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.

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…