CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- Former State Senator Glen Sturtevant defeated incumbent State Senator Amanda Chase and challenger Tina Ramirez in the Republican primary for the State Senate District 12 seat which includes parts of Chesterfield County and Colonial Heights.
Sturtevant, who previously served from 2016 - 2020, defeated Chase by around 300 votes.
He said if he's elected to office in November, he wanted to focus on school choice, deal with COVID learning loss, increase support for police, and make the area more affordable.
"It’s going to take all of us as Republicans working together to win back the State Senate, to hold the House of Delegates and work together with Governor Youngkin to get the Commonwealth on a common sense path again," he said.
Chase, who was the only Senate incumbent facing challengers on Tuesday, has not yet conceded the primary election.
“We work for the people. We don’t work for politicians, or the lobbyists or the PAC community so it is very difficult when you have that much money coming against you," Chase said as the votes were being counted Tuesday night.
Chase no longer caucused with her party.
In 2021, the Virginia Senate voted to censure Chase for a “pattern of unacceptable conduct," including an allegation that she voiced support for those who participated in storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The vote to censure Chase was bipartisan.
"Senator Chase’s selfishness and constant need for media attention, with which the Senate Republican Caucus is keenly familiar, brought us to the situation in which the Senate found itself today," Republican senator leaders wrote in a statement about the censure. "Senator Chase is not a member of the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus. She has not been a member of our caucus this entire term, having resigned her membership in November 2019."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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