republican barbara comstock won convincingly over her democratic challenger, john faust. both candidates were vying to replace congressman frank wolf, who is retiring after 17 terms in the house. comstock's victory keeps the area's congressional seat in republican hands. >>> turning to the campaign results in the district of columbia, murial bowser will hold her first press conference this afternoon as dc mayor- elect, over two independent challengers to become the district's eighth mayor since the beginning of home rule and only the second woman to hold the office. bruce johnson has more on bowser's convincing win. >> reporter: this is bruce johnson inside the historic howard theater, and the victory party for mayor-elect murial bowser ended at midnight tonight. you've probably already seen the victory speech, but you haven't seen the embrace she gave her parents, her mother, her father, long-time community activist in ward 5 of the city, political activist. it was very touching. and you should have seen the interview she gave us, the first one-on-one interview after dec

in ashburn tonight we have more on the showdown between barbara comstock and john faust. barbarahere at comstock's headquarters for the night here in ashburn. this is a very hotly contested , a memberen comstock of the virginia house of delegates, and a former staffer and john faust, who is on the fairfax board of supervisors. this is the battle that was held by frank wolf, who is not seeking reelection. he made that determination and announcement in december. he has held that seasons 1980, 1981. there are three other candidates in the race, but it will come down tonight to faust and comstock. both parties want to see very badly. they have toured a lot of money into the race. if you have watched television at all over the last couple of months you have seen the ads for both candidates. it is shown to be of diverse case. this should be a very, very interesting night. reporting live from ashburn, abc seven news. >> abc 7 will be with you folks all night. >> still ahead in the next half-hour here, a look at some key national races that could swing the balance of power on cap

right now in virginia, northern virginia, between barbara comstock and john faust -- you have a in maryland you have a fantastic race setting up between larry hogan, a businessman republican, tried to take the governor posse. only a handful of republicans have ever gotten that seat in maryland. all across the country, we are going to see great races. in middle america, pat roberts trying to hold onto the seat he has had for decades. andew england, scott brown lost in massachusetts. he is trying to win in new hampshire. 2 potential runoffs could set the stage for december or january votes in louisiana and georgia. it should be a really exciting night. we hope you can join us. >> thanks very much. some voters elected to avoid the long lines on election day. they took part in early voting. the latest numbers from the associated press indicate 16.4 million ballots were cast in person or by mail in 31 states. 2010 inting is up from 10 states, and that includes maryland. couldmaine, some voters take it as a challenge, because some polling places could be in the dark after a winter storm knocked o

opposite in the 10th district in virginia, barbara comstock celebrating a blowout win defeating john faust by 17%. >> to the district now, democrat muriel bowser is celebrating a sweeping win in the mayoral race, defeating david catania and carol schwartz. mayor vincent gray did not did issuewser, but he a statement congratulating her and he said is it ministration will work closely with her on the transition. also, a resounding victory in the district for marijuana legislation advocates -- voters easily approved measure -- initiative 71. it is subject to review, but d.c. delegate eleanor holmes overton says -- norton says anyone who tries to fight the measure will get the fight of their lives. >> the republican sweep signals a rising wave of voter discontent with democrats and especially president obama. we have more on the change of power on capitol hill. >> the massive republican wave tuesday night has left democrats licking their williams. exit was a crushing defeat for the democrats -- they lost -- >> licking their williams. >> it was a crushing defeat for democrats, using in red stat

we will closely be watching that race tonight between republican barbara comstock and democrat john faust. the first time in more than 30 years a new member of congress will be elected out of this district. we started our day out in another part of the tenth congressional district out in ashburn. we were at belmont ridge middle school. there are two precincts there, so it's usually a busy polling place. i talked to a member of the assembly started at the polls just before 6:00 this morning and said there were 40 people lined up ready to go in as soon as the doors opened. i talked to registrars both in loudoun and fairfax county and they described turnout as steady, not heavy. at midday, they saw between 10 and 20% of the registered voters come in. they hope to reach between 40 and 50% by the time the polls close tonight at 7:00 p.m. coming up on news4 at 5:00, we'll talk to voters out there in loudoun county about those two marquis race. we're focused on the u.s. senate race and the tenth district congressional race. from mclean, i'm julie carey, news4. >> thanks, julie. >>> we're closely

democrat john faust, republicanr candidates are vying to replace him.u chief julie carey sat down with the leading candidates to help you make your choice. >> reporter: republican barbara come to being is a delegate to the virginia general assembly and john faust is a fairfax county supervisor. they think they can help break up the gridlock. comstock cites her successful bipartisan bills. >> terry mechanic auliffe signed this summer praising it as a job creating good bill. >> reporter: faust says his exn tackling the budget proves he can work across the aisle. >> more often than not we come up with a bipartisan resolution of the budget issues. >> reporte one sharp contrast, their view of the affordable care act. faust defended it but says it can be improved. >> got to fix it. obviously have to make sure it's not hurting us in terms of job creation and growth. but we can't let the republicans hand it back over to the insurance companies. >> reporter: comstock wants obamacare gone. >> i do think we need to repeal and replace it. i emphasize very much repl

she might have a difficult time in re-election. >> john faust is making noises like he might just comek in two years. whether they'll let him do that, i don't know. she's considered a superlative political operator, legislatively she's been very conservative. that's the rap on her. no frank wolf. much more to the right of him. her supporters say she will adapt and learn and meld into what she has to do. the test will come in two years. >> wasn't it somewhat surprising that her numbers were as large. won by about 16%. wasn't the expectation that that race would be a little closer than it was? >> i think it was. until the wheels fell off the faust campaign. that's basically what happened. >> that would be surprising, if we saw him in two years, that's interesting. >>> in d.c. not a surprise but perhaps again the margin a surprise. almost 20 percentage points between muriel bowser who wins and david catania. >> i think what happens here is bowser is able to get the votes that vincent gray had east of the anacostia. she didn't get those votes in the primary. when it came to the general ele

the big ones affecting our area, barbarcomstock and john faust.a number of local races that includes approval of a $100 million road work project in fairfax county and a contentious race for the mayor of leesburg. the polls tomorrow will open for you at 6:00 a.m. they'll be closing at 7:00 tomorrow night. to find your nearest polling place, head to our website, nbcwashington. you have any issues voting tomorrow, we want to hear about them. call news 4 at 202-885-4444 or you can e-mail the news4 iteam at tips at news4 iteam.com. >>> we're tracking the election day forecast. >> how is it looking for us and the key battleground states? >> luckily the storms across the country will not be impacting our area. we've been tracking them an storm team 4 radar. that's coming through the southern plains around texas and oklahoma. this is one area that's going to through portions of texas. the pacific northwest. washington and oregon. you've got sunshine in between. again, for us, this system that we're looking at, even rain for chicago, showers there will no

republican barbara comstock won over her challenger john faust replacing frank wolf retiring. >>> governor elect larry hogue an admitted told -- hogan admitted today pulling off an upset has been a rather surreal experience. scott broom covered hogan's first meeting the day after his win. >> reporter: on an hour of sleep republican elect larry hogan still seems unned today. >> it was kind of a shock. when state troopers showed up at our hotel room and said we're here to protect you, governor. >> reporter: national republicans so excited that hogan said new jersey governor chris christie was prepared to helicopter in at midnight to join the victory party. he didn't. >> he was pretty excited about our victory. >> reporter: hogan's first meeting with the media the morning after he said his campaign focused on high taxes and job growth cut across party lines. >> we set vote goals that were nearly impossible to attain in every single county in the state and we blew past of one of them. >> reporter: republican andy harris. >> people got upset. every month they'd turn on the tv and there would be