What Went Down In The June 21 Elections In Alabama, Virginia And Georgia

As Alex Samuels covered on the live blog last week, Republican Mayra Flores won her special election in Texas’s 34th District, making her the first Mexican-born congresswoman. Her win also set a new record for the most Republican women to sit in Congress, 41, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.

Still, Republican women are vastly outnumbered by Democratic women, who currently hold 106 seats in Congress. But plenty of GOP women’s groups, like VIEW PAC, Winning for Women and Maggie’s List, are trying to shrink that gap by investing in primary races, including some we are watching today.

In Virginia’s 2nd District, former Navy pilot and state Sen. Jen Kiggans has received endorsements from E-PAC, VIEW PAC, Maggie’s List and Winning for Women, in addition to support from the National Republican Congressional Committee, making her a consensus candidate, more or less. That said, Trump hasn’t endorsed in this race, despite the candidates’ attempts to appeal to Trump supporters by embracing false claims of election fraud in the 2020 election. On that, Kiggans has been vague; however, she voted to support a forensic audit of the 2020 election in Virginia. The winner of this GOP primary will face the Democratic incumbent, Elaine Luria, a Navy veteran, who flipped the district during the blue wave in the 2018 midterms, and who has managed to hold on to the seat since.

In Virginia’s 7th District, VIEW PAC is supporting law enforcement officer Yesli Vega, to help her stand out in a crowded field. The winner of this GOP primary will face Abigail Spanberger, who also flipped her district blue in the 2018 wave. Before winning her seat, Spanberger was a CIA officer. It’s probably not a coincidence that after Luria and Spanberger defeated male candidates nominated by the GOP in 2018 and 2020, the GOP is now looking to nominate women with similar credentials as Luria and Spanberger in hopes to unseat them.

Tonight, I’ll be watching these races (and more) to see if Republicans nominate women to try and take back these seats in 2022.