2010 Virginia's 8th congressional district election

• Jim Moran, 10-term incumbent U.S. Representative
• Ronald Mitchell, failed to collect enough signatures to force a primary with Moran.[3]

• Matthew Berry, attorney and former general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission.
• Patrick Murray, retired U.S. Army Colonel.
• Mark Ellmore, the Republican nominee in 2008, announced in November 2009 that he would challenge Moran again. He dropped out of the race in March 2010 and supported Murray.[10]
• Laurence Socci, dropped out of the race prior to the April filing deadline and supported Berry.[11]
• Will Radle, left the race before the April 9 filing deadline. Briefly considered running as an Independent, before supporting Murray.[11]

The 8th district election received national attention in October 2010 because of remarks Moran made at a meeting of the Arlington County Democratic Committee on October 6, 2010:

What [Republicans] do is find candidates, usually stealth candidates, that haven't been in office, haven't served or performed in any kind of public service. My opponent is typical, frankly.

Moran defended his performance as a member of congress, saying in an interview with The Washington Post that "The message is that our unemployment rate is half what it is in the rest of the country. We've been judged the best place to ride out the recession... We have the strongest economy in the country, so we don't want to do a whole lot different than what we've been doing." He also attacked his opponent's views on social issues; saying that Murray's opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage was "out of the mainstream in Northern Virginia".[13]

Moran easily won reelection on November 2, 2010; despite Republicans taking over the House of Representatives and several other Virginia Democratic incumbents losing their races. In his victory speech Moran said that "The politics of divisiveness and fear have gained ground on hope. We can make no mistake: the next two years are going to be very difficult". Moran also took a few final jabs at his defeated opponent, saying that the combined "lack of civic engagement" and "extremist Tea Party views" doomed Murray's candidacy.

Patrick Murray left open the possibility of another run in his concession speech: "We fought the best fight that's ever been fought in a very tough district, I think what we have here is a huge movement. So what we did is built a foundation, and we'll be back."