Virginia’s GOP nomination process for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general is grabbing headlines but early voting in the Democratic primary is still ongoing, and the final day of voting is in June. On Wednesday and Thursday, Democrats held debates between their candidates for attorney general and governor.
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Candidates in Richmond’s close elections will have to wait a little longer for certainty after three staffers in the Registrar’s office were diagnosed with COVID-19. Registrar Kirk Showalter said most ballots would be counted by Tuesday, but 975 provisional ballots remain to be evaluated and counted. At a Monday press conference, Showalter said she hoped results for those ballots would be available on Friday.
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While the nation watched the national elections, voters in Richmond’s second district quietly disrupted local politics. Voters surprised mayoral election watchers by voting for Alexsis Rodgers instead of current district two councilmember Kim Gray. Voters have also locked the race for Gray’s city council replacement into a narrow two-way contest where leader Tavarris Spinks is ahead of Katherine Jordan by just 26 votes out of 14,086, according to unofficial results at the Virginia Public Access Project.
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Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney has won another term in office with 38.07 percent of voters, just ahead of the 35.72 percent of voters he won in 2016, according to data from the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) and the City of Richmond. That upper-30s range is also the percent of support the mayor had in recent 2020 polls. In his first term, the mayor faced challenges including poor graduation rates in Richmond schools, controversy over his coliseum project, COVID-19 health and economic concerns, and questions of racial equity around policing and Confederate monuments. Those issues still face the mayor as he enters a second term.
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UPDATE: The State Department of Elections is reporting results from over 100,000 votes cast in the City of Richmond, including 66,755 absentee votes cast. However, a breakdown of absentee votes by district has not been published by either the state or the city, leaving some uncertainty about whether or not incumbent Mayor Levar Stoney has actually clinched a win in five out of the seven districts.
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To become the mayor of Richmond, a candidate must win the most votes out of all candidates in at least five of Richmond’s nine wards. If no candidate wins five wards, the top two candidates go to a run-off election. That creates a situation where a candidate can win the election without winning the popular vote, much like the Presidential election. More importantly, it forces candidates to have strong support in a broader cross-section of Richmond neighborhoods.
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Mayoral candidate Justin Griffin recently sent out mailers arguing for a link between opponent candidate Kim Gray and Richmond For All (RFA), Governor Ralph Northam, and Louis Salomonsky. Griffin only got three percent in the most recent poll, well behind his nearest competitor Alexsis Rodgers who got 15 percent, Kim Gray, who got 16 percent, and incumbent Mayor Levar Stoney, who got 36 percent.
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Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney has passed the $916,255 he raised in 2016 campaign, hitting $1.07 million in 2020 by raising $302,294 in the first three weeks of October, according to data from The Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP). Alexsis Rodgers has now raised $415,760 in total, despite beginning her race in June. Kim Gray has raised $391,502.
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Despite raising twice as much money as either of his two closest challengers, Mayor Levar Stoney has struggled to get his polling above 40 percent. Two weeks ago, Councilmember Kim Gray recently saw her polling drop from 33 to 16 percent, with a high undecided voter rate. That poll placed her just ahead of the third-closest competitor, Alexsis Rodgers, who has failed to poll significantly better than 15 percent. As a result, Stoney may win despite polling at less than a majority.
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Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney blew away challengers Alexsis Rodgers and Kim Gray with September campaign fundraising. Data from The Virginia Public Access Project shows Stoney’s campaign reported $224,602, Rodgers reported $98,283, and Gray reported $83,455.
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Alexsis Rodgers is running for mayor to bring equity to Richmond’s impoverished and minority communities, but she said that doesn’t leave behind other parts of the city.
“We all thrive and we all succeed when more of us are able to have access to economic opportunity, when more of us are able to be healthy, and lead healthy lives,” Rodgers told The Virginia Star.
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Kim Gray’s support has plunged from 33 percent to 16 percent, just ahead of Alexsis Rodgers at 15 percent, according to a new poll from the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University. Incumbent Mayor Levar Stoney stayed solid at 36 percent. Justin Griffin dropped to 3 percent, and Tracey McLean got 1 percent. 30 percent of Richmond’s voters are undecided about the mayoral election.
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Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith announced 24 homicides occurred July 1 through September 3, a 60 percent increase compared with the same period in 2019. In Smith’s quarterly report violent crime overall was up four percent. Cases of arson were up by 17 percent, for a total of 21.
“After the civil unrest we still have experienced some arsons,” Smith said. Smith was hired at the beginning of July after downtown Richmond suffered violent protests.
The top four candidates for Richmond’s mayor debated in a forum on Tuesday night that saw incumbent Mayor Levar Stoney again defending his record from attacks on all sides. Councilmember Kim Gray and candidate Justin Griffin took turns attacking Stoney for corruption and mismanagement while candidate Alexsis Rodgers suggested that many of Stoney’s best ideas for the future are cribbed from her own platform.
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A new poll by the American Research Group (ARG) shows Mayor Levar Stoney and Councilmember Kim Gray at the top of the Richmond mayoral election. Stoney has 37 percent of voters, while Gray has 33 percent, with a 4.5 percent margin of error. The poll was first reported by the Richmond Free Press.
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Five candidates for mayor faced off in Coburn Hall at Virginia Union University on Thursday evening. The two-hour event was live-streamed and Facebook reported over 28 thousand views late Thursday. Former Governor and Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder co-moderated the event, lending an air of political weightiness to the debate. The evening’s questions focused largely on government efficiency and the current crises facing the city, showcasing a variety of experience and ideology in the candidates.
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Candidates for the Richmond mayor’s race took turns establishing their policy priorities and attacking the incumbent in the Southside Mayoral Forum held on Tuesday via Zoom. The candidates answered questions focused on economic and political priorities and better road and parks infrastructure.
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