Virginia's 85th House of Delegates district elects one of 100 seats in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

, the lower house of the state's bicameral legislature. District 85 represents part of

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

, including the neighborhoods of Larkspur, Aragona, Mt. Trashmore, Fairfield and

Arrowhead An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...

. The seat is currently held by

Karen Greenhalgh Karen Starling Greenhalgh is an American politician who has represented the 85th district in the Virginia House of Delegates since 2022. In the 2023 Virginia House of Delegates election 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It ...

Elections

2017

Special election

Outgoing delegate Scott Taylor was required to resign his seat in the House of Delegates upon his

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

Virginia's 2nd Congressional district Virginia's second congressional district is a U.S. congressional district in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It currently encompasses all of Accomack, Northampton, and York Counties; all of the independent cities of Virginia Beach and Willia ...

. A special election was held on January 10, 2017, between sheriff deputy

Rocky Holcomb Norman Dewey "Rocky" Holcomb III (born 1968) is an American politician who served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates for the 85th district from 2017 to 2018. He is a member of the Republican Party. Career Holcomb served in the Uni ...

and local science teacher

Cheryl Turpin Cheryl Baldwin Turpin (born 1963) is an American politician who served as the delegate in the Virginia House of Delegates for the 85th district representing a part of Virginia Beach from 2018 to 2020. She is a member of the Democratic Party. E ...

. Holcomb defeated Turpin with 52.8% of the vote to Turpin's 47.05%.

General election

The following November, Holcomb and Turpin faced each other again during Virginia's

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

. Turpin defeated Holcomb with 50.73% of the vote to Holcomb's 49.06%.

2019

Outgoing delegate Cheryl Turpin declined to seek reelection in order to run for

Virginia's 7th Senate district Virginia's 7th Senate district is one of 40 districts in the Senate of Virginia. The seat is currently held by Democrat Aaron Rouse, who was elected in a 2023 special election. Geography District 7 is located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan ...

. Former delegate Rocky Holcomb sought to reclaim his former seat but was defeated by Democrat Alex Askew by a margin of 51.7% to 48.3%.

District officeholders

References

{{navbox VAHseDist Virginia House of Delegates districts Virginia Beach, Virginia