Obenshain wins seat in House over Franklin

Republican Chris Obenshain won the delegation against Democrat Lily Franklin by a 52%-48% margin in a race for the 41st District Virginia House of Delegates seat.

The two candidates were in a tight fight to represent District 41, a new district that consists of parts of Montgomery County and Roanoke County and had no incumbent.

Obenshain raised $522,007 throughout his campaign whilst Franklin raised $837,377, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. The gap between the numbers has only increased as Election Day got closer, records show.

Obenshain’s victory now gives the Republican Party the majority in the House, as predicted by its strong Republican support since the 2021 gubernatorial election. 

With this win, Obenshain will be focused on lowering the cost of living in the district, thus creating more economic opportunities and ensuring safer communities, according to his website. 

“My wife and I have both been working parents,” he said to Cardinal News. “Kind of seeing how things are just getting tougher and harder for working families, and just experiencing that ourselves. Everything from formula to fuel to groceries to utilities, all that stuff going up and just really getting harder. Those are the kind of things that motivated me to really get off the sidelines.”

Obenshain’s win signifies a big leap for the Republican party within Virginia, a state that since the election of Gov. Glenn Youngkin has again been seen as a state that is more purple and more contested, according to John McGlennon, a government professor at the College of William & Mary.

Contact international edit Ahona Anjum and contributing writer Maria Byrnes at ahona.anjum@richmond.edu & maria.byrnes@richmond.edu.