Following Tuesday's Republican primary, George Allen brushed aside three conservative Republican rivals, setting up a fall battle to regain the U.S. Senate seat he lost in 2006. In Virginia's 6th District, Rep. Bob Goodlatte easily won the Republican nomination, and In Virginia's 7th District, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor won his Republican primary race.
With about 15 percent of the vote counted Tuesday, Allen had nearly 65 percent. Bob Marshall, a state legislator and hero of religious conservatives, had 5 percent. Tea party leader Jamie Radtke had 25 percent of the vote, and Chesapeake minister E.W. Jackson had 4 percent.
Allen's victory sets up a November clash with another former Virginia governor, Tim Kaine, in a campaign closely tied to the presidential race in a battleground state both parties consider vital for victory.
Six years ago, Allen had been heavily favored for re-election and a possible GOP presidential hopeful until his chaotic, gaffe-strewn campaign against Democrat Jim Webb self-destructed.
In the 6th District, Rep. Bob Goodlatte took the nomination for a 12th term in Congress over a little-known challenger.
Goodlatte had nearly 65 percent of the vote over newcomer Karen Kwiatkowski in Tuesday's GOP primary. He faces Democratic newcomer Andy Schmookler in the heavily conservative district in November.
Schmookler is an author, consultant and college professor. Kwiatkowski is a retired Air Force colonel who lives in Harrisonburg.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor easily won his Republican primary race in Virginia, brushing aside a challenger he had trounced in the November election two years go.
Cantor is second only to Speaker John Boehner in the leadership of the House's large Republican majority. He had 79 percent of the vote over Floyd Bayne.
Bayne got less than 7 percent of the vote in 2010 election when ran as the Independent Green nominee against Cantor.
Cantor faces Democrat Wayne Powell this November in Virginia's heavily Republican 7th District. Powell, a Richmond lawyer and retired Army colonel, clenched his party's nomination after other Democrats dropped out.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
