Incumbent Don Beyer Wins Second Congressional Term

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Democratic Congressman Don Beyer won a second term to Congress Tuesday to represent Virginia's 8th District. He faced opposition on the ballot Tuesday from Republican Charles Hernick and Independent Julio Gracia. Beyer, 66, a former ambassador and lieutenant governor of Virginia, was elected to office after longtime Congressman Jim Moran, also a Democrat, retired from Congress.

As of about 11:15 p.m., 163 of 166 precincts were reporting results:

• Don Beyer: 190,569/66.72 percent
• Charles Hernick: 81,890/28.67
• Julio Gracia: 12,306/4.31 percent

Hernick grew up in Minnesota and is an economist and ecologist, according to his campaign Web site. Also on the ballot Tuesday is Gracia, an Independent who worked for 26 years as an FBI Special Agent and has lived in Fairfax County for 16 years.

The 8th district includes Alexandria, Arlington, Falls Church and parts of Fairfax County, an area that is pretty solidly blue.

Some see Beyer easily winning on Tuesday. “Beyer will win in a landslide,” David Wasserman, House editor of the Cook Political Report, recently told The Washington Post. “Charles Hernick’s chances of winning are no higher than Arlington’s chances of capsizing into the Potomac River.”

In his first congressional term Beyer has served on the Joint Economic Committee, the House Committee on Natural Resources, is Ranking Member on the Oversight Subcommittee to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and a member of the New Democrat Coalition.