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Chesapeake City Council rejects data center proposal
Chesapeake’s City Council received a rare standing ovation from a packed chamber Tuesday night after it voted unanimously to reject a proposed data center. “It was like Christmas again,” said Helen Messer, who lives in one of the houses that sits a few hundred feet from where the data center would have been. “I’ll sleep better than I have in a month.” The proposal from long-time Chesapeake developer Doug Fuller would have been the region’s first major data center. He pitched a 350,000-square-foot facility at the corner of Ethridge Manor and Centerville Turnpike, where Chesapeake’s Great Bridge suburbs give way to farmland, arguing it could be a huge financial windfall for the city and capitalize on new internet infrastructure the city is spending tens of millions on.
Jay Jones projected to win Va. Democratic nomination for attorney general
Former Norfolk delegate Jerrauld C. “Jay” Jones won the Democratic nomination for Virginia attorney general while the party’s choice for lieutenant governor was too close to call Tuesday night, according to election results projected by the Associated Press. The winners will join gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger in pivotal fall elections that will be watched as an off-year referendum on President Donald Trump and on Virginia’s own ambitious Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who is term-limited out of office.
Del. Hope wins House District 1 Democratic primary
There were two local races on the ballot — for a County Board seat and for the 1st District House of Delegates seat — and the incumbent candidate is well ahead in both. ... Del. Patrick Hope, meanwhile, appears well on his way to returning to Richmond, with 72% of the vote in the three-way House of Delegates race. Challengers Arjoon Srikanth and Sean Phillip Epstein have 19% and 9% of the vote, respectively.
Greg Gorham wins GOP primary in western Prince William House of Delegates race
Gregory Lee Gorham, of Sudley Springs, has handily won today’s primary for the Republican nomination in the race for the 21st District House of Delegates seat, defeating the two other candidates with more than 66% of the vote. With all 17 precincts in the western Prince William County district reporting, Gorham, 65, won 970 votes. Sahar Smith, 57, of Catharpin, came in a distant second place with 395 votes, and Xanthe Larsen came in third with 95 votes, according to still unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections. Gorham will face incumbent Del. Josh Thomas, a Democrat, in the November election. Thomas is vying for his second term in the seat.
Jones edges Taylor in Democratic attorney general primary
In a nail-biter Democratic primary Tuesday, Jay Jones narrowly defeated Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor in the race for attorney general, setting up a November showdown with Republican incumbent Jason Miyares. According to unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections, Jones won 51% of the vote to Taylor’s 49%. Jones, a former state delegate from Norfolk and one-time candidate for attorney general in 2021, returns to statewide politics with a renewed focus on consumer protection, corporate accountability, and civil rights.
House District 70 Republican primary: Cynthia Scaturico wins nomination
Cynthia Scaturico took home the Republican nomination in the House District 70 race Tuesday night, and will go on to face incumbent Democrat Del. Shelly Simonds in the November election. As of 9:27 p.m. with 62% ballots counted, Scaturico amassed more than 74% of the ballots cast, according to the Associated Press, which called the race for her. Opponent Hailey Dollar garnered roughly 26% of the vote.
Yancey: 10 ways that this year’s primaries made history
Virginia voters made lots of history in Tuesday’s primary election, setting up a general election campaign with lots of “firsts.” For a long time, one writer after another has proclaimed a “New Dominion” in the “Old Dominion.” That is now quite apparent in Tuesday’s primary victories by Ghazala Hashmi and Jay Jones in the statewide Democratic primaries for lieutenant governor and attorney general, respectively. As the great political analyst William Shakespeare once said in a different context, “let me count the ways.” 1. Not a single straight white male will be on the statewide ballot this fall
Carnegie, Lamonea win House District 89 primaries
Democrat Karen “Kacey” Carnegie will face Republican Mike Lamonea in the November House District 89 race, after both candidates won their party’s respective primaries Tuesday. Carnegie beat Blaizen Buckshot Bloom with more than 76% of the vote when the Associated Press called the race Tuesday night. Carnegie had 2,706 votes as of 8:51 p.m., and Bloom had 848 votes. Lamonea beat Kristen Shannon with 65% of the vote when the Associated Press called the race at 9:17 p.m. Lamonea had 2,168 votes compared to Shannon’s 1,000 votes.
Even members of Congress have no clear idea of unemployment related to Trump cuts
How many Northern Virginia residents have lost their jobs as part of federal cutbacks and their ripple effects on the economy? Nobody seems to know for sure — including members of the U.S. Senate. “We’re still trying to get the right numbers,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ (COG) board of directors at a meeting last Wednesday (June 11). Warner said the best figure he could come up with was 168,000 Virginia federal workers and contractors facing unemployment, but he quickly acknowledged that number came from an online source. “Do not take that as gospel,” he said.
Virginia will elect its first female governor this fall. Neither candidate is talking much about it
This fall’s gubernatorial race in Virginia will make history no matter who wins: Either Democrat Abigail Spanberger or Republican Winsome Earle-Sears will become the state’s first elected female governor. For now, that seems to be an afterthought. Spanberger and Earle-Sears, who are each unopposed in Tuesday’s primaries ahead of a November matchup, have little apparent appetite to dwell on gender. Both of their campaigns would rather focus on Virginians’ concerns about tariffs and federal job cuts, as well as how the next governor can make the state more affordable.