Democrats add $2.2 million to delegate campaigns, local races tops in early voting

Happy Halloween! Tonight's Halloween schedule for kids 12 and under in our area is 6-8 p.m. Don't forget to leave your porch light on if you want a visit from the little ghouls.

Oct 31, 2025

Map from VPAP showing districts with highest early voting.

Democrats plowed $2.2 million into the Historic Triangle’s two local House of Delegates races in the final month of the campaign, more than double what the Republican incumbents took in. And they’ve been using it to spend heavily on advertising.

The 71^st and 69^th districts also ranked in the top three state races for early voter turnout, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

The 71^st district, which includes Williamsburg, most of James City County and part of New Kent County, topped the early voter list, with 21,562 votes as of Oct. 30, according to VPAP’s site. That’s more than half as many as the total number of votes – 35,367 -- cast in the race in 2023, when Republican Incumbent Amanda Batten eased past Democratic challenger Jessica Anderson by 1.9 percentage points.

Spokespeople for both the local Republican and Democratic party committees told Williamsburg Watch they viewed the strong early voting as a plus for their side.

“Our data shows strong Democrats, who are the most motivated about an election and consistently vote Democratic, outvoting strong Republicans in James City County 58/42,” said Jennifer Tierney, chair of the Historic Triangle Democratic Party committee. “In Williamsburg strong Dems are outvoting strong Republicans 74/26. In York it’s 52/48 in favor of Democrats.”

But Jim Brittain, president of The Williamsburg-James City County Republican Committee, sees it differently, telling us “ High turnout in Red districts and especially ‘ competitive’ ones such as Amanda’s would indicate well for an incumbent.” Brittain said he believes the assassination of conservative icon Charlie Kirk and the text scandal involving Democratic Attorney General candidate Jay Jones will further motivate Republicans to vote.

In the battle for money, however, the Democrats are the clear winners.

Jessica Anderson has raised just shy of $3 million as of Oct. 23, according to campaign figures filed with the state elections board. Batten has raised $1.226 million, according to the report.

Anderson, who received little party support her first race, received $1.154 million from the House Democratic Caucus this month, plus another $128,909 from the state and local Democratic party groups.

In the 69^th district, which includes parts of James City, York and Gloucester counties and a sliver of Newport News, Democratic challenger Mark Downey has raised $1.75 million to incumbent Republican Chad Green’s $791.8 thousand.

Downey received $865,000 this month from the House Democratic Caucus, and another $52,702 from state and local Democratic party committees.

The Democrats have used the money to spend heavily on political advertising. Anderson and her supporters have spent $1.6 million on ads, largely on television but also on radio, streaming TV, Google, and social media such as Facebook. That’s twice what Batten spent.

Downey and his supporters spent $880,944 in broadcast and social media, more than four times the $196,653 Green spent.

Brittain told us the national Democratic party has invested far more in the Virginia state races than the Republicans, whom he said give most of their money to New Jersey, which is the only other state with statewide elections this year.

“Money can’t buy you an election, but it does give you air time on all media platforms,” the Republican chief said.

picture of FISH volunteers and food pantry — FISH volunteers prepare cookie bags, left, FISH pantry (Williamsburg Watch photos)

Virginia will be stepping in for the deadlocked federal government to provide food subsidies next week, but our major local food bank says it’s busier than ever.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency as a result of the federal government shutdown, which would cut off food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. He announced this week that Virginia will use some of its budget surplus to continue providing similar benefits to the needy through November.

That will provide breathing space for local food banks, which have been seeing demand grow steadily.

“This is a busy time for us anyway with the holidays, and certainly the (furloughed) federal workers,” said Maura Rush, vice president for Williamsburg’s FISH Inc.

“People don’t think there’s hunger in Williamsburg,” she said, adding, “Oh, there is!”

She told us FISH, which is in its 50^th year, has seen a 175% increase in people seeking help over the past decade.

Last year FISH served the equivalent of 434,000 meals in food supplies, provided 18,120 outfits of clothing, and handed out 14,166 diapers, said Rush, who is the group’s donation coordinator.

She said their clients are not just the homeless or unemployed.

There are working people “in the service industry…some older individuals on social security who can’t make ends meet….we also see a lot of multi-generational households: parents, grandparents and children in the same home.”

Housing in the Historic Triangle is so expensive, she said, that they have seen households with as many as 14 people, not necessarily related.

“We support people who are in hotels by giving them crock pots so they can actually cook a meal for their family,” she said.

FISH relies on local volunteers and donors as well as grants from localities, Rush said.

While the organization prefers cash donations, it is happy to receive donations of food, clothing, diapers and housewares.

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Local Briefs

Williamsburg announced its leaf collection schedule of Thursday. It runs between November and January.

The City is divided into two collection routes, Red and Blue. Each route will have five collection weeks, starting the week of Monday, Nov. 3, for those on the Red Route and Monday, Nov. 10, for those on the Blue Route. Collection on each route will occur every other week. Private and gated communities are not eligible.

Christmas trees will be picked up Monday, Dec. 29 and Monday, Jan. 5.

Leaves must be raked to the curb or road edge – not in the street or in a drainage way – by 7 a.m. of the first day of any collection week. Each street on each route will be collected only once during the collection week.

Residents can obtain email reminders by signing up here. More information about the program, including a tool to look up addresses, is also at the website.

New seal, left, supplements the county logo

James City County approved a new official county seal that is a modified version of an earlier version that was replaced in 2012 with the current county logo.

Supervisors voted to approve the seal, which was designed by county staff, at their meeting Tuesday.

The new seal won’t replace the county logo but will be used in more formal applications such as legal documents.

Like the previous seal, the new design depicts the Susan Constant, the largest of the three ships to arrive in Jamestown carrying the first permanent English colonists, inside a circle with the words “Jamestown 1607” beneath the water line.