Dem
47
GOP
53
When Gerry Connolly died in May, the Democrats lost a vote from a deep blue (D+18) district in Fairfax County. Unlike Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), who scheduled the special election for another deep blue district in November, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) didn't play political games with the election date. He scheduled the special election for Sept. 9, even knowing some Democrat was sure to win it. The filing date is July 11 and many Democrats are expected to file, but it is not clear how the Democrats will pick their nominee.
Youngkin didn't try to play games because he has presidential ambitions for 2028. Doing something overtly partisan would make it harder for him to run in the "moderate" lane then. If Donald Trump's approval rating is down in the weeds in 2028, a moderate Republican like Youngkin might have a chance and he probably didn't want to do something that would brand him as very partisan to moderate Republicans. (V)