The battle for control of the 100-member Virginia House of Delegates will start to heat up next week as voters go to the polls in 19 party primaries to choose nominees to run in November.

Across the state, there will 12 Democratic and seven Republican contests on Tuesday, June 11, but only two will take place in the Richmond area, where most House incumbents avoided intraparty rivalry heading into the Nov. 5 general election.

Outside the city in the 62nd House District, insurance agent Tavorise K. Marks of Henrico County is trying again to become the Democratic nominee in the revamped majority-Republican district after a failed bid in 2017.

He will face off against Lindsey M. Dougherty, a Chesterfield County budget and management analyst making her first bid for public office.

The winner will have an opportunity to flip the seat Democratic blue with the retirement of six-term veteran Republican Delegate Riley Ingram of Hopewell.

Republicans have nominated attorney Carrie Coyner, a member of the Chesterfield School Board, to defend the largely suburban district that now includes all of Hopewell and parts of Chesterfield, Henrico and Prince George counties.

The 62nd House District is one of more the 20 whose boundaries a federal court redrew earlier this year to end GOP efforts to illegally reduce the influence of African-American voters.

Meanwhile two Republicans are vying in a primary for the opportunity to take on first-term Richmond Democratic Delegate Dawn Adams, one of the 15 Democratic newcomers who swept out GOP delegates in 2017 and gave the party hope for taking control in November.

Voters in the 68th House District, which includes parts of western Richmond and Henrico and Chesterfield counties, will decide the GOP nomination contest between Garrison R. Coward, chief operating officer for a data analytics firm, and Lori A. Losi, who is a certified public accountant.

The winner will take on Delegate Adams in November. Delegate Adams won the seat by a narrow 336 votes over then-GOP incumbent Delegate Manoli Loupassi two years ago. Flipping the seat back to GOP red would be considered a big plus for Republican partisans.

The House of Delegates currently is divided between 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats, and after the primary, the 68th House District race will be closely watched to determine if the GOP can hold its majority.