Just over two months remain for Isle of Wight County residents looking to run for a seat on the Board of Supervisors or School Board to submit their paperwork to get their names on the November ballot.

Candidates have until June 17 to file their declaration of candidacy and petition of qualified voters. Per state law, declarations of candidacy must be accompanied by a petition bearing the signatures of at least 125 registered voters who reside in the voting district for the office sought.

The deadline overlaps with the scheduled date for Democratic and Republican primary elections to decide each party’s nominees for the House of Delegates, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

 

Local races

Isle of Wight County Registrar Lisa Betterton said only Board of Supervisors Chairman Don Rosie, who represents the former Carrsville District, now District 5, had submitted candidacy paperwork as of April 7. Rosie, who began his tenure as a supervisor in 2018, holds one of two seats that will be on the ballot for four-year terms. The other is the former Hardy District, now District 3, seat, which Supervisor Rudolph Jefferson has held since 2013. 

Jefferson said he too had submitted his paperwork as of April 14 for another term.

“I plan to serve District 3 if it is the will of the people,” Jefferson said.

The former Newport District, now District 2, supervisor seat is also available, but for a two-year term. A special election has been scheduled to coincide with this year’s general election for the remainder of the late William McCarty’s term on the Board of Supervisors. 

McCarty, 48, who’d served on the board since 2016, died of double pneumonia on Jan. 25, just over a year into his third four-year term in office. On March 6, the four remaining supervisors voted to appoint Thomas Distefano, a member of the county’s Planning Commission, to temporarily fill the vacated seat through election day.

Distefano said that month that he hadn’t decided whether he would run for the two-year remainder term.

The School Board’s District 3 and District 5 seats are also available. The former is currently held by Michael Cunningham, a former substitute teacher and Army veteran who was elected to his first term in 2021. Cunningham said he won’t be seeking another term.

John Collick, a retired Marine, was also elected in 2021 to the District 5 seat. He said he too won’t be seeking a second term.

“I need to spend more time with my wife and our grandsons, who live in Windsor,” Collick said. “I plan to continue my community service in a much different capacity.”

Collick is also a volunteer emergency medical technician with the Windsor Volunteer Rescue Squad, Windsor Volunteer Fire Department and Isle of Wight Volunteer Rescue Squad and the post service officer at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4411 on the outskirts of Franklin.

Surry County Registrar Sharna’ White said there are no local offices on the ballot in that county this year.

Smithfield’s and Windsor’s respective Town Councils won’t see their next election until November 2026.

 

House races

All 100 seats in the state House of Delegates, which presently has a narrow Democratic majority, will be on the ballot Nov. 4.

Del. Otto Wachsmann, R-Sussex, who represents a portion of Isle of Wight County included in the 83rd House District, will face a rematch with Democratic challenger Mary Person. Wachsmann, the former owner of Stony Creek Pharmacy, defeated the former Emporia mayor and Belfield Elementary principal with 58.4% of more than 32,000 votes to Person’s 41.5% when the two last faced off in 2023. Person is now principal of Wyatt Middle School in Emporia.

Person was the only Democratic candidate to qualify for the 83rd District by the state’s April 3 deadline for statehouse candidates to file their declaration of candidacy and petitions of qualified voters. Wachsmann was also unopposed within his party. 

In the 84th District, which spans the Isle of Wight-Suffolk line and includes Franklin and part of Chesapeake, Del. Nadarius Clark, D-Suffolk, is facing a challenge by Felisha Storm, also of Suffolk, who formerly represented her hometown of Enosburg Falls, Vermont, in that state’s House of Representatives. She was 23 when first elected in 2018.

Being elected at a young age is something she has in common with Clark, who at age 26 in 2021 became the youngest Democrat in Virginia history elected to the General Assembly. The two were the only candidates to qualify by the April 3 deadline for their respective parties’ nomination.

Clark previously faced Navy veteran Mike Dillender as his GOP opponent in 2023, defeating him by a margin of 1,853 votes, or 53%, to Dillender’s 46.8% out of over 30,000 ballots cast.

In Surry County, it’s a Kim versus Kim rematch. Del. Kim Taylor, R-Petersburg, a small-business owner, is facing another challenge from her 2023 Democratic opponent, Kimberly Pope Adams, who’s assistant director of financial compliance and operations at Virginia State University. Surry is the least populous of the four localities in the 82nd District, which also includes parts of Dinwiddie and Prince George counties and the city of Petersburg.

Taylor’s 53-vote win over Adams in 2023 was among that year’s smallest margins of victory.

As a result of the uncontested nominations, the three House races won’t appear on the June 17 primary election ballots.

 

Statewide races

Virginia will elect its first female governor this fall. Former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who secured the Democratic Party’s nomination on April 3, is running against Republican Winsome Sears, the current lieutenant governor, whom the Republican Party of Virginia announced on April 8 as the sole GOP candidate to meet the requirements to be on the ballot. Former state Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, who once described herself as “Trump in heels,” reportedly fell short of the required 10,000 signatures, as did former Del. Dave LaRock, R-Loudoun, who conceded his bid on April 3.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, also a Republican, isn’t eligible to run for reelection under a Virginia law that prohibits consecutive gubernatorial terms.

The Virginia GOP announced on April 8 that Fairfax County Board of Supervisors member Pat Herrity and John Reid, a former Richmond area television anchor and conservative radio host, each qualified to run in a statewide primary election for the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor.

Meanwhile, former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, state Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, attorney and former union president Alex Bastani of Falls Church and former federal prosecutor Victor Salgado of Arlington are vying in a five-way race for the Democratic Party’s nomination for lieutenant governor.

Attorney General Jason Miyares, the incumbent Republican, secured the party’s nomination on April 3 to run for a second four-year term. 

Former Del. Jay Jones, D-Norfolk, is vying for the Democratic nomination for attorney general against Henrico County Attorney Shannon Taylor.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5:38 p.m. with a statement by District 3 Supervisor Rudolph Jefferson.