Richmond voters reject former Mayor Levar Stoney in primary
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Levar Stoney lost the city he led for eight years in the Democratic primary for Virginia's lieutenant governor.
Why it matters: Richmond is central to the former mayor's political legacy — and voters here rejected him by a landslide, signaling a rebuke from the residents he once governed.
By the numbers: Statewide, the race for the nomination was tight, with Virginia Sen. Ghazala Hashmi defeating Stoney by about 3,500 votes, per unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections as of Wednesday.
- But in Richmond, Hashmi swept with 58% of the vote and led the former mayor by over 10,500 votes in the city.
Zoom in: Stoney came in third in parts of Richmond, though he won major swaths of South Richmond that also voted for him in the 2020 mayoral election.
What they're saying: Richmond is "not the only thing that doomed him, but it is odd," Richard Meagher, a political science professor at Randolph-Macon College, tells Axios.
- "It's really rare that you get this kind of extreme test of a politician's former popularity."
Zoom out: Stoney campaigned on his national reputation as the "mayor who took down the monuments."
- But some Richmonders have bucked against that perception, criticizing how Richmond police used tear gas on protesters under his watch.
- More recently, Stoney has been blamed for the breakdown that led to the January water crisis, which he partly pinned on his predecessor in a campaign event earlier this month.
Other issues that some Richmonders hold against Stoney's administration:
- Two failed casino votes
- The failed Navy Hill proposal
- A misleading mass shooting narrative
- Finance department issues
- Meals tax problems
Stoney's campaign did not immediately return Axios' request for comment about whether he expected the loss in Richmond, what he attributes it to and what's next for his career.
The bottom line: "We think, here in Richmond, everybody knows this story," Meagher says, noting Stoney did well statewide. "But the only story that maybe they heard is the story that Levar Stoney told them about himself."