Virginia Holds the First Elections of the New Trump Era

The first special elections since President-elect Donald J. Trump won a second term are arriving on Tuesday in Virginia, where voters in three races will determine the majorities in the state’s legislature.

At first glance, the contests hold little mystery: Democrats have significant advantages in the State House district and one of the two State Senate districts that are up for grabs, while the other district in the upper chamber is all but certain to remain in Republican hands.

But even if there are no upsets, the margins of the races will provide the first hints of voter attitudes as Mr. Trump prepares to take office for a second time. The two seats where Democrats are favored are both in Loudoun County, a Washington suburb that shifted hard toward the party during the first Trump presidency before tilting back toward the former president in November.

Democrats, who hold one-seat majorities in both Virginia chambers, have raised and spent considerably more to defend the two Loudoun seats than Republicans have in challenging them. Democratic candidates have traditionally won both districts easily, but some in the party had worried that a post-election malaise could jeopardize one or both of the seats.

One Loudoun seat is in the Senate, the other in the House. The Senate seat became vacant when Suhas Subramanyam, the Democrat who held it, was elected to Congress in November.

Then Kannan Srinivasan, a State House delegate, won the Democratic nomination to replace Mr. Subramanyam and resigned his seat. That prompted a special election for Mr. Srinivasan’s seat in the House. Democrats nominated JJ Singh, a former Capitol Hill aide who would most likely become the first turban-wearing Sikh elected to a state legislature in the United States.