Republican-leaning districts are leading in early voting with less than four weeks to go in the 2025 off-off-year elections, amid historic voter turnout.
More than 420,000 Virginians have already cast ballots in statewide elections scheduled for Nov. 4—double the early-voting numbers recorded in Virginia in 2021.
Altogether, voters will have 44 days to vote early, either in person or by mail, for races including governor, lieutenant governor, state attorney general, all 100 seats in the House of Delegates, as well as local offices, such as city councils and school boards.
A majority of the early ballots cast have come from Republican districts. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, as of Oct. 7, some 48,545 ballots have been cast in strong Republican or Republican-leaning districts; 30,460 from strong Democrat or Democrat-leaning districts; and 12,199 from competitive districts.
The Virginia Public Access Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that provides insights into Virginia elections and campaign finances.
Of the total votes cast to date, more than 280,000 have been submitted at in-person voting locations, while more than 140,000 were cast by mail-in ballots.
Before the recent controversy surrounding the Democrat nominee for attorney general, Jay Jones, 362,000 votes had already been cast. Last Friday, violent text messages from Jones were exposed, including messages in which he wished death upon former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his family. Jones has not dropped out of the race, but has apologized to Gilbert and his family.
Those hundreds of thousands of votes were also cast before any candidates’ debates was held. There are two debates scheduled for this election season.
Republican Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears and Democrat former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger will take the stage together tonight (Oct. 9) for the first and only gubernatorial debate of the election. Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares and Jones are scheduled to debate on Oct. 16.
Republican lieutenant governor nominee John Reid is still calling on his Democrat opponent, state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, to debate him, although thus far he has had no response.
