Virginia's 94th House of Delegates district

Virginia's 94th House of Delegates district elects one of the 100 members of the Virginia House of Delegates, the lower house of the state's bicameral legislature. The district is made up of part of Newport News, Virginia.[1][2]

The district has been represented by Democrat Shelly Simonds since 2020.[3][4] In 2017, an extremely close race in this district made national headlines. Following a three-judge panel decision declaring the race a tie, the winner of the 2017 general election was determined by lot with David Yancey winning.[5][6][7]

Elections

2017 General election

The district's election in 2017 was unusually close. Shelly Simonds challenged Yancey for the second time. Unofficial election night results showed Yancey with a 12-vote lead.[8] The race had statewide significance because if Yancey were to win, Republicans would hold a majority in the House of Delegates, but if Simonds were to win, the parties would each have 50 seats, which would have required a power-sharing agreement in the chamber. On November 20, the Virginia State Board of Elections certified Yancey as the winner by 10 votes. Simonds requested a recount.[9] The recount gave Simonds the win by a single vote.[10] Following this, a three-judge panel decided that a potential overvote ballot should be counted for Yancey, thus tying the race. The potential overvote ballot shows a vote for both Simonds and Yancey with Simonds' crossed out, but also shows the vote for the governor crossed out.[11] The winner was set to be decided based on drawing a name out of a bowl on December 27.[12] Appeals by Simonds' campaign postponed the drawing until January 4, 2018. At that time, David Yancey's name was drawn by lot and he was declared the winner.[7] The loser of such a drawing maintains the right to ask for another recount.[5][6] On January 10, 2018, Simonds declared that she would not seek a second recount and that she was conceding the race to Yancey.[13]

List of delegates
Delegate Party Years Electoral history
Alan Diamonstein Democratic January 12, 1983 –
January 9, 2002		 Ran for Lieutenant Governor
Glenn Oder Republican January 9, 2002 –
August 31, 2011		 Resigned
David Yancey Republican January 11, 2012 –
January 8 2020		 Lost reelection
Shelly Simonds Democratic January 8, 2020 –
present		 First elected in 2019

References
  1. House of Delegates District 94 map at Virginia Public Access Project site.
  2. "House District 94" (PDF). Virginia Division of Legislative Services. Map.
  3. Virginia Elections Database: district 94 at Virginia Department of Elections site
  4. 94th district: Elections. Virginia Public Access Project site.
  5. Ress, Reema Amin, Dave. "BREAKING: After 94th District recount, judges rule it's a tie". dailypress.com. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  6. Morrison, Jim; Nirappil, Fenit (20 December 2017). "Court tosses out one-vote victory in recount that had briefly ended a Republican majority in Virginia". Washington Post. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  7. Moomaw, Graham. "Del. David E. Yancey wins tiebreaker for key Virginia House of Delegates seat". www.fredericksburg.com. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  8. Reema Amin. Yancey wins 94th District by 12 votes; Simonds to demand recount. Daily Press. 8 Nov 2017
  9. Reema Amin. State Board of Elections certifies results for 94th District, statewide races. Daily Press. 20 Nov 2017
  10. Gregory S. Schneider. A single vote leads to a rare tie for control of the Virginia legislature. Washington Post. 19 Dec. 2017
  11. Pascale, Jordan (20 December 2017). "Copy of Official Ballot". The Virginian-Pilot. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  12. Clark, Dartunorro. "Tied Virginia House race to be decided by drawing name out of a bowl". NBC News. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  13. Bacon, John (January 10, 2018). "Democrat won't challenge tied Virginia race settled by lot". USA TODAY. Retrieved January 10, 2018.
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