Jeannemarie Devolites Davis
Incumbent Republican
News Editor Rachael Dickson

In the 34th district, the most Democratic district in Virginia currently held by Republican, Senator Jeannemarie Devolites-Davis, who is facing Chap Petersen (D), a former city councilman and state delegate who acted as senior advisor to Sen. Jim Webb (D) during his 2006 campaign.

This race is considered one of the most important, if not the most important ones in the state, as Democrats fight to win back the state senate. The dynamics within it have forced Devolites-Davis to turn to unusual tactics for a Republican.

“I’m a Republican who represents a Democratic district now and there’s no question about it,” Devolites-Davis said at the August College Republicans Conference at George Mason University. “For those of us that run a district that can swing—or in my case, a district that definitely swings—the other way you have to be out in your district every single day, I never miss it.”

Devolites-Davis has described herself as a moderate on the campaign trail. Devolites-Davis references transportation and education as some of her most focused issues.

“We have to not focus on the social issues, which are what drives your far left and far right, we have to talk about the issues that really attract the moderate or independent voters. That’s the only way you can win up here,” Devolites-Davis said. She has reached out to LGBT voters, saying that she wants to keep the state and religion far apart and give homosexuals all the legal benefits of marriage without the label itself.

"What I have become over time, being a mom and having a kid who's been in trouble, is that I don't see easy answers anymore," she says. "I'm not motivated by ideology but by pragmatism. I've gotten to know gays and lesbians, and I see them as individuals and I see that nothing is black and white. Everything's gray."

However, despite these moderate self-descriptions, she sponsored the Marshall-Newman amendment last year, which forbids same-sex marriages and civil unions. She has also consistently received 100 percent ratings from the anti-abortion Virginia Society for Human Life.

She is believed to be the first legislative candidate in Virginia to purchase air time in the expensive Washington media market, which also reaches the District of Columbia and Maryland. She has come under recent fire lately for a flyer she distributed district-wide, which contained a document containing the home address and phone number for her opponent, Petersen, along with the names of his children. The family has reported receiving negative phone calls which jarred Petersen’s wife enough for her and their children to stay with family for a few days. Devolites-Davis has said that since the information is public, she did nothing wrong, and has stated that Petersen put his own family in play by talking about his children’s activities in his flyers in the past.