Commentary: Bolling talks Democratic primary races

"The current political environment should also be favorable to Democrats."

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Bill Bolling

Commentary: Bolling talks about Democratic primary races

Below is commentary provided by former two-term GOP Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling

In prior posts I’ve talked about the Republican ticket in this fall’s race for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General of Virginia. The Republican ticket is set, and will consist of:

• Governor – Winsome Earle Sears

• Lieutenant Governor – John Reid

• Attorney General – Jason Miyares

But what about the Democratic ticket?

We know that the Democratic nominee for Governor of Virginia will be former Rep. Abigail Spanberger.

But the Democrats have two heavily contested primary campaigns coming up in June that will determine their nominees for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General.

In the race for Lieutenant Governor, there are six Democrats on the primary ballot. However, there would appear to be three leading contenders – former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney; and two State Senators – Senator Ghazala Hashmi of Henrico County, and Senator Aaron Rouse of Virginia Beach.

In the race for Attorney General, Democrats also have a hotly contested primary race that consists of two candidates – Delegate Jay Jones of Norfolk, and the current Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney, Shannon Taylor.

There really is no way of telling who may be the favorite in these races, but if you look at money as an indicator of support, current cash on hand levels, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, are as follows:

Lieutenant Governor

• Aaron Rouse - $925,949

• Ghazala Hashmi - $655,869

• Levar Stoney - $539,228

Attorney General

• Jay Jones - $1,487,439

• Shannon Taylor - $666,324

The Democratic primary is scheduled for June 17, 2025. We will have to wait until then to see who emerges as the victors in these two contested down ticket campaigns.

The fall campaign will be interesting to watch, but should favor Democrats.

Not only does Virginia lean Democratic in top of the ticket statewide campaigns (by about 3%-4%), but the current political environment should also be favorable to Democrats.

But campaigns are unpredictable, and as we learned in 2021, anything can happen if one candidate runs a bad campaign, or in the case of Terry McAuliffe, has a bad night at a widely watched debate.

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