By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter Emeritus
New Journal and Guide
Virginians are gearing up to vote on June 18 for the 2024 Primary for candidates to the U.S. House and Senate. These winners will appear on ballots for the November General Election, along with candidates for President and local candidates for council and school board.
Half of the U.S. Senate and all of the U.S. House seats are being contested in the November 2024 General Election.
Scheduled in each city and county, all council and school board elections across the state will be held on November 5.
Constitutional offices such as Sheriff and Commonwealth’s Attorney, Treasurer and Commissioner of Revenue will not be contested until next year.
Senator Tim Kaine, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 2013, has one independent candidate facing him in the June 18 Primary. But there are five Republicans waging campaigns to win the primary to determine who will run against Kaine on November 5.
They are Hung Cao, Johnathan Emord, Eddie Garcia, Scott Parkinson, and Chuck Smith (the lone African-American).
There are 11 U.S. House of Representatives Congressional Districts in Virginia.
Three are In the Hampton Roads region: U.S. House District 2 (most of Virginia Beach); District 3 (Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and part of Chesapeake); and District 4 (taking in most of the area between Richmond and the North Carolina state line).
Current 3rd District Congressman Robert Scott will face two political unknowns in the June Primary: Rhoda Young and Shanise Williams.
Scott is one of two African-Americans representing Virginia in the House of Representatives and the longest-serving, elected in 1992.
The other Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, 4th District, was elected in 2023, after the death of Rep. Donald McEachin. She will face Republican Bill Moher in the November election since neither is being primaried.
In the 2nd Congressional District’s first term, Incumbent Republican Jen Kiggans is taking on Independent Robert Reid in the GOP primary on June 18.
Missy Cotter Smasal and Jake Denton will compete in the June Democratic Primary to determine who will face her in November.
While balancing those 2024 political contests, journalists and political junkies recently had their attention diverted to politicians positioning to run for the state’s top three political offices in 2025 – 19 months away – for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General of Virginia.
Republicans own the state’s top three political offices: Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General. But Democrats are hoping to reclaim them in 2025.
The current Governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, is limited to one term.
The current Republican Lt. Governor Winsome Sears and Attorney General Jason Miyares have tossed their respective hats in the ring to replace him.
Sears is the first African-American woman, and Miyares, a Hispanic, made history in 2021. If Donald Trump wins the Presidency again, will either of the Conservative Republicans embrace his message and policies?
With $3.2 million in the bank and a growing list of endorsements from party leaders across the state, Democrat Abigail Spanberger is driving to secure her party’s nomination for Governor.
She will be the first woman to attain that seat if she wins. She was elected to the U.S. House 7th District seat in 2018.
Two weeks ago, it looked like Spanberger would be pitted against current Richmond mayor Levar Stoney. But faced with Spanberger’s monetary and endorsement muscle, he dropped out of that race.
Instead, he is focusing on running for Lieutenant Governor, which has a crowded field that includes 7th District Senator Aaron Rouse of Virginia Beach).
Stoney said he wanted to avoid a costly and divisive race against Spanberger. Instead, according to various party activists, he created one when he jumped into the Lt. Governor’s contest.
Stoney, a second-term mayor and former Secretary of the Commonwealth, caught many party leaders and activists off guard, including his two competitors. A spokesman for then camp of one of his opponents said that Stoney had promised not to “meddle” in the Lt. Governor’s race, thus creating tensions in party ranks.
Senator Rouse, a newly minted lawmaker, announced his intentions to run for Lt. Governor shortly after Stoney.
Rouse won his first state race in a January 2023 special election for a Senate seat vacated by Kiggans. He then won a full term in the November 2023 election for the 7th Senate District. Before entering politics as a Virginia Beach Councilman, he played in the NFL.
Rouse supported most of his party’s agenda during the recent legislative session. He has been endorsed and is receiving funding from many of the region’s state and local political figures, notably State Senator Louise Lucas and former State Senator Lionell Spruill.
As of this deadline, no Democrat or Republican has openly announced for Attorney General.
If Sears and Spanberger win their respective party’s nomination, they will be working to be elected as the state’s first female Governor.
Political analysts across the board say that if Rouse or Stoney win their respective races coupled with a run for Attorney General by . former state Democrat Delegate Jay Jones, this chemistry would make for an entertaining statewide race come 2025.
The Website of the Virginia Publica Access Project (VPAP) was the source for a good portion of this article.
Next week, we will have a look at how the city council and school board races are shaping up in the Hampton Roads locales.
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