VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — In Virginia's 7th State Senate District, in some ways, it seems more like the candidates are running for surgeon general than for the General Assembly.
Republican Jen Kiggans and Democrat Cheryl Turpin have made health care a central part of their campaigns.
"We need people who understand how the health care system works, patient populations, patient challenges," said Kiggans. "One of the ideas that has been proposed in the past is a collaboration of small businesses to work together to offer some of the similar health benefits that large companies have. So, bringing health care costs down... what can we do to bring health care costs down?"
Democrat Turpin weighed in, saying, "All of these things are protected by Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act. And as a state we need to make sure we are protecting our constituents and protecting the citizens, and we are doing what we can at the state level to make sure they continue to have health care. And people want to make sure they have affordable pharmaceuticals, and those are issues we need to look at going forward."
Christopher Newport University Political Science professor Quentin Kidd says this is a race to watch.
"I find this race between Turpin and Kiggans to be interesting because it has come down essentially to a culture war race over issues like abortion and gay rights," he said. "So it really is both candidates appealing to their core bases."