IN NOVEMBER a stunning, anti-Trump tsunami nearly erased Republicans' majority in Virginia. This week, they just held onto the House of Delegates. On January 4th David Yancey won a mini-lottery to decide the winner of a seat in Newport News, a gritty, heavily Democratic shipbuilding centre about 60 miles east of Richmond, the state capital. His name, on a slip of paper encased in a black film canister, was pulled from a blue ceramic bowl borrowed from a state-owned art museum.
The draw, by a three-member state elections board, in which Mr Yancey, the Republican incumbent, was selected, was required by law because of a tie between him and his Democratic opponent, Shelly Simonds. After a disputed recount, Mr Yancey and Ms Simonds, a member of the Newport News school board, came out of the November election with 11,608 votes each.
Mr Yancey’s victory means that Republicans will have 51 seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates, to 49 for Democrats. The Republican Party’s two-seat edge stands in contrast to its former 32-seat...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2CWPCCe
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