2008 United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia

2008 Virginia's 2nd congressional district election
← 2006 2010 →
	County and independent city results; Nye: 50–60%
U.S. Representative before election; Thelma Drake; Republican	Elected U.S. Representative ; Glenn Nye; Democratic

2008 Virginia's 1st congressional district election
← 2007 (special) 2010 →
	County and independent city results; Wittman: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% ; Day: 50–60% 60–70%
U.S. Representative before election; Rob Wittman; Republican	Elected U.S. Representative ; Rob Wittman; Republican

2008 United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia
← 2006 November 4, 2008 2010 →
All 11 Virginia seats to the United States House of Representatives
Democratic 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90%	Republican 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%

The 2008 congressional elections in Virginia were held on November 4, 2008, to determine who would represent the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, coinciding with the presidential and senatorial elections. Representatives were elected for two-year terms in the 111th Congress from January 3, 2009, until January 3, 2011. Primary elections were held on June 10, 2008.

Virginia had eleven seats in the House, apportioned according to the 2000 United States census. Democrats flipped the 2nd, 5th, and 11th districts, flipping their 3–8 deficit into a 6–5 majority, their first since 1998. As of 2024, this is the last time that Democrats were elected to the 5th or 9th congressional districts. This was also the last time until 2018 that Democrats won the majority of House seats in Virginia.

Overview

Statewide

Party		Candidates	Votes^[1]		Seats
Party		Candidates	No.	%	No.	+/–	%
	Democratic	11	1,852,788	53.01	5	3	54.55
	Republican	9	1,590,687	45.51	4	3	45.45
	Independent Greens	2	14,100	0.40	0		0.0
	Independents	2	13,870	0.40	0		0.0
	Libertarian	1	5,265	0.15	0		0.0
	Write-in	11	18,645	0.53	0		0.0
Total			3,495,355	100.0	11		100.0

Popular vote

Democratic			53.01%
Republican			45.51%
Independent Greens			0.40%
Other			1.08%

House seats

Democratic			54.55%
Republican			45.45%

By district

Results of the 2008 United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia by district:

District	Democratic		Republican		Others		Total		Result
					Others		Total
	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
District 1	150,432	41.75%	203,839	56.58%	6,021	1.67%	360,292	100.0%	Republican hold
District 2	141,857	52.40%	128,486	47.46%	368	0.14%	270,711	100.0%	Democratic gain
District 3	239,911	97.02%	0	0.00%	7,377	2.98%	247,288	100.0%	Democratic hold
District 4	135,041	40.37%	199,075	59.51%	405	0.12%	334,521	100.0%	Republican hold
District 5	158,810	50.09%	158,083	49.86%	183	0.06%	317,076	100.0%	Democratic gain
District 6	114,367	36.61%	192,350	61.57%	5,675	1.82%	312,392	100.0%	Republican hold
District 7	138,123	37.10%	233,531	62.72%	683	0.18%	372,337	100.0%	Republican hold
District 8	222,986	67.94%	97,425	29.68%	7,786	2.37%	328,197	100.0%	Democratic hold
District 9	207,306	97.07%	0	0.00%	6,264	2.93%	213,570	100.0%	Democratic hold
District 10	147,357	38.83%	223,140	58.80%	8,983	2.37%	379,480	100.0%	Republican hold
District 11	196,598	54.69%	154,758	43.05%	8,135	2.26%	359,491	100.0%	Democratic gain
Total	1,852,788	53.01%	1,590,687	45.51%	51,880	1.48%	3,495,355	100.0%

District 1

Incumbent Republican Rob Wittman, who had represented the district since 2007, ran for re-election. He was elected with 60.8% of the vote in 2007 and the district had a PVI of R+9.^[2]

Republican primary

A Westmoreland County resident, former State Board of Health field director for the Division of Shellfish Sanitation and past member of the Virginia House of Delegates,^[3] Wittman had only held the seat since January 2008, having won the special election to succeed deceased Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis. He had taken up many of her causes, including the FairTax, veterans' interests and getting rid of the remainder of the ghost fleet stationed at the James River.^[4]^[5]^[6] Like Davis, he is also introducing legislation to allow Virginia to regulate the importation of trash from other states.^[7]

Candidates

Nominee

Rob Wittman, incumbent U.S. Representative^[8]

Democratic primary

The Democratic Party of Virginia held its convention on May 17 in Williamsburg, Virginia and selected Keith Hummel, the only person running for the Democratic nomination at the time. Only four votes were cast to not nominate anyone.^[9] A Westmoreland County physician and self-described "populist Democrat", Hummel also operates a farm and winery. The issues he was running on included enacting trade and tax policies to protect American jobs and American interests (rather than those of a few multinational corporations); using the military for defense rather than offensively; providing better health care and other benefits to veterans; and universal health care.^[10]

Candidates

Nominee

Bill Day, mental health counselor and nominee for state delegate in 2007^[11]

Libertarian primary

Anarcho-capitalist Catlett resident Nathan Larson, filed a declaration of candidacy on May 7, and was certified for the ballot on June 6. He was nominated by the Libertarian Party 1st Congressional District Convention on June 3^[12]^[13] and endorsed by the Independent Greens of Virginia on June 12.^[14]

The main issues he was running on are free market roads and transit privatization,^[15] which he proposed as the solution to DC Metropolitan area traffic congestion, recently ranked the second-worst in the country.^[16] He supported auctioning off the Interstate Highway System and rail systems such as Amtrak to private investors.^[17] Larson also sought to dissolve the U.S. military and establish a competitive market for defense services.^[18]

Candidates

Nominee

Nathan Larson, accountant and cannabis reform activist^[19]^[20]

General election

Campaign

The candidates appeared on Cathy Lewis's TV program, What Matters, on October 15.^[21] The candidates held a spirited and well-attended^[22] debate on October 22 in which differing opinions on health care and the economy played a central role. Wittman defended his vote against the bailout package, while Day said he would have voted for it, and Larson said that it would have been better for the economy if the banks had been allowed to fail. On Medicare, Wittman advocated restructuring the system, while Day argued for expanding it and Larson shocked the audience by calling for its abolition.^[23]^[24]

Endorsements

Bill Day (D)

Labor unions

AFL-CIO^[25]

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
The Cook Political Report^[26]	Safe R	November 6, 2008
Rothenberg^[27]	Safe R	November 2, 2008
Sabato's Crystal Ball^[28]	Safe R	November 6, 2008
Real Clear Politics^[29]	Safe R	November 7, 2008
CQ Politics^[30]	Safe R	November 6, 2008

Results

Wittman won the election, 56.6 to 41.8.^[31]

Virginia's 1st congressional district election, 2008^[32]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Rob Wittman	203,839	56.6
	Democratic	Bill Day	150,432	41.8
	Libertarian	Nathan Larson	5,265	1.5
	Write-in		756	0.2
Majority			53,407	14.8
Total votes			360,292	100.0
	Republican hold

District 2

The District includes Virginia's two largest cities--Norfolk and Virginia Beach, and the Virginia portion of the Eastern Shore. Incumbent Republican Thelma Drake, who had represented the district since 2005, ran for re-election.^[33] She was elected with 51.3% of the vote in 2006 and the district had a PVI of R+6.^[2]

In 2006, Drake survived a bid from Democrat Phil Kellam by only 51.27% to 48.45%. In 2004, Drake received 55% of the vote in this Virginia Beach-based district, which was won by George W. Bush with 57% to 42% for John Kerry in 2004. But in 2005 Democratic Governor Tim Kaine won the district by 50% to 47%.^[34] In 2006, Drake may have been hurt by the downfall of Republican U.S. Senator George Allen, who narrowly lost to Democrat Jim Webb, an ex-Republican and former Navy Secretary under Ronald Reagan. (Allen carried the district 51%–48%.^[35])