Skip to content

Boucher, Perriello Go Down in Virginia

Two Democratic House incumbents have lost in Virginia.


Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher, first elected in 1982, was upset in his southwestern Virginia district. Republican state House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith got a financial boost from a number of outside GOP groups, including the National Republican Congressional Committee, Americans for Job Security, Americans for Tax Reform and Americans for Limited Government. The Associated Press called the race with 80 percent of precincts reporting. Griffith has served in the state House since 1994.


Freshman Rep. Tom Perriello, the Democrat who ran on his votes for President Barack Obama’s agenda and got a visit from Obama in the last week of the campaign, lost to state Sen. Robert Hurt (R). Liberal groups across the country took an ownership stake in Perriello’s race, and he got help from independent expenditures from a wide array of Democratic groups, including the Service Employees International Union, the Sierra Club, America’s Families First Action Fund, MoveOn.org and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.


Meanwhile, Virginia Reps. Rob Wittman (R), Bobby Scott (D), Randy Forbes (R), Bob Goodlatte (R), Eric Cantor (R) and Frank Wolf (R) were re-elected. Results are not complete in the state’s two other competitive races involving Democratic Reps. Gerry Connolly and Glenn Nye. 

Recent Stories

Supreme Court sounds conflicted over Trump criminal immunity

At the Races: Faith in politics

Nonprofits take a hit in House earmark rules

Micron gets combined $13.6 billion grant, loan for chip plants

EPA says its new strict power plant rules will pass legal tests

Case highlights debate over ‘life of the mother’ exception