Hanger defends seat with GOP primary win

STAUNTON—The precincts have closed, the votes counted, and it's official: Emmett Hanger lives to fight for another term as District 24's state senator.

With family and supporters gathered Tuesday evening at Staunton's Clocktower Restaurant, Hanger was declared the GOP state senate nominee by a wide margin – 60.32 percent of the district vote — with 77 out of 78 precincts reporting.

"We as a community, a state and a nation have a lot of challenges in front of us, and they're not going to be solved by partisan bickering," Hanger said Tuesday night, speaking not only to the watch party in attendance but also to party factions that hoped to bring him down.

CAMPAIGN UNDER FIRE

Hanger's re-election bid may have been two years in the making, but his challenge began in 2007, when Buena Vista businessman Scott Sayre came within 866 votes of unseating him for the District 24 seat.

Then as now, Hanger's opponent claimed to be a truer Republican than he was. His 2015 contenders, North River District Supervisor Marshall Pattie and businessman Dan Moxley, seized a similar opportunity — Obamacare.

Hanger in 2014 was among three senate Republicans who joined Gov. Terry McAuliffe plugging for a privatized version of Medicaid expansion. Although he abandoned the effort when it became clear no budget would be passed containing it, the damage was done.

Of the "gang of three" Republican moderates, two announced their retirements. That left Hanger, the last man standing, with a black mark on his back for some.

As Moxley supporter Shak Hill explained it Tuesday, "He violated our principles." Hill, who ran unsuccessfully for a state senate nomination in 2014, was one of many ultra-conservative residents stumping for runner-up Moxley, who had 27.44 percent of the vote.

Moxley supporter Shak Hill: "He violated our principles."

DAY AT THE POLLS

Pattie, a former Democrat but with local Shenandoah Valley Tea Party support, saw a chance as Moxley did to split and win the vote with his candidacy — or if not that, to set himself up for a future state senate go-round.

"If I can't be your first choice, let me be your second choice," Pattie told some who were voting for his opponents at Clymore Elementary in Fort Defiance.

Marshall Pattie: "If I can't be your first choice, let me be your second choice."

There, Hanger's son Chad also stood greeting supporters. But there were clearly votes for all three candidates. Unlike 2007, when Hanger had Pattie's North River District and Fort Defiance in the bag, it appeared he would have to share.

'"This is my first time for a primary," said Jerry Hendricks, who decided to "see if my vote might make a change" after being courted by Pattie. A former contractor, Hendricks voted for the supervisor because "he sat and talked to me for hours and asked my opinions. I've lived here since 1965, and he's the first one who's ever come to my house."

Garnett Andes, voter: "We need somebody who can bring people together."

Garnett Andes, an IT manager for Energizer who identifies with conservative politics, looked at all the candidates. He cast his vote for Hanger "to get rid of the stalemates we're having in government. We need somebody who can bring people together," he said.

Twyla and Tom Austin also voted for Hanger because "he'll give us more pull in the senate. He's on all the important committees, especially finance."

STORMING STRONGHOLDS

It had been Hanger's plan to use campaign literature as his door-to-door presence and focus his in-person appearances on events. But attack ads preying on voter fears and intensive door-to-door campaigning in his strongholds kept the incumbent senator on the defensive.

Like his fellow candidates, he spent Monday pounding the pavements, knocking on doors.

Emmett Hanger: "It's in God's hands."

As the afternoon marched on, Hanger took up a position outside Waynesboro's Ward D at Westminster Presbyterian Church, greeting voters who seemed to know him from many years past. Men who'd supported him in their prime now came to the poll to vote for him with their walkers.

Still, none of the candidates was taking anything for granted.

"It's in God's hands," Hanger said.

WAITING FOR RESULTS

Before results were in, Pattie's group gathered at Bella Luna in Harrisonburg to await an outcome. "We're calling it a watch party, not a victory party," Pattie said.

He'd end the night below where many expected.

Hanger: "It makes me feel good about what I've been doing — and makes me want to do it some more."

That might have been the surprise of the night — Pattie trailing the other two with just 12.25 percent of the vote. The candidate had vowed to knock on doors and have "20,000 conversations" with District 24 voters over a period of 17 months.

Where Pattie had relied on James Madison University students to help make it happen, "Moxley had the door knockers," said Hanger campaign consultant Dan Goff.

What Moxley lacked, Goff said Tuesday, was social media presence. "I think in the final analysis, when people review Twitter streams and Facebook posts, they'll find we were extraordinarily strong," the consultant said.

Hanger won Augusta County with 64.32 percent of the vote, Staunton with 71.32 percent and Waynesboro with 56.2 percent.

Moxley strongholds included Culpeper County with 52.52 percent of the vote and Greene County with 54.15 percent.

Hanger had said if he won the nomination, he hoped it would be a convincing win by at least 50 percent.

"I knew the support was there," he said after the primary election was called. "That, for me, was just very gratifying. It makes me feel good about what I've been doing — and makes me want to do it some more."