More than just the President of the United States was elected on this recent Election Day. Americans’ ballots also included their state-specific candidates for the United States House of Representatives (known colloquially as the “House”) and for the United States Senate. 

The process and frequency of electing candidates varies between the House and the Senate. Virginia has 11 seats in the House of Representatives, so the state is split into 11 Congressional Districts, and the citizens of each district vote for a candidate to represent both their state and district in the House. Interestingly, candidates do not have to live in the district that they are running to represent. In contrast to the House, each state has only two Senators. Senators represent their state as a whole and not individual Congressional districts, so everyone in Virginia picks Senators from the same roster of candidates. In terms of frequency of elections, House candidates are elected every two years, whereas Senators get elected every six years. In 2024, one Senate spot and all House spots were open for reelection. Although the outcomes of the US Congressional elections were highly influential for Virginians, there were also votes cast for mayors, school board members, and other local office positions. In the City of Richmond, Democrat Dr. Danny Avula, parent of Maggie Walker sophomore Kiran Avula, will be sworn in as the 81st Mayor of the City of Richmond. He plans to focus on promoting affordable housing, creating more mixed-income communities, prioritizing funding to RPS, transforming City Hall to be more responsive, and protecting people’s reproductive freedom.

The Senate race in Virginia was between incumbent Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Hung Cao. Kaine resecured the position with votes from 54.5% of Virginia’s population, whereas Cao only received 45.5% of the popular vote. Tim Kaine is a Harvard graduate and lawyer, having previously served as Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and the Mayor of Richmond. His policies align strongly with the policies of President Biden, and he championed policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Kaine also supports addressing current environmental issues and economic concerns. Cao’s platform, on the other hand, supported curbing government spending, strengthening national defense, and deporting all illegal immigrants, stances which were likely a result of his service in the military. Election Day’s outcomes emphasized a recurring theme of more populated areas such as City of Richmond, Henrico, and Fairfax voting for Tim Kaine and the Democratic Party; whereas rather rural counties like Lee, Hanover, and Dinwiddie voted for Hung Cao and the Republican Party.

Virginia will be represented by six Republican House representatives and five Democratic House representatives for the 2025 to 2027 term. Students at Maggie Walker likely reside in one of three Congressional districts: District 1, District 4, or District 5. District 1 contains portions of Chesterfield County, Henrico County, and Hanover County, but extends all the way to the Chesapeake Bay and down to include places like Williamsburg. In District 1, Republican Rob Wittman triumphed over Democrat Leslie Mehta for one of eleven Virginian seats in the House. District 4 notably contains the entire City of Richmond, eastern Henrico and Chesterfield County, as well as Petersburg down to the border near Emporia. District 4 will be represented by Democrat Jennifer McClellan, who previously served in the House as a representative of District 10 instead of 4. District 5 contains western Hanover, Goochland, and Powhatan County, among other counties, and they elected Republican John McGuire over Democrat Gloria Witt. Although the results of the winners of other districts may not seem as relevant to Maggie Walker students, they still represent the state of Virginia and its interests. In. District 2, which is largely composed of the Eastern Shore, Jen Kiggans beat Missy Cotter Smasal. District 3 is a majority of the Hamptons Roads area, and Democrat Bobby Scott beat John Sitka. District 6 contains the northwestern areas of Virginia, and they elected Republican Ben Kline. Districts 7, 8, 10, and 11 comprise Northern Virginia with counties such as Loudoun, Arlington, and Fairfax, and they elected Democrats Eugene Vindman, Donald Beyer, Suhas Subramanyan, and incumbent Gerry Conolly, respectively. District 9 in Southeastern Virginia voted for Republican Morgan Griffith.

What's next? Now that Election Day has passed, and there has been enough time to count the votes, the votes must be certified before an official winner can be truly declared. In Virginia, local electoral boards must meet by 5 p.m. on the day after Election Day to begin certifying votes, and they must complete the certification for their local areas within 10 days of the election. Once the local votes are certified, they hand the abstracts, summary documents that outline the results of an election, over to the State Board. The State of Virginia Board will meet on the first Monday of December (this year, December 2), and they will verify the results. Once the certification process is complete, winners from both the House and the Senate races will be sworn in on January 3, 2025. Danny Avula will ascend to the position of Mayor on January 1, 2025. One major position that was not on the ballot this year was Governor of Virginia, which will appear on the ticket next year with Abigail Spanberger representing the Democratic Party and current Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears representing the Republican Party.

Information retrieved from NBC News, USA Gov, Virginia Mercury, WRIC, NCSL, Dannyformayor.com, and NTLA.