At sometime past midnight on December 14th at the Mass Meeting held at the Goochland Sports Complex, Amelia County native and businessman Luther Cifers reigned victorious for the Republican nomination for the Senate District 10 seat soon to be vacated by Congressman-elect John McGuire. He pulled this major upset against six other challengers:
● Duane Adams (Chairman of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors)
● Amanda Chase (former Virginia State Senator)
● Shayne Snavley (Army Veteran and former Legislative Aide)
● Jean Gannon (Activist and former RNC Committeewoman candidate for Virginia)
● Bryan Hamlet (District 1 Representative for the Cumberland County Board of Supervisors)
● Alex Cheatham (Activist and former General Assembly Intern)
Hamlet, Snavley and Cheatham were the first to be eliminated in the first round of voting and as the upcoming second round of voting came a shocking turn of events when Jean Gannon, who was the heavily favored underdog of candidates, ranking last in the final four blindsided her supporters by dropping out of the race and in turn endorsing Duane Adams which in turn disappointed many who had came out to support her.
Premade flyers of her endorsement for Adams were passed out after the fact. Adams also had the support and was introduced at the meeting by outgoing Congressman Bob Good prior to the start of voting. In turn a majority of Gannon’s supporters rallied behind Luther Cifers as they were going into the next round of voting which was all down to Chase, Cifers and Adams.
Chase was eliminated leaving the final showdown between Cifers and Adams. In the end out of all seven candidates, it was Cifers who was crowned the Republican nominee for Senate District 10 to fulfill Congressman-elect McGuire’s term when Adams made the motion to unanimously nominate Cifers by acclamation.
A special election for this seat has been set for January 7th 2025 in which Cifers will face off with Democratic nominee Jack Trammel.
