland, 2018). At the end of the primaries, the
democrats had six candidates remaining and the republican had two. Jennifer Wexton overthrew
the incumbent Barbara Comstock who had represented the district for two consecutive terms.
The district was among those with the highest profile USA House of Representatives election
and it was very competitive and costly. The Republican Party had consolidated power for about
25 years in Virginia not until the recent election when the democrats mobilized their way
through and ended up garnering the most seats in the House of Representatives.
Virginia has always been a democrat’s stronghold. In the recent presidential election
Hillary Bill Clinton carried the flag in Virginia for garnering 49.7% of votes against her

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counterpart (Dickson & Meyer, 2015) businessman Donald Trump who garnered 44.3% votes.
The case was almost similar in the 10th district where Hillary Clinton also won against her
counterpart. The state has always been a democrat stronghold with most of its representatives
coming from the party. The largest number of candidates that vied for the representation position
was from the democrat’s party. The total number was 12 before 6 were eliminated in the
primaries leaving behind 6 contestants among them the winner of the 2018 election Jennifer
Weston. The Republican Party only presented two candidates among them the incumbent
Barbara Comstock.
In the 10th district of Virginia, the democrat party has the greatest following as evident in
the recent elections where the Republican Party presented two candidates for the representation
position against 6 presented by the democrats after the primaries when 6 were put aside
(Kennedy, Blumenthal, Clement, Clinton, Durand, Franklin, Rivers, 2018). When numbers are
considered the republicans should have won the election since the number of democrat voters
was subdivided to the many contestants. The democrat party candidate still won the election
overwhelmingly against the republicans.
The district has a long history of the democrats party dominating since the first 5
presidents of the United States was all from the state of Virginia and all of them were democrats
(Brownstein, 2013). As evident in the elections of the recent years the only time the district was
represented by a republican is in the 2014 and 2016 elections when Barbara Comstock won. In
the previous years, a democrat candidate Frank wolf represented the district since the year 2000-
2014. Frank Wolf retired voluntarily from the representation position after a long service. In the
2018 election the pattern repeated itself when Jennifer Weston a democrat ascended to the
representation position consequently defeating the incumbent republican.