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A flurry of nominees for U.S. Congress claimed victory shortly after polls closed Tuesday night in Virginia’s rare late-summer primary election.
The results of the primary solidify Virginia’s ballot for the general election — a contest that will determine the balance of power in Congress.
Incumbent Rep. Don Beyer has defeated four challengers to secure the Democratic nomination in Congressional District 8. He will face Republican nominee Tony Sabio in the midterms.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Doug Ollivant has won the Republican primary in District 7 and will face first-term Democratic Rep. Eugene Vindman in what is expected to be a competitive midterm race.
Republican Dave Beckwith will run against Rep. Suhas Subramanyam with hopes of thwarting the Democratic congressman’s bid for a second term in Virginia’s heavily-blue 10th District.
Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Bert Mizusawa has won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, securing his place to challenge Democratic Sen. Mark Warner for his long-held seat in November.
This is a breaking news update. The following story will be updated.
Polls across Northern Virginia saw low turnout early Tuesday, WTOP’s Luke Lukert reported.
Ahead of primary day, analysts told WTOP they expected low turnout for the vote, in part because of its odd timing.
Virginia typically holds its primary on the third Tuesday in June. But the nomination contests were pushed back as lawmakers hashed out a mid-decade redistricting proposal designed to give Democrats an upper hand in the U.S. House midterms.
That effort ended in a defeat for Virginia Democrats who hoped to redraw the state’s congressional maps to favor their party.
The sitting president’s party has historically lost seats in the midterms but President Donald Trump took steps to combat that trend last summer, asking Texas Republicans to change the state’s map to be more favorable to the GOP.
That request sparked tussles over gerrymandering across the nation as the midterms closed in, with both parties pushing for control of Congress.
Early look at turnout
Primaries generally draw out less voters than general elections and Tuesday’s contest comes as some Virginians are out of town on vacation or preparing to send students back to school.
Democrats held primaries in Arlington and Fairfax counties. Early estimates of votes show turnout was higher in those places than other parts of Northern Virginia.
Looking at Democrats in the 8th District, 2.24% of voters cast ballots Tuesday and 4.28% of voters cast early ballots. For Republicans, 0.72% cast votes on primary day and 0.80% voted early, the Fairfax County elections office reported at 3 p.m.
In Arlington, the elections office estimated 5.8% of voters cast ballots Tuesday, as of 5 p.m.
In Prince William County, about 2.3% of voters turned out to vote when combining early votes with ballots cast Tuesday, according to the office of elections.
Turnout seemed to be about the same in Loudoun County, where the office of elections estimated 2.04% of voters cast ballots, as of 4 p.m.
Warner to face Republican challenger from Northern Va.
Three Republicans, all hailing from Northern Virginia, are competing for a chance to run against Warner in the general election with hopes of flipping his seat in the U.S. Senate.
The candidates running in the Republican primary include Kim Farington, a certified public accountant who founded a small business; Bert Mizusawa, who retired from the U.S. Army; and Lt. Col. David Williams of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.
Whoever’s nominated likely faces an uphill battle in attempting to unseat the longtime Democratic lawmaker, who has represented Virginia in the Senate since 2009. Warner is the vice chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Both parties hold Northern Va. primaries for US House
Rep. Eugene Vindman, a first-term Democrat, will face a Republican challenger in November in what could be a competitive race in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
Vindman narrowly won a seat vacated by now-Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who left Congress to run for governor. His district includes parts of Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties and Fredericksburg.
Three candidates are running in the Republican primary to face Vindman, including retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Doug Ollivant, businessman Philip Harding and Rick Smithers. According to his Facebook account, Smithers is the founder and pastor of a church located in Southwest Virginia’s Franklin County.
A handful of Democrats are running against incumbent Rep. Don Beyer for the party’s nomination in Virginia’s 8th District, which covers Fairfax and Arlington counties as well as the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church.
Former and current government employees make up the challengers, some of whom have argued Beyer didn’t do enough to help federal workers who lost their jobs during sweeping DOGE cuts.
According to the candidates’ websites, Michael Duffin is a foreign policy expert who was fired amid DOGE cuts. Adam Dunigan is a former CIA case officer who left his job to run for Congress. Mo Seifeldein resigned from his position at the U.S. Department of Labor in protest of Trump’s policies. And Lorena Bruner is a substitute teacher in Stafford County Public Schools.
Beyer, a six-term congressman, has criticized the workforce cuts and joined other lawmakers in proposing legislation that would help former and current federal workers.
The Democrat who wins in the District 8 primary will face Republican Tony Sabio in the general election.
In Congressional District 10, Republicans are nominating a candidate to run against Democratic Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, who filled a vacant congressional seat in 2025.
Three candidates are vying for the Republican nomination: Anthony Suttles; Dave Beckwith, an Air Force veteran; and Julie Perry, a teacher in Fairfax.
Subramanyam’s district includes Fauquier and Loudoun counties, parts of Prince William and Fairfax counties as well as the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.
No primaries were held in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, which covers parts of Fairfax County and Fairfax City. Rep. James Walkinshaw won a special election in September to replace the late Congressman Gerry Connolly, who died in May. In November, Walkinshaw will run for reelection against Republican Arthur Purves.
Fellow Democrats hope to beat Arlington incumbent for board nomination
Two Democrats are hoping to thwart Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti’s reelection bid.
Julie Farnam and James DeVita have thrown their names into the ring for the Democratic nomination to the at-large board seat. Farnam is a small business owner and DeVita is a trial lawyer, according to their campaign websites.
According to the county’s website, de Ferranti was first elected in 2018 and has twice earned the unanimous support of his colleagues to chair the board, most recently in January.
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