The VA election outcome was the result of several issues, according to this article from the New York Times (if you believe what they print).
First, at least 4 Democratic wins resulted from uncontested elections - i.e. no Republicans ran against them.
Letting Democrats run unopposed is not a winning strategy.
Second, and probably more telling, the article noted that Democrats had "a significant fund-raising advantage" in the election, indicating that substantial amounts of money were raised from sources that perhaps included Bloomfield, Soros, or other sources of funding external to the counties and small towns in rural Virginia.
Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...elections.html