ROANOKE, Va. – Rep. Morgan Griffith has successfully defended his seat against Democratic candidate Anthony Flaccavento.
Griffith will hold on to his seat for a 5th term.
This district covers the Southwest corner of the Commonwealth. An overwhelming 65 percent of voters elected him back in office, where he's served since 2010.
That's down three percentage points from last election, when he defeated Democrat Derek Kitts by more than 40 percent of the vote.
Griffith won by the majority in his district in almost all of our viewing area except for Montgomery County and Radford City, which both have historically a Democrat base. Even there, it was a close race.
"We were confident that if we stuck to our values and went out there and told people what we stood for, that the people of Southwest Virginia would understand and cut through all the rhetoric ... and realize the voice they wanted to send was the conservative voice. Tonight's victory is a victory for the conservative philosophy in the 9th District of Virginia," said Griffith.
He also had kind words to say about his challenger, Anthony Flaccavento, saying that despite their differences he has respect for him as a person.
He said he hopes to carry that sentiment into his time in office to be able to work together to better the economy in a bipartisan manner.
However, the outcome the Flaccavento campaign saw was now what they were hoping to see.
This was Flaccavento's second attempt at un-seating the incumbent Morgan Griffith, and the results from that time in 2012 were pretty much the same this time around.
Flaccavento says he had more TV ads, more town halls and more overall enthusiasm than Griffith, but for some reason, they haven't pinpointed yet, they fell short in a big way.
He says President Trump and his rhetoric plays a part in, but that's not the entire picture.
"How do we build on thousands of people in southwest Virginia who have worked together like dogs who have given their lives to build a better future right here and across this country?," said Flaccavento.
The 9th District Democrats were pleased with some other key Democratic wins across the country, and say they're happy they gave it their all.