All seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for election every two years. There are 435 seats, representing each of the fifty states in rough proportion to their population as recorded in the most recent national census. There are six non-voting delegate seats representing U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.
The Republican Party currently holds a 220-211 majority over the Democratic Party in the House. Four seats are vacant. Virginia has eleven seats, with six held by Democrats and five by Republicans.
Tenth District
In the race to represent Virginia’s Tenth District in the United States House of Representatives, Mike Clancy (R) and Virginia Senator Suhas Subramanyam (D-32nd) are vying for an open seat. Incumbent Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-VA 10th) is not seeking reelection for health reasons.
The Tenth District encompasses Fauquier County, Loudoun County, Rappahannock County, the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, and parts of Fairfax and Prince William counties.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in the the “Big Bend” region of the Florida panhandle on September 27, and continued inland through Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Rainfall from the storm’s remnants caused devastating flooding in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The city of Asheville, North Carolina, was especially hard-hit.
If you want to help provide assistance for the victims of this disaster, please consider making a donation to a reputable disaster relief charity like Catholic Charities USA or the American Red Cross.
Voters in Loudoun County, Virginia, will be voting on five ballot issues this year. One is a Virginia statewide ballot issue with a proposed amendment to the state constitution. Four are Loudoun County bond referendums.
Virginia Statewide Ballot Issue
Seal of Virginia
Article XII, Section 1, of the Constitution of Virginia establishes a process for amending the commonwealth’s constitution.
The state Senate or House of Delegates proposes amendments and, after having been passed through both houses, they are presented to the voters as a referendum. If approved, the state constitution is modified, and the change can only be reversed by another amendment.
Citizens of Virginia will be voting on one such amendment this year.
Question 1: Property Tax Exemption
The General Assembly cannot exempt properties from local property taxes unless provisions for such an exemption are added to the Constitution of Virginia. Eight exemption authorities have been presented to the voters since Off on a Tangent started making political endorsements in 2004. They all passed.
U.S. Secret Service agents fired on a suspect who allegedly pointed a rifle in the direction of former President Donald Trump (R) at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, this afternoon. Trump was not injured. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a statement that the incident “appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.”
The suspect has been identified in the press as Ryan Wesley Routh, and social media posts critical of Trump have been found under that name. The suspect initially escaped in a black Nissan, but a witness photographed the vehicle and its license plate. Law enforcement officials spotted the vehicle about fifty miles north on Interstate 95, where they pulled it over and took the suspect into custody.
This attempt on Trump’s life comes about two months after Trump was injured in another assassination attempt. In that case, the suspect was killed by Secret Service snipers.
The delegates to the Democratic National Convention have officially nominated Vice President Kamala Harris (D) as the Democratic Party candidate for President of the United States. Harris will stand in the November general election against the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump (D).
Harris’s nomination caps a tumultuous period in the Democratic nomination process. Incumbent President Joe Biden (D), who became the party’s presumptive nominee in March, announced on July 21 that he was ending his campaign and endorsing Harris, making Biden the first incumbent president since eligible for reelection to withdraw since Lyndon B. Johnson (D) in 1968. Harris became the presumptive nominee the next day. She is joined on the Democratic ticket by her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D).
The nomination would normally have taken place at the Democratic National Convention, which will be held August 19-22 in Chicago, Illinois. The party leadership chose to hold a “virtual nomination” due to legal concerns about the Ohio ballot access deadline. Voting concluded at 6:00 p.m. yesterday, but the results were not publicly announced until this morning. A ceremonial nomination will still be part of the convention.
Harris was elected vice president in 2020 and is serving her first term. She is mixed-race African American and Indian American, and the first woman, first African American, and first Indian American vice president. If elected president, she would be the first woman, second African American, and first Indian American to serve in that office. Harris previously served as District Attorney of San Francisco, California; Attorney General of California; and U.S. Senator from California. She unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 before joining Biden on the party’s ticket.
The Democratic Party is the last of the two major parties to officially select its 2024 presidential nominees. The Republican Party selected theirs at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last month. The Virginia filing deadline for independent and third-party candidates is August 23.
Updated, 11:23 a.m.: Harris has announced that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) will be her running mate. The post has been updated accordingly.
Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.
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