District 17 State Senate election: Houck concedes defeat, Reeves is senator-elect

Sen. Edd Houck quoted from Ecclesiastes in conceding defeat in Tuesday’s election two days later.

“There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under the heaven … a time to search and a time to give up,” he wrote on Facebook around 4:30 p.m. Thursday, after losing, by an extremely small margin, the hard-fought race against now District 17 Senator-elect Bryce Reeves, a Spotsylvania County Republican.

“I can’t say it any better than that,” he said in an early evening conference call with reporters. “The race is finished. It’s done.”

In a race that included some 45,000 votes, a little more than 200 votes separated the candidates.

Houck will not request a recount, saying it would be disingenuous to do so. After meeting with advisors and his legal team Thursday afternoon, Houck said he determined it was time to bow out, and then he quoted from I Timothy.

“I do so knowing that ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’ To my hundreds of supporters, I wish I could have given you the victory you deserve, but it simply did not happen,” Houck said, noting he called Reeves at 4 p.m. Thursday, made his concession, wished him well and offered assistance as he prepares to begin his first term in elected office in January.

“At this uncertain economic time in Virginia, (Reeves) deserves your full support and prayers,” Houck said. “I can never express to each of you my most sincere heartfelt thanks for your support over the past 28 years.”

In office since 1984, Houck represented Culpeper County for the past eight years as part of the 17^th District, and Culpeper consistently voted for him, but not this time. And neither did Spotsylvania County, where he taught for decades in the public schools.

The newly drawn 17^th District now still includes most of Culpeper, all of Orange County and the city of Fredericksburg, parts of Albemarle, Louisa and Spotsylvania and Culpeper counties. In Tuesday’s election, Houck lost all but Albemarle and Fredericksburg.

He said Thursday night he did a lot of soul searching about why he lost his home base here and in Spotsylvania. Houck attributed his loss, in part, to the concentrated efforts of the local GOP to get him and other Democratic candidates out of office.

Add to that the economy, the Tea Party element and the situation in Washington “with Congress stalemating the president,” Houck said, and his campaign could not impact those “significant factors.”

“We all got caught in that stampede.”

With Houck’s loss, the GOP now has complete control in the Virginia General Assembly.

“This is a chapter that is yet unwritten,” he said Thursday night of the significance of one-party control.

In the past four years, the Democratic-controlled senate worked successfully with the Republican governor in support of his education and transportation initiatives, Houck said. In addition, the senate served as “the backstop to a lot of social conservative legislation not quite good for Virginia,” he said.

“It will be interesting to see if that type of legislation is now embraced by a Republican-controlled senate,” said Houck. “I suspect it will be.”

The long-serving state senator, the third most senior in his legislative body, said he was most proud of keeping the three promises he made on his first election night back in 1983: To work hard, be honest and stay closely connected with the citizens of his district.

“And here 28 years later, I say mission accomplished,” said Houck. “I have no regrets and no apologies and am proud of the service I have rendered to the people in the district.”

So what now? Houck said he most looks forward to staying home.

“I am going to try to get back some of the life I had 28 years ago that I really can’t remember,” he said.

The biggest sacrifice has been the time away from his family, including wife Dana of 40 years and their two grown children.

“I will really enjoy not driving out of my driveway,” Houck said.

Reeves, in a statement Thursday, vowed to bring his “commonsense conservative principles to Richmond and stand up for your values.” He said he would advocate for citizens of the 17^th District by always defending the Constitution.

“I hold true to my belief that we can govern better when many viewpoints are working together toward a common goal,” Reeves said. “Virginia will once again lead the way in great government service and new jobs. This is what our forefathers intended for us; not more government in our lives, but less government in our lives.”

Reeves is retired from the military and later worked as a detective in Prince William County. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University and president of Reeves Insurance and Financial Services. Reeves is former chairman of the Spotsylvania GOP; he ran for board of supervisors there in 2007, losing in a three-way race.