RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced his intent Monday to vie for Democrats' 2025 gubernatorial nomination.
Stoney joins U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger in the race, as Democrats try to regain the governor's mansion. Republican Glenn Youngkin won the election in 2021, becoming the first conservative in the role since Bob McDonald left office in 2014.
"Stoney's two advantages are his progressive bona fides — he could appeal to progressive primary voters who are turned off by Spanberger's more moderate positions — and his powerful friends," said Rich Meagher, professor of political science at Randolph-Macon College, in an email. "As a protege of former Governor Terry McAuliffe, he should have access to significant donor funds; and as possibly the best hope for only the second Black governor in Virginia's history, both voters and elites may have a good reason to get behind him."
Stoney has held a plethora of roles, aligning himself with the state's top Democrats since becoming a first-generation college graduate from James Madison University in 2004. He served as executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia in 2008 and worked on McAuliffe's successful 2014 gubernatorial campaign, earning him the Secretary of the Commonwealth nomination, where he claims to have restored voting rights to almost 200,000 people.
Stoney succeeded two-term Mayor Dwight Clinton Jones, a fellow Democrat, beating out Democrat Jack Berry with 36% of the vote in 2016 and becoming the city's youngest mayor at age 35. Stoney won reelection in 2020.
Stoney's tenure as Richmond's mayor has come with ups and downs.
"As mayor, he has turned around a capital city that was chronically broken, with neglected schools, troubling finances and crumbling roads," Stoney's announcement press release states. "Levar allocated historic funding levels to improving Richmond's roads, reduced the poverty rate by 22%, got the budget under control and created a surplus, and built new schools."
But Stoney drew criticism for the behavior of his police force during widespread protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in 2020. Richmond, the former capitol of the Confederacy, vaulted to the national spotlight during the nationwide Black Lives Matter protest as Richmonders filled the city's Monument Avenue demanding the removal of Confederate statues.
Richmond police teargassed peaceful protesters and journalists without warning on June 1, 2020, leading to a federal lawsuit settlement between multiple demonstrators and the City of Richmond.
Stoney has also struggled to deliver on multiple multimillion-dollar development projects.
"You could argue he lacks a major signature achievement in his tenure as Richmond's mayor," Meagher said. "Especially since he invested so much of his political capital and attention into high-profile developments that were eventually defeated."
During his first term, Stoney campaigned for the $1.5 billion Navy Hill project to bring a new sporting arena, shopping, office space and housing to Richmond's once-thriving Jackson Ward neighborhood. Jackson Ward was known as the Harlem of the South before the construction of the Eisenhower Interstate highway system in the 1950s split the neighborhood in two.
The Richmond City Council voted against the project, finding Stoney needed to garner more community input.
Stoney spent much of the last three years of his second term convincing Richmond voters to approve a major casino project in the city's impoverished South Side. Voters struck down the original proposal in 2021 and opposed the repackaged proposal this November.
Stoney's only other competition at this time is Spanberger, who announced her intent to run on Nov. 13. Spanberger, a Henrico, Virginia, native, spent the bulk of her career undercover as a case manager for the Central Intelligence Agency collecting intelligence, managing assets and overseeing high-profile programs to combat terrorism.
Spanberger became the first ever woman and the first Democrat since 1968 to represent Virginia's 7th Congressional District, encompassing parts of Central and Northern Virginia. Spanberger won a closely contested reelection in 2020 by a margin of 1.8%
Spanberger has gained a reputation as a moderate willing to work with conservatives to pass legislation. Spanberger sponsored the Summer Barrow Prevention, Treatment & Recovery Act, bringing $900 million in federal funds to substance abuse programs.
"Abigail has led bipartisan efforts that have been signed into law to prevent fentanyl overdoses, protect Virginia's natural resources and support our veterans," Spanberger's website states. "She has fought to lower prescription drug costs, strengthen workforce training programs for Virginia students, clean up Washington and protect Virginians' fundamental rights."
Virginia's last Democratic Governor, Ralph Northam, and U.S. Representative Jennifer Wexton have endorsed Spanberger.
"She's been a prominent voice in the national party — one that sometimes bothers the progressive wing, but still a prominent one nonetheless," Meagher said. "She's widely admired by suburban Democrats, she's a formidable campaigner and she's a pro-choice woman running in an environment currently super-charged by reproductive rights issues."
Meagher said that Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears are names to watch for the Republican nomination.
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