There are only 40 days left until the June 17 Democratic primary for Virginia lieutenant governor and attorney general, and early votes are trickling in in Alexandria.
Early voting started on May 2, and 7,309 mail-in ballots were sent to early voters, according Alexandria’s election dashboard. So far, 71 Alexandria residents have cast in-person ballots, and 19 have returned mail-in ballots.
Virginia’s voting season is gearing up, with early voting starting on Friday, May 2, ahead of the June 17 Democratic Primary Election.
Voters will choose nominees for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General in the upcoming Primary.
The Alexandria City Council incumbents have held onto their nominations in the Democratic primary.
While incumbents John Chapman, Sarah Bagley, Kirk McPike and Canek Aguirre have secured their spots as the Democratic candidates, along with newcomer School Board Member Abdel Elnoubi and School Board Member Jacinta Greene.
Alexandria City Council Member Alyia Gaskins defeated her two Democrat rivals on Tuesday, effectively becoming mayor-elect as she faces no opposition in November.
The win makes Gaskins the first Black woman to be mayor of the city.
Turnout is low so far in Alexandria’s Democrat primary for Mayor and City Council.
As of noon, about 11% of the city’s registered voters cast ballots. Of the 11,249 votes, about 6,844 were absentee ballots, which is about 60%, according to the Alexandria Office of Registrations and Voter Elections.
Sarah Bagley says that Alexandria residents have invested time and energy into making her an effective member of the Alexandria City Council, and she says she’s running for reelection to honor that investment.
A lot has changed in the city since Bagley was first elected and then virtually sworn in in January 2022. Alexandria was on the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic and has since gone through a crime surge, the introduction and the failure of the Potomac Yard arena deal, a number of key changes in departmental leadership (namely the police and fire chiefs) as well as the controversial upending of the city’s residential zoning policies.
Without the pandemic keeping James “Jimmy” Lewis and his campaign team from unleashing their ground game, he says that years of door-knocking experience will significantly improve his second Democratic primary bid for Alexandria’s City Council.
Lewis faces 10 opponents, including four incumbent Council Members, for the six Council seats in the June 18 Democrat primary. He placed eighth in the 2021 primary with 6,606 votes, and that was 730 votes behind Kevin Harris. Like Lewis, Harris is trying again this cycle to get in the top six spots to secure his nomination for the November election.
With the June 18 primary for Alexandria mayor and City Council around the corner, candidates have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for what is anticipated to be a low-turnout election.
The only seats in contention for the Democrat primaries are Mayor and City Council, and there is also a single candidate running for Council in a Republican primary.
Outgoing Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson publicly criticized a mailer for Vice Mayor Amy Jackson‘s mayoral campaign that used a photo of former Fire Chief Corey Smedley with her at a city event.
Wilson said at the end of last night’s City Council meeting that the integrity of the city government is at stake, and that it should be insulated from the “vagaries of politics to the extent possible.” Without calling out Jackson by name, he described the mailer and said that former Chief Smedley did not give his permission to be in the ad.
A majority of Alexandria’s Democrat candidates for City Council rank climate action high on their priority lists.
A number of candidates recently expressed their opinions in a Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions and Build Our Future questionnaire.
With less than two weeks until the June 18 primary, the city’s zoning overhaul, the failed Potomac Yard arena and residential taxes were among the top issues discussed by Alexandria’s mayoral candidates in the Chamber ALX‘s debate Tuesday night.
Vice Mayor Amy Jackson, Council Member Alyia Gaskins and former real estate developer Steven Peterson were cordial to each other as they were questioned by NBC4 Northern Virginia Bureau Chief Julie Carey at the George Washington National Masonic Memorial.
