Democratic Del. Monty Mason defeated Republican Thomas R. Holston and the Constitution Party’s John B. Bloom by significant margins Tuesday in a race for the 1st Virginia Senate seat.
“We had a good night,” Mason said Tuesday. “I’m really proud of the team and the effort we put together and it paid off today at the polls.”
Mason and related political action committees out-raised his opponents nearly 220 to 1, as of the Oct. 31 filing deadline, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. The candidates were running to fill the 1st District Senate seat of the late Virginia Sen. John Miller.
“Tonight is impossible to even think through without thinking about John Miller who was just a great man and a great friend,” Mason said Tuesday. “First and foremost, I started thinking about him.”
Mason, elected in 2013 and re-elected in 2015 to the represent the House of Delegates in the 93rd District, has worked with banks and their customers to prevent fraud as an employee at Visa Inc. He lives in Williamsburg with his wife, Pamela, and their two daughters.
Thomas Holston, a former employee of the Hampton Police Department and the Newport News Fire Department, retired from a career in public safety in 1990. Holston served on the Newport News Disability Board for 10 years and has worked with schools to increase their accessibility for handicapped youth. He has four children with his wife, Frances, who is a school teacher.
John Bloom, a nuclear and environmental engineer, ran as a Republican in the 95th District general election in 2013, when he lost to incumbent Democrat Mamye BaCote. He is the ballot access coordinator for the Constitution Party of Virginia.
Mason will represent the City of Williamsburg, parts of James City County and York County and parts of Newport News, Hampton and Suffolk in the upper house of the General Assembly.
All election results are considered unofficial until a formal results review is completed and all provisional ballots are counted.
Profiles of the candidates can be found here. Past coverage of the candidates can be found here.
Update Wednesday 12:28 p.m.: Results from 98.08 percent of precincts for the 1st Virginia Senate District have been reported. According to the Virginia Department of Elections, 57.92 percent of citizens, or 46589 ballots cast, voted for Democrat Monty Mason.
