VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Republicans hoped to flip three congressional seats in Virginia, but were only able to win in the second congressional district on Tuesday.
"I think the Republican Party showed well, but not as well as folks had hoped," Gov. Glenn Youngkin told News 3 Wednesday morning.
Nationwide, the results are a mixed bag, with Republicans expected to have a slim majority in the House despite hopes a "red wave" would lead to dozens of seats flipping.
Control of the Senate remained undetermined Wednesday, with vote counting still continuing in Arizona and Nevada. The race in Georgia appears to be headed for a runoff.
Virginia Republicans and Youngkin campaigned aggressively in the second, seventh, and tenth congressional districts. Abigail Spanberger was able to hold on to her redrawn seventh district against Republican Yesli Vega. Jennifer Wexton defeated Republican Hung Cao in the tenth.
"All of these races were incredibly tight and we expected them to be tight. Particularly in the seventh and tenth, we knew those races were in the margin of error all along," Youngkin said.
In the second, Republican Jen Kiggans beat Democrat Elaine Luria by about 12,000 votes. In Virginia Beach, the race is much tighter with Kiggans only leading by about 550 votes, but due to redistricting other localities put Kiggans over the top. She won by about 8,000 in the Chesapeake part of the district.
Luria conceded the race just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday night.
"Look, Elaine Luria - that was a tough redistricting for her. It made it very tough just demographically. When you think how close she came, I'm incredibly proud of her," said Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia. "Two out of three - I'll take it. It's a win in this environment."
By comparison in Virginia Beach, Gov. Youngkin defeated Terry McAuliffe by about 13,000 votes in 2021. News 3 asked Youngkin what that said about where voters' minds are in thinking.
"[Luria] is an incumbent and unseating an incumbent is a real challenge and I think it's a real statement when a challenger unseats an incumbent," Youngkin replied.
While Election Day is over, the work for election officials is not. On Wednesday across the state, they began canvassing the results to ensure the numbers are correct.
In Virginia Beach, election officials will have to go through about 2,500 provisional ballots, which they said is more than normal due to Virginia's new same-day registration policy.
They have until Tuesday to certify the results to the state. "All of the stories about,'Oh My Gosh elections aren't working,' you realize they're precisely that. They're stories. You have patriotic, focused, very intelligent people from both sides of the political aisle who just get in here to get it right," said Dave Belote, vice chair of the Virginia Beach Electoral Board.