After the dust settled in December of 2017, it was clear that three candidates thought they had just missed their shot at joining the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere — Joshua Cole, Shelly Simonds, and Donte Tanner.
Almost immediately, all three made it crystal clear that they were going to try their hand again and announced their intent to run.
Fast forward to mid-July. Campaign finance reports are posted and the expectation is that these three candidates will have amassed solid fundraising in preparation of their 2019 runs…not so much.
Each Democratic candidate versus their likely Republican incumbent got clobbered.
Joshua Cole raised just over $1,700 versus nearly $78,000 by Bob Thomas. Shelly Simonds raised just over $7,000 versus over $63,000 by David Yancey. Lastly, Donte Tanner raised a little over $10,000 versus Tim Hugo’s whopping haul of over $212,000.
These aren’t the fundraising numbers of serious contenders.
Well, Senate Democrat George Barker of Fairfax clearly thought this for one race close to him and has successfully pushed Donte Tanner out of the race against Hugo and replaced him with…Dan Helmer.
This was also said by a top Democratic source in Northern Virginia.
Helmer is the guy who came in a distant fourth in his bid to be the candidate to take on Congresswoman Comstock this November.
It’s unclear how appreciative House Democrats are of Barker’s interference into their race, but forcing out an African American veteran and small business owner seems…interesting.
Even local Fairfax Democrats are angry that Mr. Tanner has been told “let’s let someone else try.”
With the House of Delegates on the line in 2019, it’ll be fascinating to watch who Democratic leadership puts in place to take on what they consider vulnerable incumbents.
In 2017, Hugo showed he knows how to weather the worst of political storms, and Republicans should feel very confident that he’ll weather the lesser storm that will be 2019.