1995Flipped from DemocraticFinal resultsIncumbent defeated
1995 election for Virginia House District 87
Virginia House of Delegates · Virginia
Thelma Sawyers Drake (R) won with 54.8% of the vote, defeating Howard E. Copeland (D) by 9.6 points, flipping a seat Democrats held.
Thelma Sawyers DrakeRepublican · winner
54.8%4,597
Howard E. CopelandDemocrat · incumbent
45.2%3,794
8,391 votes
Source: Harvard Dataverse / Carl KlarnerUpdated Sep 30, 2026, 7:29 AM ET
The seat over time
D − R margin in this seat's races around 1995
Races before and after
Source: Past results: 99chambers results archive (MEDSL, Klarner, state election offices)