Virginia Democrats coalesce as primary election sets statewide ticket. Will Republicans?
Before the lieutenant governor's primary had been called, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger issued her congratulations, calling Hashmi a 'proven leader.'
With the stage set for Virginia's bellwether election, Spanberger, Hashmi and Jones put out a joint statement Wednesday emphasizing their unified campaign.
'As the Democratic ticket running to serve as Virginia's next Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, we are united in our focus on the issues that matter to our fellow Virginians,' they wrote.
Hashmi and Jones are scheduled appear at stops along Spanberger's planned eight-day bus tour around the commonwealth, according to a spokesperson for her campaign. The tour kicks off Saturday in Richmond, making its way throughout the state until ending in Hampton Roads on June 28.
That's a markedly different strategy from Virginia Republicans, who have had a set statewide ticket since April but have thus far been going it alone. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares, and conservative radio host John Reid are the party's nominees for governor, attorney general and lieutenant governor, but have yet to appear together in public.
The parties' tickets are notably diverse — without a straight white man nominated for any of the positions.
In an interview at the end of May, Reid said he had not spoken to Gov. Glenn Youngkin since the governor asked him to step down as the nominee. At the time, Youngkin cited a social media account that posted risqué images of men that matched the username of other accounts Reid used.
With DEI under attack, here's how Virginia's diverse slate of candidates talk about identity
On Wednesday, Reid for the first time shared a graphic of the Republican statewide ticket to social media with the caption 'The GOP ticket is ready to lead.' Neither Earle-Sears nor Miyares had posted anything similar at press time. In the aftermath of Youngkin's phone call and Reid's refusal to step down, Earle-Sears briefly acknowledged that Reid was the nominee, but has not mentioned him on social media since.
'We all have our own race to run,' she said at the time.
In Tuesday's Democratic and Republican primaries, Hampton Roads voters also decided who will represent them in the November general election for House Districts 70, 89 and 97.
____
Hashmi, who will be the first Muslim and first Indian-American to appear on a ballot for statewide office, emerged victorious from a field of six running for the party's nomination for lieutenant governor with 27.5% of the vote.
'Today, we've made history yet again, not just by winning this primary, but by declaring with one voice that Virginia is not going to be bullied or broken or dragged backwards by the chaos that's unfolding in Washington,' she said Tuesday night.
The next closest candidate, former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, conceded the race Wednesday morning with 26.7% of the vote. State Sen. Aaron Rouse of Virginia Beach finished in third with 26.1% of the vote and conceded Tuesday night. Three other Democrats trailed, each earning less than 10% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the state Department of Elections.
In a video Tuesday night, Reid congratulated Hashmi, welcomed her to the campaign trail — then went on the attack.
'Sen. Hashmi, sadly, has been one of the biggest cheerleaders for the high taxes, anti-business, trans radicalism, and government-knows-better-than-parents attitude that's crushing our families and endangering our future,' he said.
____
Two Hampton Roads candidates will compete in November's election. Jones, of Norfolk, won a close race with 51% of the vote against Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor. He will face Miyares of Virginia Beach in the general election.
At a party in Norfolk, Jones said Tuesday he was ready to fight and to win and called Miyares Donald Trump's 'pro bono lawyer.'
'We deserve better,' said Jones, who represented parts of Norfolk in the House of Delegates from 2018 to 2021. 'We can do better, and we will get better this November.'
Miyares, who represented parts of Virginia Beach in the House from 2016 to 2021, fired shots of his own in a statement posted to X.
'My opponent's ideological record makes Virginia families less safe and our streets more violent,' he wrote. 'The law is a shield to keep people safe, not a sword for social justice warriors or a platform for grand social experiments.'
____
In Newport News, Republicans voted for Cynthia Scaturico to represent the party against incumbent Democrat Del. Shelly Simonds to represent House District 70. Scaturico beat Hailey Dollar, a newcomer to politics, with 74% of the vote.
Scaturico previously held a board of supervisors seat in Iowa before moving to Newport News. She said her priorities included protecting workers' rights, education reform and local homelessness.
Voters in Chesapeake and Suffolk chose also Democrat Karen 'Kacey' Carnegie and Republican Mike Lamonea to meet in the November House District 89 race.
Carnegie beat Blaizen Buckshot Bloom with more than 77% of the vote as of Wednesday.
'With tonight's win, we're one step closer to flipping HD-89 — one of the most competitive districts in Virginia — and expanding the Democratic majority in the House of Delegates,' Carnegie said in a release.
Lamonea beat Kristen Shannon with 66% of the vote as of Wednesday.
'As we turn our focus to November, I look forward to continuing the conversation with voters about lowering taxes, improving education, protecting our constitutional rights and ensuring safe communities,' he said Tuesday night.
And Virginia Beach Republicans overwhelmingly voted for Tim Anderson to compete against Democratic incumbent Del. Michael Feggans. Anderson, an attorney, won the House District 97 primary against Christina Felder with about 92% of the vote.
The attorney and former delegate said he wants to substantially lower the car tax, and instead use Virginia's budget surplus to reimburse localities for the lost revenue.
'We ran a clean message on eliminating the car tax, and it resonated overwhelming with the district,' Anderson said by phone Tuesday night. 'Virginia has the surplus to do it. That's going to be our campaign promise.'
Staff writers Trevor Metcalfe, Stacy Parker, Natalie Anderson and Devlin Epding contributed to this report.
Kate Seltzer, 757-713-7881, kateseltzer@virginiamedia.com
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Beyond that, many in the scientific community fear the government could pass on an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming when urgent action is needed. Electrified vehicles reduce emissions A 2022 University of Michigan study found the new electric postal vehicles could cut total greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 million tons over the predicted, cumulative 20-year lifetime of the trucks. That's a fraction of the more than 6,000 million metric tons emitted annually in the United States, said professor Gregory A. Keoleian, co-director of the university's Center for Sustainable Systems. But he said the push toward electric vehicles is critical and needs to accelerate, given the intensifying impacts of climate change. 'We're already falling short of goals for reducing emissions,' Keoleian said. 'We've been making progress, but the actions being taken or proposed will really reverse decarbonization progress that has been made to date.' Many GOP lawmakers share President Donald Trump's criticism of the Biden-era green energy push and say the Postal Service should stick to delivering mail. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said 'it didn't make sense for the Postal Service to invest so heavily in an all-electric force.' She said she will pursue legislation to rescind what is left of the $3 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act allocated to help cover the $10 billion cost of new postal vehicles. Ernst has called the EV initiative a 'boondoggle' and 'a textbook example of waste,' citing delays, high costs and concerns over cold-weather performance. 'You always evaluate the programs, see if they are working. But the rate at which the company that's providing those vehicles is able to produce them, they are so far behind schedule, they will never be able to fulfill that contract,' Ernst said during a recent appearance at the Iowa State Fair, referring to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense. 'For now,' she added, 'gas-powered vehicles — use some ethanol in them — I think is wonderful.' Corn-based ethanol is a boon to Iowa's farmers, but the effort to reverse course has other Republican support. Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, a co-sponsor of the rollback effort, has said the EV order should be canceled because the project 'has delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks, and skyrocketing costs.' The Postal Service maintains that the production delay of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicles, or NGDVs, was 'very modest' and not unexpected. 'The production quantity ramp-up was planned for and intended to be very gradual in the early months to allow time for potential modest production or supplier issues to be successfully resolved,' spokesperson Kim Frum said. EVs help in modernization effort The independent, self-funded federal agency, which is paid for mostly by postage and product sales, is in the middle of a $40 billion, 10-year modernization and financial stabilization plan. The EV effort had the full backing of Democratic President Joe Biden, who pledged to move toward an all-electric federal fleet of car and trucks. The 'Deliver for America' plan calls for modernizing the ground fleet, notably the Grumman Long Life Vehicle, which dates back to 1987 and is fuel-inefficient at 9 mpg. The vehicles are well past their projected 24-year lifespan and are prone to breakdowns and even fires. 'Our mechanics are miracle workers,' said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. 'The parts are not available. They fabricate them. They do the best they can.' The Postal Service announced in 2022 it would deploy at least 66,000 electric vehicles by 2028, including commercial off-the-shelf models, after years of deliberation and criticism it was moving too slowly to reduce emissions. By 2024, the agency was awarded a Presidential Sustainability Award for its efforts to electrify the largest fleet in the federal government. Building new postal trucks In 2021, Oshkosh Defense was awarded a contract for up to 165,000 battery electric and internal combustion engine Next Generation vehicles over 10 years. The first of the odd-looking trucks, with hoods resembling a duck's bill, began service in Georgia last year. Designed for greater package capacity, the trucks are equipped with airbags, blind-spot monitoring, collision sensors, 360-degree cameras and antilock brakes. There's also a new creature comfort: air conditioning. Douglas Lape, special assistant to the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers and a former carrier, is among numerous postal employees who have had a say in the new design. He marvels at how Oshkosh designed and built a new vehicle, transforming an old North Carolina warehouse into a factory along the way. 'I was in that building when it was nothing but shelving,' he said. 'And now, being a completely functioning plant where everything is built in-house — they press the bodies in there, they do all of the assembly — it's really amazing in my opinion.' Where things stand now The agency has so far ordered 51,500 NGDVs, including 35,000 battery-powered vehicles. To date, it has received 300 battery vehicles and 1,000 gas-powered ones. Former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in 2022 the agency expected to purchase chiefly zero-emissions delivery vehicles by 2026. It still needs some internal combustion engine vehicles that travel longer distances. Frum, the Postal Service spokesperson, said the planned NGDV purchases were 'carefully considered from a business perspective' and are being deployed to routes and facilities where they will save money. The agency has also received more than 8,200 of 9,250 Ford E-Transit electric vehicles it has ordered, she said. Ernst said it's fine for the Postal Service to use EVs already purchased. 'But you know what? We need to be smart about the way we are providing services through the federal government,' she said. 'And that was not a smart move.' Maxwell Woody, lead author of the University of Michigan study, made the opposite case. Postal vehicles, he said, have low average speeds and a high number of stops and starts that enable regenerative braking. Routes average under 30 miles and are known in advance, making planning easier. 'It's the perfect application for an electric vehicle,' he said, 'and it's a particularly inefficient application for an internal combustion engine vehicle.' ____ Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
