Murphy Thanks Supporters Following Close Race with Barbara Comstock

Democrat Kathleen Murphy, who challenged incumbent Republican Del. Barbara Comstock in one of the closest House races in Virginia, issued the following statement to Patch Wednesday afternoon:

"It was an honor to represent the Democratic party as a candidate for the House of Delegates. To all my wonderful staff and supporters, thank you for your tireless work on my behalf. I will always treasure the memories from this campaign and be proud of the job we did running a campaign focused on the issues and not personal attacks. We may have fallen short, but we'll keep fighting for sensible legislation that protects all the people in Virginia. It is my hope that in the next Session, our Delegate will vote for the priorities of our District."

Comstock appears to be keeping her seat for a third term, according to unofficial election results from the State Board of Elections.

With a 429-vote lead, the Associated Press called the race late Tuesday night — though the AP waited until Wednesday to declare Del. Scott Lingamfelter, a Woodbridge Republican, winner in his race, and the news organization still has not made a determination on whether Herndon Republican Del. Tom Rust will keep his seat. Rust has only a 56-vote lead.

In the 34th House District, which includes parts of McLean, Great Falls, Vienna and Loudoun County, Comstock won 14,935 votes on Tuesday, or 50.66 percent of the vote, compared to Murphy's 14,504 votes, or 49.2 percent.

During the campaign, which drew interest from national political and interests groups, Murphy sought to portray Comstock as part of the same far-right faction of the Republican Party as gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli.

Though a majority — in some cases, a slim majority — of McLean-area voters picked Democrat Terry McAuliffe over Cuccinelli, activists in both parties said they expected some McLean voters to split their ticket and support both McAuliffe and Comstock.

Comstock won her first election by an almost equally narrow margin.