The 2025 Ballot Is Set For November 4

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter Emeritus
New Journal and Guide

Jay Jones

The June 17 Primary established the Democratic and Republican slate of candidates who will face each other in statewide races during the General Election November 4.

The race for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General will be on that ballot along with all 100 House of Delegates seats and local Constitutional Offices.

Virginia is poised to make political history this fall, as two women, current state Lieutenant Governor, Republican Winsome Sears and former Congressperson Abigail Spanberger, Democrat, will be fighting for the Governor’s seat.

Neither faced a primary challenger.

Six candidates, fought for the Lieutenant Governor’s seat. Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi was the favorite among the 480,000 voters who participated in the primary for lieutenant governor.

Sen. Hashmi will face Republican conservative talk show host John Reid. His campaign was shadowed by controversy since he is openly Gay. State GOP leaders, including the Governor, asked him to quit the race, but he refused.

Unable to win the city he led for eight years, Hashmi defeated former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney by a margin of less than 3,000 votes. In his first run for statewide office, State Senator Aaron Rouse came in third by 5,000 votes.

Hashmi won 58% of the Richmond vote, which helped secured her victory. Political analyst, Larry Sabato said Senators Hashmi and Rouse performed so well, it may indicate success politically in future statewide races.

Sabato pointed out that Rouse dominated the Hampton Roads vote. It could help the Democrats if he were to challenge Second District Congressperson Republican Jen Kiggans in the 2026 midterm elections.

Former Norfolk State Delegate Jay Jones, Democrat, won his party’s nomination for attorney general. He will face incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican.

Advertisement

– Norfolk’s Commonweath’s Attorney Race –

Ghazala Hashmi

One of the hottest Constitutional primary races was held in Norfolk between two Democrats John Butler, a former federal prosecutor who ran to unseat Incumbent Ramin Fatehi, for Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney.

Fatehi, seeking a second term, won the election by a narrow margin: 8,902 versus 9,756 votes.

Butler, in his first run for office, was backed by Norfolk’s Democratic elite, including Mayor Kenny Alexander, Sheriff Joe Baron, Treasurer Daun Hester, Commissioner of the Revenue Blythe Scott, and City Council members Courtney Doyle, Jeremy McGee and Tommy Smigiel.

Fatehi had U.S. Congressperson Bobby Scott, Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, former state Attorney General Mark Herring, former school board members Rodney Jordan and Yvonne Wagner, and former councilmen Andy Protogyrou and Paul Riddick behind him.

Looking at ballot totals from all of the 48 precincts in Norfolk, Butler did well in the Superward 6 Precincts, while Fatehi pulled out a victory winning most of the ones in the majority Black Superward 7.

The race overshadowed all of the Norfolk contests for constitutional offices, including City Treasurer, Commissioner of the Revenue, and Sheriff and was the most expensive in the history of the city.

Butler reported $742,000 in contributions, while Fatehi had collected around $870,000 in cash and in-kind contributions.

Butler’s top contributors were some of the city’s most powerful lawyers and business leaders, while Fatehi’s main source of campaign income came from three liberal super PACs largely funded by billionaire George Soros, as well as loans from himself.

“It has been a very long year. And a really difficult year,” Fatehi said. “My hope is that, in our own small way, we have shown that people win over power.”

In a post-election statement Butler said, “I am deeply grateful to everyone who supported this campaign. While we came up short, this campaign talked about the important issues facing this city, and our work doesn’t end here to ensure a fair, safe, and thriving Norfolk.”

Advertisement

One of the strongest supporters of the Butler was Mayor Alexander, who appeared in TV advertisements for him and accompanied him to forums around the city.

“It looked like Mayor Alexander was running against the incumbent rather than Butler,” a Norfolk political leader who asked to speak spoke anonymously, for this article. “Black voters felt Butler was a candidate of the wealthy Westside. It looked like the mayor was tasked with convincing us that the progressive prosecutorial policy of Fatehi was not working. But we knew better. The mayor invested a lot of political capital and he lost too.”

Fatehi, in forums and civic league meetings, said his policies were viable, citing violent crime in the city is down 40%, property crime down 27%, and the jail’s population has been cut in half.

The race was highlighted by the Mayor’s claim in the state of the city address earlier this year that Fatehi had not done enough to prosecute property shoplifting.

But Fatehi said the city council did not give him enough funding to prosecute such cases. The city council voted to give the City Attorney the power to prosecute shoplifting. But Fatehi blocked the council’s move.

Butler, recruited to run by a cadre of high-profile leaders, said he was motivated by voter disenchantment with Fatehi’s policy of plea deals being rejected by judges for being too lenient, murder cases ending in acquittals or dismissals and dozens of prosecutors resigning after Fatehi took over.

“This was an example of the class divide in Norfolk,” said former City Council member Paul Riddick, who supported the incumbent. “The shadow government, the Westside or the west side country club still wants control. They went out and recruited someone who had no history of work in Norfolk. Fatehi has done the best he could with his resources and the Black community supported him.”