Campaign finance reports reflect highly competitive legislative races

RICHMOND, Va. (WDBJ) – Election Day is now about seven weeks away, but early voting starts this week. And with the latest campaign finance reports filed on Friday, the fight for control of the General Assembly remains hard fought, and highly competitive.

With control of the General Assembly hanging in the balance, it should come as no surprise that money is flowing into Virginia’s legislative races.

But just how much might raise a few eyebrows.

“I think there is no question that this will be the most expensive legislative races in the history of Virginia,” said WDBJ7 Political Analyst Bob Denton. “It certainly will top 2017 that had a total of about 200 million. Some say it may be closer to perhaps 300 million which is a figure that is staggering to even contemplate.”

Denton noted Virginia Democrats had a strong fundraising quarter.

But Governor Youngkin has been pulling in millions as well.

And with the nation watching Virginia as a bellwether state, he said outside interest groups will be turning on the tap in the final weeks of the campaign.

“And one of the big unknowns is these are new districts, and so some of those most competitive races, we really don’t have a history, or really don’t know how they will turn out and quite frankly across the Commonwealth not sure, are they going to be nationalized in terms of the key issues,” Denton said.

Denton said both parties will have the money to be competitive in key races. Right now, he said neither has a clear advantage.

Early voting begins on Friday.

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