VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Early results show voters in Virginia Beach wanted to revamp the city’s school board.
So far, all incumbents except for one are lagging behind in their races.
There are 11 candidates -- including four incumbents -- vying for seats.
As of late Tuesday evening, Amy Solares, Staci Martin, Michael Callan, David Culpepper, Kathleen Brown, and incumbent Carolyn Weems are winning their districts.
With the exception of Martin, these candidates were endorsed by the political action committee “Students First VA” - a group led in part by current school Board board member Vicki Manning.
“It’s my first time ever voting during the midterms,” said District 2 voter Tyrone Tatem. “It feels awesome! That I was able to do it.”
His wife Dianne Tatem said she had to give him a little encouragement.
“I had to call him 20 times, ‘Get up and let’s go! Are you ready? Let’s go vote,’” she said.
Voters say although congressional races might drive people to the ballot, deciding who will sit on the school board is still important.
“Absolutely. It’s important for the city of Virginia Beach and the surrounding communities,” voter Charles Lawrence said. “This is going to affect us in the future. It’s going to affect our children, it’s going to affect the citizens and the well-being of Virginia Beach and our Commonwealth.”
A new law this year means you can only vote for candidates running in your district.
Voter Patrick Commodore said it's important to him that the right person makes it onto the school board.
“Each locality can be a little bit different and obviously this one is more important to me because my kids are in it,” he said. “I just want to make sure at least my voice is being heard. The country is just kind of going backwards and I want to try and get it back going forward with the economy and the way our children are being raised in schools.”
In District 2, incumbent Kimberly Melnyk is battling Alexis Gerdes and Amy Solares for the seat.
District 4 is between Ken Lubeck and Staci Martin.
Incumbent Sharon Felton and Michael Callan are vying for District 6.
Incumbent Carolyn Rye is running against David Culpepper in District 8.
Incumbent Carolyn Weems is up against Erika Guess in District 9.
Kim Bentley and Kathleen Brown are going head-to-head in District 10.