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From VPAP June Primary: Who’s on Your Ballot?
Enter your address to find out who is on your ballot and where your polling place is for today's primary elections. Statewide primaries are being held to choose the Democratic nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general, and Republican and Democratic primaries are being held in some areas for the House of Delegates and local offices.
10 Va. House of Delegates contests to watch Tuesday
With early voting already underway and primary day set for Tuesday, Virginia’s House of Delegates races are shaping up to be a revealing test of party identity, grassroots energy, and electoral ambition. For the first time in many years, Democrats have fielded candidates in all 100 House districts — a feat that underscores just how determined the party is to hold the majority it won back two years ago, and how fired up its base has become heading into another high-stakes election year. Many of the most compelling primaries are playing out in safely blue districts, where challengers are confronting Democratic incumbents from the left and prompting broader questions about the party’s ideological trajectory.
Appeals for federal relief funds for Va. schools uncertain
After the U.S. education secretary set a March deadline to use unspent pandemic relief funds, Virginia school officials are still awaiting a decision on their appeal whether the federal government will rescind the cutoff allowing them to use $33 million. Across the commonwealth, 14 school divisions, including Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Symth County, and the Department of Juvenile Justice have appealed to use $25 million. The Virginia Department of Education wants to use nearly $8 million.
Volunteers keep watch over Smith Mountain Lake’s water quality for nearly four decades
For nearly 40 years, volunteers and environmental experts have made sure Smith Mountain Lake is ready for a season of fishing, swimming, and other recreational use. And while finding help over that time is rarely a problem, concerns about Harmful Algae Blooms are bringing new focus to their work. Ferrum College laboratory supervisor Carol Love has been monitoring Smith Mountain Lake since the late 1990’s.
3 more Southwest and Southside localities come under state fire ant quarantine
Fire ants stayed in one part of Virginia for almost 30 years. Now, the invasive species is creeping toward Southwest and Southside Virginia, and a state quarantine to contain them has expanded yet again. Danville, Lee County and Pittsylvania County are among the 10 Virginia localities that have recently been added to the state quarantine as the warming climate makes western regions of the state more suitable for these small insects. The ants first appeared in Virginia in 1989 at a golf course in Hampton. Until 2017, they stayed put in Southeast Virginia. That year, they started to appear in Southside localities. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences extended a fire ant quarantine to some of these localities in response.
The Virginia Mercury’s 2025 elections questionnaire: lieutenant governor
With seven contenders vying to become Virginia’s next lieutenant governor, the Mercury asked all the hopefuls to answer a questionnaire to outline their political and legislative experiences, their plans should they be elected to preside over the state senate and their positions on policy that shapes citizens’ lives. Here are their responses.
Spencer: Despite Medicaid pledges, Wittman and Kiggans folded
“We cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.” That is what U.S. Reps. Rob Wittman and Jen Kiggans, along with 10 other Republican House members, wrote in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson on April 14. On May 22, Wittman and Kiggans voted for a House budget reconciliation bill that the Congressional Budget Office says could leave 16 million people without health insurance over the next decade. Millions of those people will lose coverage because of $803 billion in cuts to Medicaid ...
Environmental groups in Hampton Roads at odds with Army Corps over proposed wetlands mitigation project
For decades in Hampton Roads, officials have used a legal mechanism called mitigation banking to protect local ecosystems. If a developer or locality impacts wetlands or river bottom when building a project, they must compensate by paying to restore it elsewhere. Organizations that conduct restoration work can sell credits to developers to meet those requirements – hence the bank-like system. The goal is for the compensatory work to serve the same river or watershed that is affected by the original development action. But local environmental groups and some federal scientists now worry that an impending decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could upend that system.
Yancey: 10 questions that Tuesday’s primaries will answer
I don’t know who’s going to win Tuesday’s Democratic primaries for lieutenant governor and attorney general but I can sure tell you who’s going to lose: Donald Trump. If all you knew was what you saw from the television ads of the six lieutenant governor candidates and two attorney general candidates, you’d think Trump is their opponent, not the others on the ballot. That’s likely good politics in a Democratic primary, but it also highlights just how few policy differences there appear to be between the respective candidates. Some primaries are a battle royale for “the soul of the party.” This year’s Democratic primaries for two of the three statewide offices — Abigail Spanberger is already the party’s nominee for governor — does not appear to be one of those.
Alicia Atkins challenges Delores McQuinn in 81st House District primary
Del. Delores McQuinn has served in the Virginia House of Delegates since winning a 2009 special election. In that time, she has never received less than 73% of the vote in a Democratic primary or general election for the House, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. On Tuesday, she will face off with Henrico County School Board member Alicia Atkins — in a primary that takes place at a time when the Democratic Party across the country is considering whether to elevate new voices or continue to rely on seasoned political leaders.