RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Two Republican state legislators in Virginia who were endorsed by GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin won their party’s Saturday nominating contests for a state Senate seat, according to results provided by the party.
Incumbent Sen. Bryce Reeves won the Republican nomination for the 28th Senate District, according to an email from Republican caucus spokesman Jeffrey Ryer. Del. John McGuire won the nomination in the 10th District.
Reeves is an Army veteran and former law enforcement officer who now works in insurance and has served in the General Assembly since 2012. He ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for the 7th Congressional District last year, and in 2017 unsuccessfully sought the party’s nomination for lieutenant governor. On Saturday, he beat Mike Allers, a retired police officer who has also worked as a teacher and positioned himself as a grassroots candidate aligned with former President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.
Reeves’ will be heavily favored in the general election because the 28th District is an overwhelmingly Republican and mostly rural area west of Fredericksburg.
McGuire, a former Navy SEAL who has served in the House of Delegates since 2018, beat three opponents in the 10th District race. McGuire has faced criticism from Democrats since acknowledging that he attended the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally, but has said he did not enter the Capitol.
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Like Reeves, McGuire will have an edge in the general election, as the 10th District is heavily Republican. It covers a swath of mostly rural counties between Richmond and Charlottesville.
The rest of this year’s state Senate nominating contests will be settled in a June 20 primary election.
All 140 General Assembly seats will be on the ballot in the fall. Candidates are running for the first time under new maps drawn by outside experts during the most recent redistricting process. The maps were drawn without regard for incumbent protection, which has led to a wave of retirements and a higher-than-usual number of nomination contests.
