Srinivasan, Harding to face off for Virginia state senate seat
A Democratic state delegate and a Republican schools activist won firehouse primaries in Loudoun County this weekend, teeing up a special election between the two to fill an open Virginia state Senate seat being vacated by Suhas Subramanyam (D) as he moves to Congress.
Democrats nominated state Del. Kannan Srinivasan, while GOP voters picked Tumay Harding, a former teacher and vocal critic of the Northern Virginia county’s school system.
Subramanyam, a first-term state senator and former state delegate, is stepping down from the state Senate after winning the race to succeed Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Virginia), who did not run again due to health issues. Harding and Srinivasan will compete for the vacant seat, which represents much of eastern Loudoun, in a special election set for Jan. 7.
The nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project rates the 32nd State Senate District as “Strong Democratic,” so Srinivasan will be heavily favored to win. But the stakes are unusually high: Democrats must hold onto the seat to keep effective control of the State Senate, where they have a 21-19 majority.
Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) serves as the tiebreaker in that chamber and would hand over control to the GOP if Republicans manage to win in a county that swung about nine points toward Trump from 2020 to 2024.
Democratic state lawmakers are already looking to push through a raft of liberal policies - including the first phase of a constitutional amendment enshrining abortion rights - in the legislative session that starts in January.
The crowded contests on both sides of the aisle reflected the changed demographics in this formerly rural and majority-White corner of Northern Virginia, with many candidates tracing their heritage to South and Central Asia or the Middle East.
Srinivasan, a business analyst and the first Indian American immigrant elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, racked up endorsements from most Democratic Party leaders, including U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine as well as Subramanyam and state Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell.
According to his campaign website, he got involved in politics after he was struck by a truck while in graduate school and was then denied Medicaid coverage. Srinivasan was then appointed to serve on Virginia’s State Medicaid Board by former governors Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam and won a seat in the House of Delegates last fall.
Loudoun County Democratic Committee Chair Liz Carter, in a statement Sunday announcing Srinivasan’s primary win, called him “an amazing Delegate for Loudoun County and a champion for the members of our community.”
“With his leadership and vision, we are confident he will fight for all Virginians in the state senate, and we look forward to his continued representation in Richmond,” Carter said in a statement posted to the LCDC’s website.
If Srinivasan wins the special election, his victory would prompt the need for another special election to take over his House slot - a role that had also once been held by Subramanyam.
Harding, the daughter of Turkish-Uzbek immigrants, pitched herself as a vocal critic of Loudoun County Public Schools - particularly following her family’s experience with a Title IX probe in the system - and ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Loudoun County board of supervisors last year.
Her campaign website says she worked as a teacher in the Prince William and Loudoun County public school systems and also worked as a cargo company executive.
“Together, we will win this election, flip the Senate, and usher in a new pro-family, pro-business majority that will ensure Virginia reaches new heights,” she wrote on X after the GOP results were announced Saturday night.
Another special election will be necessary to replace state Sen. John J. McGuire III (R-Goochland), who won the race for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District in a rural swath of the state stretching from Charlottesville to the North Carolina border.
McGuire defeated a fellow conservative firebrand, Rep. Bob Good (R-Virginia), in a primary that hinged in part on the endorsement by Donald Trump. His state Senate seat, which VPAP rates as “Strong Republican,” covers parts of Central Virginia.