RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia voters are set to pick Republican nominees Tuesday for two races expected to be among the year's most competitive for U.S. House seats.
Voters will winnow a four-person field in the coastal 2nd District and a six-person field in the central 7th District to take on centrist Democratic incumbents Elaine Luria and Abigail Spanberger.
The general election races could help determine which party controls the U.S. House.
“The path to flipping the U.S. House goes through Hampton Roads, through VA-02,” a confident state Sen.
Jen Kiggans, the presumptive 2nd District frontrunner, said in a recent interview.
“I understand the gravity of that, and that's why we've been working hard.”
Kiggans is a former Navy helicopter pilot and a geriatric nurse practitioner who has served in the state Senate since 2020.
Her Tuesday opponents are all veterans as well.
They include Tommy Altman, a Virginia Beach tattoo shop owner; Andy Baan, a former prosecutor who retired as a captain from the Navy; and Jarome Bell, a retired Navy chief petty officer who calls himself the “MAGA candidate.”