With help in part from three state grants, DowntownLynchburg Association is working to brighten the city’s scenic Bluffwalk for the holidays and fill downtown stores.
DLA combined a $75,000 Virginia Main Street Downtown Investment Grant with other funding to launch Bright Nights on the Bluffwalk, an eight-week event set to kick off Nov. 17 with a festival.
DLA received the funding as part of $2.91 million in Virginia Main Street, Community Business Launch and Virginia Business District Resurgence grants awarded in September for 45 projects across Virginia.
The association received a total of $310,000, the most of any locality. It included a $135,000 Virginia Business District Resurgence Grant for a microgrant program to allow small businesses to make storefront and beautification improvements and a $100,000 Community Business Launch Grant for DLA’s Launch LYH entrepreneurial support program and pitch competition, which begins its second program in 2024.
Bright Nights will transform the city’s four-block pedestrian walkway overlooking the James River into a wonderland of lights, large-scale installations and festive music, says DLA Executive Director Ashley Kershner. The organization had wanted to create a holiday experience to attract people downtown after Lynchburg’s annual Christmas Parade moved to midtown in 2016. The state grant provided the last piece of funding needed for the $210,000 celebration, she says.
“We anticipate that this event will draw families and new visitors to our vibrant downtown area, creating a significant boost to local businesses, hotels, and attractions, and enriching the overall holiday spirit of our community,” says Marjette Upshur, Lynchburg’s economic development and tourism director.
DLA serves a 73-block area that currently has a 23% vacancy rate due largely to an ongoing project to replace old water lines and install new sidewalks, according to Kershner. The first Launch LYH program, which launched in January 2023, is helping fill empty buildings, Kershner says.
Launch LNY received more than 100 applications, and selected 25 applicants to participate in an eight-week education course culminating in a pitch competition. Seven winners received cash grants to help with new venture costs. The grants ranged from $10,000 to $25,000 and could be used for rent, build-out, inventory, or other startup costs. They also received a prize package that included assistance with site selection, permitting and marketing.
Four winners have already signed leases and will open their businesses in the next few months. Among them is Tia Hancock, who is opening an indoor plant boutique, PREAM (Plants Rule Everything Around Me), at 409 Fifth St., where customers can create their own potting soil mixes.
Hancock says she gained a wealth of knowledge from Launch LYH about the back end of running a business and forged strong connections with her classmates and mentors. The program also helped her find her store location, which has large windows that let in lots of light for plants.
“Honestly, the most valuable thing I got out of this whole program was the people that I met in the class and the people teaching it,” Hancock says. “The four winners … have built a close relationship. We went through this process together, so not only am I not alone, but when things fall apart, I have at least three other people to call and vent to, and they know exactly what I’m talking about. I do have mentors that I can call for that same exact thing. A lot came out of this more than simply money.”
Falls Church-based Fortune 500 defense contractor Northrop Grumman will invest more than $200 million to establish an advanced electronics manufacturing and testing facility in Waynesboro, creating an estimated 300 jobs over the next five years, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday.
“Northrop Grumman’s expanding Virginia footprint sends a powerful message that the commonwealth is a magnet for investment underpinned by a next-generation workforce,” Youngkin said in a statement. “This global leader’s cutting-edge facility in Waynesboro will provide job opportunities that attract and retain high-quality talent and create a transformational ripple effect for the entire region.”
The 315,000-square-foot building will be on Shenandoah Village Drive, and Pennsylvania-based Equus Capital Partners will be the project’s developer, according to the governor‘s office. Construction will “begin soon,” according to a Northrop Grumman spokesperson. The company anticipates the building will open in 2025 and be ready for production in 2026. The facility jobs will be varied engineering and manufacturing roles, according to the spokesperson.
“This new facility will increase capacity to manufacture and test advanced electronics and mission solutions to meet our customers’ growing needs,” Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman’s chair, CEO and president, said in a statement. “We are pleased to expand our technology presence in the commonwealth and look forward to welcoming more people to our mission-driven team.”
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the City of Waynesboro to secure the project for Virginia. Youngkin approved an $8.5 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist the city. The Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a discretionary incentive program that provides free customizable workforce recruiting and training services for eligible businesses locating or expanding in Virginia, will support Northrop Grumman’s job creation. The program is a collaboration between VEDP and the Virginia Community College System.
Spanberger’s the first candidate to declare so far in the 2025 race, but in the Democratic field, she’s expected to be joined soon by Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, and in the Republican field, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Attorney Gen. Jason Miyares are likely candidates. Virginia is the only state in which a sitting governor is barred from seeking consecutive terms.
A former CIA officer and postal inspector who broke Republicans‘ grip on the Virginia 7th congressional district in 2018, Spanberger is considered a moderate Democrat and is part of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus in the House of Representatives. If elected, Spanberger would become Virginia’s first woman to serve as governor. Mary Sue Terry, the state’s former attorney general, ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic candidate for governor in 1993, losing to George Allen. Since then, no woman has won a major party’s nomination for Virginia governor.
“Today we find ourselves at a crossroads. Our country and our commonwealth are facing fundamental threats to our rights and our freedoms and to our democracy,” Spanberger said in the announcement. “While some politicians focus on banning abortion and books, what they’re not doing is helping people. I know how to bring people together and get real things done that improve lives. That’s why I’m running for governor.”
In her first two terms, Spanberger’s district covered parts of Richmond’s suburbs, but with the December 2021 redrawing, her district now includes Fredericksburg, Caroline County and part of Prince William County. In December 2022, Spanberger became the New Democrat Coalition’s battleground leader, focusing on getting Democrats elected in competitive districts, and she serves on the House’s Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and Agriculture Committee.
When Gary Weiner’s parents, Jack and Gloria, opened SaxonShoes in Richmond in 1953, they mostly carried shoes for children with orthopedic needs. Now, 70 years later, the store has something for everyone and is about 10 times the size of the average shoe store and operates in Henrico County‘s Short Pump area. It’s become a greater Richmond mainstay.
But the local retailer is taking another new step. After running the family business since 1979, Gary Weiner announced this week he is retiring and has sold Saxon Shoes for an undisclosed amount to Alexandria-based Comfort One Shoes. Established in 1993, Comfort One has several stores in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The sale was finalized Wednesday and the new owners do not plan to change Saxon’s name.
Weiner, his wife, Beth, and other family members, including two of his three adult children, Amanda and Evan, have been running the store, with about 25 to 30 employees.
Talking about how he got into the family shoe business, Weiner recalls that his parents “kept me in the stockroom because they couldn’t afford a babysitter and here we are today.” He’s seen the shoe industry evolve, with the boom of online shopping, vendors selling directly to consumers and other changes. Now he’s ready to hand over the keys.
Saxon, in Henrico County’s Short Pump, has new owners. Photo courtesy Gary Weiner
“I feel like it’s been very good to us and the timing was just right,” he said. “Our business was on a pretty nice uptick,” he notes. “The trend was positive.”
He said he’s been approached multiple times over the years by many companies, but the timing wasn’t right then, and now it makes a lot of sense to sell. One of his children, Amanda Weiner, will stay on to work for the new owners, but the rest of the family will depart. The other employees, who are not family members, will also stay on.
The original Saxon opened at 410 E. Grace St. in downtown Richmond. Then, the Weiners had a “big shoe concept store” in 1989 in an old grocery store that was about 18,000 square feet. Saxon moved to Short Pump in 2004. The store is currently about 22,000 square feet, while most shoe stores are 2,000 to 3,000 square feet.
“We do it all under one roof. You don’t need to go to multiple places to get everything you need, whether it’s Ugg boots or Birkenstocks,” Gary Weiner said.
He feels good about his decision to sell and said the new owners will keep the focus on good shoes, good quality, good service and attention to detail — “all the things we stood for.” He said he thinks Comfort One will “create the new and improved Saxon Shoes.”
Gary Weiner said his mother, Gloria, a native of Casablanca, Morocco, came up with “Saxon” after visiting London and seeing a small department store called “Saxone.” When her husband said he wanted to open a shoe store, that’s the name she suggested.
What he’ll miss about running a shoe store — aside from being able to work with so much family and learning from them — is the people and seeing customers happy in the store.
“They [the Richmond community] were good to us for a long time,” he said. “We tried to be a good patron of Richmond and Henrico and give back.”
Natural Bridge-based fabric shelter systems manufacturer XFactor Solutions Global has leased 34,000 square feet to expand in Rockbridge County, with plans to create 60 jobs, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced Thursday.
The company, which acquired the assets of Creative Tent International in October, will use the industrial space at 70 Douglas Way in Natural Bridge Station for light manufacturing and warehousing of large commercial-grade tents, according to Carmen Elliott with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, who handled the lease negotiations on behalf of XFS Global.
The new facility offers an expanded footprint and enhanced capabilities including large format welding, fabric sewing and cutting, metal, weld and fabrication and the ability to kit products for customer requirements according to XFS’ website.
The 60 jobs will include welders, sewers and general assembly workers. XFS Global has a 10-year lease on the industrial space.
XFS Global moved Creative Tent International manufacturing from Las Vegas to Natural Bridge Station.
“Our new Virginia headquarters brings us much closer to our customers, and our new facility will greatly enhance our manufacturing capabilities,” Paul Wilcox, vice president of business development and market growth, said in a statement. “Being strategically located near our customers means reduced lead times, improved service team response times and further alignment with our strategic partners, ultimately leading to new product offerings, operational efficiencies and increased value for our commercial customers and their businesses.”
XFS Global serves military, government, commercial and industrial clients.
“Siemens Gamesa will continue to meet our obligationsfor the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Siemens Gamesa discontinued plans to build and operate an offshore blade facility in Virginia, as development milestones to establish the facility could not be met,” a spokesperson for the Spanish-German wind turbine company said in a statement.
The $200 million project, first announced in October 2021, was expected to create 310 jobs in Portsmouth — and also was viewed as a major step toward creating a U.S. offshore wind manufacturing hub in Hampton Roads. The factory was set to support Dominion Energy‘s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, and Siemens Gamesa had leased 80 acres at the port’s Portsmouth terminal next to 72 acres leased by Dominion for staging and preassembly of the foundations and turbines for the wind farm.
When completed, the 2.6-gigawatt, 176-turbine wind farm will power 660,000 homes, according to the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility. Last week, Dominion passed critical hurdles to start construction as planned in the second half of 2024, with a 2026 delivery date. The first foundation posts, or monopiles, for the wind turbines began arriving at Portsmouth Marine Terminal in late October.
The Port of Virginia was notified several weeks ago that the Siemens Gamesa project was not going to proceed, and Siemens Gamesa honored the port’s termination fee, according to Aubrey Layne, board chair for the Virginia Port Authority, which oversees the Port of Virginia.
“Obviously from the economic development perspective for the state, that’s a disappointment,” Layne said Friday. “While we are disappointed, it doesn’t impact our ability to move forward in terms of how we would use the facility. [We’re] more saddened by the fact that it did not work out for offshore wind development with them, and we’ll see if somebody else steps in their place.”
“This announcement has no impacts on our project,” Dominion spokesperson Jeremy Slayton said Friday. “Due to the timing of our project, the proposed facility was not scheduled to manufacture our blades.”
Components for Dominion’s project are being manufactured at another Siemens Gamesa facility in Europe, where the company is making the turbines, consisting of blades, nacelles and hubs.
“We have confidence in Siemens Gamesa, a turbine vendor with decades of experience as the global leader in wind turbine technology,” Slayton said. Dominion locked in the costs and production contract early. Siemens Gamesa made the pieces for the two pilot turbines currently operating off the coast, which Slayton noted “are exceeding expectations” since becoming operational in 2020.
Asked how the cancelled project will impact regional plans for Hampton Roads to become an East Coast manufacturing hub for offshore wind operations, Layne said the port will continue to work with state and local economic development officials to develop the property. “We’ve got other uses for it, so we’re gonna be a good partner,” he said.
The Hampton Roads Alliance also weighed in on the potential impact to Hampton Roads.
“As the offshore wind industry shifts its focus from Europe to the United States, changes in the scope of emerging projects bring with it changes in supplier demand,” Doug Smith, president and CEO of the alliance, said in a statement. “Just last week, however, Dominion was granted approval to build the largest offshore wind farm in America off the coast of Hampton Roads. In addition, the City of Norfolk was awarded a $39 million grant to work with the Miller Group to turn Fairwinds Landing into an offshore wind logistics facility. These announcements put Hampton Roads in a better position than ever to serve as America’s East Coast offshore wind logistics and manufacturing hub and to create thousands of jobs over the next decade.”
Heavy headwinds
However, Siemens Gamesa has had major economic difficulties in recent months stemming from malfunctioning turbine parts.
The company scrapped its profit guidance in late June, citing a “substantial increase in failure rates of wind turbine components” at its wind division, CNBC reported in July, and in a single day in June, Siemens Energy’s stock fell by 37%. Specifically, the problems involve turbine platforms, rotor blades and main bearings, Reuters reported. And two weeks ago, Siemens Energy said it was in talks with the German government to secure financial assistance to finish future large projects.
Other wind energy companies have also seen difficulties in recent months, indicating a wider problem in the industry. On Tuesday, a Philadelphia news channel reported that Ørsted, the Danish firm that built Dominion’s first two offshore turbines in 2020, is trying to get out of a $300 million payment to New Jersey after canceling two offshore wind farm projects in southern New Jersey. In late October, Ørsted said it had booked an impairment charge of more than $4 billion against its U.S. offshore portfolio, while announcing its decision to scrap its two New Jersey projects.
Layne said he and port officials have been in regular contact with Siemens Gamesa about the reported turbine issues and concerns with the wind industry.
Slayton said Dominion still plans to help establish a domestic offshore wind supply chain in Hampton Roads, saying that the region is ideally situated to capitalize on the wind industry.
“The offshore wind supply chain in the U.S. is in the development stages,” he noted. “We have that tangible evidence that offshore wind is happening in Virginia, and we are moving forward full steam ahead to start that offshore construction in May of next year.”
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said Thursday that the FBI headquarters site selection — choosing Greenbelt, Maryland, over Springfield — was “corrupt” and that he expected better from the Biden administration. Warner’s comments followed a Thursday morning email by FBI director Christopher Wray to the agency’s entire workforce, saying that a former political appointee to the General Services Administration overrode a three-person panel’s unanimous recommendation to build the FBI’s new headquarters in Springfield.
Warner, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and almost all of Virginia’s congressional delegation called for a reversal of the decision in a bipartisan statement Thursday afternoon.
In a two-part site selection process, two career GSA officials and a longtime FBI official evaluated two locations in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and a location in Springfield, and the panelists unanimously recommended 58 acres in Springfield already owned by the GSA. However, during the second phase of site selection, a senior executive at GSA who was appointed by the White House recommended the Maryland site.
Wray wrote in the email, which Virginia Business obtained Thursday afternoon, that upon reading a draft of the GSA executive’s report, FBI officials “expressed concern that elements of the site selection plan were not followed. In particular, the FBI observed that, at times, outside information was inserted into the process in a manner which appeared to disproportionately favor Greenbelt, and the justifications for the departures from the panel were varied and inconsistent.”
Also, Wray wrote, FBI officials “raised a serious concern about the appearance of a lack of impartiality by the GSA senior executive, given the executive’s previous professional affiliation with the owner of the selected site.” While not naming the executive, the email states that the person recently worked for Washington Metro Area Transit Authority, which owns the Greenbelt property.
According to an Engineering News-Record article, Nina M. Albert, WMATA’s former top real estate official, was named commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service in 2021. However, Albert left the GSA in October and is now working as Washington, D.C.’s deputy mayor of planning and economic development, according to her LinkedIn page. Albert’s communications director did not immediately return messages requesting comment Thursday afternoon.
Later Thursday, after The Washington Post reported on Wray’s criticism, Kaine, Warner, Youngkin and U.S. Reps. Don Beyer, Gerry Connolly, Jen Kiggans, Jennifer McClellan, Bobby Scott, Abigail Spanberger, Jennifer Wexton and Rob Wittman sent out a statement condemning “political interference” in the site selection decision.
“We are deeply disturbed to learn that a political appointee at the General Services Administration overruled the unanimous recommendation of a three-person panel comprised of career experts from the GSA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluding that Springfield, Virginia, is the site best suited for the new FBI headquarters,” the Virginia officials’ statement says. “We have repeatedly condemned political interference in the independent, agency-run site selection process for a new FBI headquarters. Any fair weighing of the criteria points to a selection of Virginia. It is clear that this process has been irrevocably undermined and tainted, and this decision must now be reversed.”
The J. Edgar Hoover building in Washington, D.C., current home of the FBI headquarters
Warner, a Democrat who serves as chairman of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, had voiced disappointment Wednesday night that Greenbelt had been picked over Springfield, but said in a Thursday news conference that he was “shocked” by Wray’s letter.
“Even I was shocked, when this morning, you see the director of the FBI put forward an unprecedented communication to all FBI employees on how corrupt this process was,” Warner said. “The fact that you’ve got three career professionals … choosing Virginia, only to have that overridden by a political appointee, is outrageous. This is the kind of behavior I expected from the Trump administration, but I think we all expect better from the current administration.”
Warner added that he and other officials will call for a general inspector review, an action he said he hopes will be taken by the Biden administration without additional political pressure. “This whole process needs to be thrown out and restarted,” he said.
The location for a new FBI headquarters, replacing the aging facility in Washington, D.C., has long been under discussion in the Washington region, with Virginia and Maryland officials making cases for why their states would be best for the new office, which is expected to bring in thousands of jobs and an economic boost. In Maryland, two properties in Prince George’s County — the former Landover Mall site, and land near the Greenbelt Metro station — were under consideration, and on Wednesday, the Greenbelt land was announced as the GSA’s choice.
The decision to relocate the Washington-based headquarters was delayed during the Trump administration, but a report in October from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General said that the evaluation of sites was not impeded by the Trump White House, despite allegations that the president wanted the headquarters to stay put over concerns that a new hotel competing with the Trump International Hotel could be built on the former FBI headquarters site.
In the past two years, the Springfield site has been promoted by Kaine, Warner and Youngkin as a natural fit for the headquarters, where between 750 and 1,000 people would work, due to its proximity to the FBI’s Quantico training facility and other intelligence sites. Wray’s email says that the three panelists came to a unanimous recommendation for the Springfield property and wrote a “detailed consensus report articulating the basis for its recommendation of Springfield.” Wray added that the rejection of the panel’s unanimous recommendation, “while not inherently inappropriate, is exceedingly rare.”
Democrats regained control of the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates in Tuesday’s elections, likely putting a damper on Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin‘s legislative agenda and potential 2024 presidential aspirations. As of 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, Democrats won 21 out of 40 seats in the state Senate and 51 seats in the House, which has been held by Republicans for the past two years.
This electoral outcome will likely prevent Youngkin from passing most of his agenda, including placing a 15-week limit on abortions, which was a significant issue for many voters, particularly Democrats and women. It may also at least temporarily lessen his national standing, as he failed to deliver a red wave as he did during his 2021 election, which saw Republicans elected to the state’s top three offices and the GOP take control of the House.
The election also sets up Virginia House Minority Leader Don Scott Jr. of Portsmouth to become the first Black speaker of the House in the Virginia legislature’s 400-plus-year history, replacing GOP Speaker Todd Gilbert, who has presided over the House of Delegates since January 2022.
Republicans won 19 Virginia State Senate seats. The Associated Press called a Williamsburg-area nailbiter at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday in favor of GOP challenger Danny Diggs, who defeated Democratic incumbent Monty Mason. The final count saw Diggs with 32,764 votes, or 50.69% of the total, and Mason with 31,742 votes.
In the House, Republicans held 48 seats as of 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, with one race not yet called. Republican Del. Kim Taylor’s race against Democrat Kimberly Pope Adams in Petersburg and Dinwiddie County was too close to call, with Taylor ahead with 50.23% of the vote and less than a 200-vote margin over Adams. Taylor declared victory late Tuesday, but Adams had not conceded as of Wednesday afternoon.
Two other close House races went in Republicans’ favor: District 57’s contest in Henrico County between Democrat Susanna Gibson and Republican David Owen, a race that received national press following revelations that Gibson had performed sex acts with her husband on a live streaming pornography website while soliciting tips from viewers. Owen won with 51.16% of the vote, gaining 17,878 votes to Gibson’s 16,912. In James City County and Williamsburg, Republican Del. Amanda Batten won a third term with 51.93% of the vote over Democrat Jessica Anderson.
Voters went to the polls Tuesday to fill all 140 General Assembly seats. Many candidates were new faces or, at least, less experienced than those who previously filled the legislature, thanks to the December 2021 redistricting process, which redrew political districts without prioritizing the residential addresses of incumbents. That led to an unprecedented wave of retirements and some primary defeats of longtime legislators.
Blue wave
In several of the most hotly contested races, Democrats came up victorious Tuesday night.
In Loudoun and Fauquier counties, Democrat Russet Perry, a former CIA officer and prosecutor, won Senate District 31 with 52.5% of the vote as of 10:28 p.m. Tuesday, according to unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections. She defeated Republican Juan Pablo Segura, a health care tech entrepreneur who founded a local doughnut chain. Segura received 40,835 votes compared to Perry’s 45,350 votes, and the Associated Press estimated 92% of votes had been counted by 10:25 p.m., when it called the race.
Segura conceded about an hour later. “We were outspent but not outworked,” he said in a statement. “We knocked on more than 100,000 doors and talked to many, many thousands of voters about their hopes, dreams and concerns. … I also want to congratulate Russet Perry on a hard-fought race, and I wish her the best of luck in representing this special place. Lessons are learned in losses, but I heard very clearly the deep desire from so many in this district for better representation from their government.”
Both were first-time candidates, and Perry outpaced all other state legislature candidates in fundraising more than $6 million by Oct. 31, while Segura raised a bit more than $5 million.
Del. Danica Roem, another Democratic delegate seeking a Senate seat, beat Republican candidate Bill Woolf for the 30th District seat in Manassas and part of Prince William County with 51.51% of the vote. Roem, who became the nation’s first openly transgender state lawmaker upon her 2017 election to the House of Delegates, won 29,713 votes to Woolf’s 27,794 as of 10:13 p.m., according to unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections. A former journalist, Roem currently represents House District 13, which includes Manassas Park and part of Prince William County. Woolf was formerly a detective with the Fairfax County Police Department.
“I’m grateful the people of Virginia’s 30th Senate District elected me to continue representing my lifelong home of western Prince William County and greater Manassas,” Roem said in a statement. “The voters have shown they want a leader who will prioritize fixing roads, feeding kids and protecting our land instead of stigmatizing trans kids or taking away your civil rights.”
In another key seat, Democratic Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg won Senate District 16 in western Henrico County with 52.69% of the vote as of 9:38 p.m. Tuesday, according to unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections. The Associated Press estimated more than 95% of votes had been counted by 9:33 p.m.
VanValkenburg received 27,469 votes to Republican Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant’s 24,544 as of 9:43 p.m. Although the incumbent, Dunnavant was redistricted into a slightly bluer district than her previous district, which had included part of Hanover County. The race was considered a key contest to watch this year and saw some of the largest fundraising among Virginia’s legislative races.
The Associated Press called House District 58 race in western Henrico County in favor of the Democratic two-term incumbent Del. Rodney Willett, a tech consultant and small business entrepreneur, who took 11,897 of votes, or 53.1%, over Republican challenger Riley Shaia, a physical therapist, who won 10,496 votes, or 46.9%. AP called the race with 95% of votes counted.
Off-off election year
Numerous incumbents retired or lost primaries after being drawn into the same districts as other incumbents. Particularly in the state Senate, longtime party leaders chose to bow out rather than face a primary battle, leaving younger and less moderate candidates running for office this fall.
Although 2023 was, at least in name, an off-off election year with no presidential or statewide races topping the ballots, legislative candidates in competitive districts saw a massive influx of money and heated rhetoric from both parties. High stakes, including Virginia’s status as the only Southern state without significant abortion restrictions, were riding on whether either party can take control of the commonwealth’s legislature, which is currently split, with Republicans running the House of Delegates and Democrats controlling the state Senate.
Although his name wasn’t on ballots, Youngkin’s presidential hopes also rested on Tuesday’s results, drawing national attention. If Republicans had won back control of the General Assembly, Youngkin could have mounted a plausible last-minute campaign for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, politicos forecast. But with Democrats regaining power of just one of the legislative bodies, Youngkin will be unlikely to pass much of his stated agenda through the General Assembly, including a ban on abortions after 15 weeks and tax cuts for corporations, with the blue wave likely putting any presidential ambitions he has on hold, at least for 2024.
In a press conference Wednesday, Youngkin called the outcome “a razor-thin set of decisions” made by voters and noted the commonwealth’s recent history of changes in party control, downplaying Republicans’ disappointing results. “I think what that reflects is that we are a state that is very comfortable working together, working across party lines to get things done.”
In response to a reporter’s question about his presidential ambitions, Youngkin was predictably coy. “I have answered this question the same way for a long time. I am focused on Virginia. I have been in Virginia. My name is not on the ballot in New Hampshire. I have not been in Iowa. I am not in South Carolina. I am in Virginia, and I look forward to staying focused on Virginia, just like I have been.”
With issues such as parental influence in schools, reproductive rights, cannabis retail sales and corporate tax cuts in the balance, Democratic- and Republican-affiliated PACs sank millions into legislative campaigns this year. According to an Associated Press story, money raised by Virginia State Senate and House of Delegates candidates this year eclipsed totals from 2019. As of early November, Senate candidates had raised $80.8 million, compared to $53.6 million at the same point in 2019, and House candidates raised $77.5 million, compared to $67.5 million in 2019.
Both Republicans and Democrats emphasized the historic nature of the election, which could determine the state’s abortion, clean energy, education and tax policies for decades to come — although the parties differ widely on their overall goals.
Youngkin and state Republicans advocated to enact limits on abortions after 15 weeks, a rollback of Virginia’s current laws allowing abortions up to 26 weeks, although, in the third trimester, three doctors must sign off on the procedure as medically necessary. Democrats, meanwhile, have argued that the 15-week limit, posed as a reasonable compromise by Republicans, would be the first of many restrictions on abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last year.
Parents’ involvement in their children’s K-12 education remained a hot topic, carrying on from Youngkin’s winning gambit in 2021’s gubernatorial race, when he focused attention on a Loudoun County sexual assault case, in which a 14-year-old male student sexually assaulted a female student in a school restroom and then was allowed to transfer to another high school, where he abducted and assaulted another student. The teen was later convicted in juvenile court, and in September, Youngkin pardoned one of the victims’ fathers, who had been arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct at a county school board meeting.
Republican state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant greets voters at a Henrico County polling place on Nov. 7, 2023. Photo by Katherine Schulte
Last week, the governorissued an executive order mandating that school districts inform parents within 24 hours of any overdoses involving their schools, after Loudoun County Public Schools waited more than 20 days to report that nine high school students had overdosed on pills suspected of containing fentanyl. Youngkin also has ordered schools to inform parents if their children use a different gender identity at school than is their assigned sex. He has also required that students participate in sports and use bathrooms based on their assigned sex, a mandate some school systems have refused to enforce — particularly in Northern Virginia.
A Washington Post-George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government poll, conducted Oct. 11-16, showed a divided commonwealth going into the elections, with 47% of registered voters saying they would vote for a generic Democrat for delegate, and 43% for a Republican. Meanwhile, 70% of voters said education was the most important issue for them this year, followed by the economy at 68% and abortion rights at 60%.
According to VPAP, 789,848 people voted early across the state as of Monday, with Democratic voters making up about 60% of early voters, compared with about 40% for Republicans.
Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Susan Beals said Tuesday afternoon that some localities’ ballots were longer than usual, with county supervisors, sheriffs and other local offices included, as well as state legislators. There was an issue with poll books reported at some Chesterfield County locations — but those were resolved by early afternoon, Beals said. At Williamsburg’s Matoaca precinct, where locally registered William & Mary students can vote, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported “long lines all day.”
In Loudoun County, during Tuesday’s lunch hour at the town’s Ida Lee Park Recreation Center, West Leesburg voters turned out in a steady stream, which precinct chief Kevin Smith described as “one in, one out.” Morning was busiest, and 536 voters, out of a district of about 3,100, had cast their ballots by a little after 12:30 p.m., Smith said. Voters reported no issues or problems with machines, and the atmosphere outside, where the Loudoun County Republican Party had set up a tent to shade volunteers from the sun, was congenial as volunteers from either side of the aisle offered up sample ballots to would-be voters and shared occasional, friendly conversation across the sidewalk from folding chairs.
Steven Ritz, a retired Navy lieutenant commander voting at the recreation center, said he’s ordinarily a Republican but felt the party has strayed from the one he had known in the past, which he deemed “fiscally conservative, not rabid.” While he likened both parties to “monkeys flinging feces at each other,” he voted for Russet Perry, the Democrat who won the 31st District Senate seat. Perry, a former CIA officer who has also served as a county prosecutor, defeated Leesburg health-tech entrepreneur and District Donut co-founder Juan Pablo Segura in a race that focused largely on abortion and crime. Perry cast Segura in television ads as a “MAGA Republican” who wants to ban abortions; Segura volleyed back, casting his opponent as soft on crime and backed by “defund the police” groups.
Ritz voted with his gut. “Juan hasn’t been here in Leesburg that long. It looked to me opportunistic,” he said of Segura’s candidacy.
Other voters said they turned out particularly because of the abortion question. Shaun Meredith and his daughter, Rachel Meredith, said they voted for Perry. “Every woman should have a choice for her own body, to make that decision,” Rachel Meredith said.
In Virginia Senate District 16 in western Henrico County, voter turnout was steady overall with slight fluctuations throughout the morning in at least two precincts.
At about 12:50 p.m., the Echo Lake Elementary School polling location in the Coalpit precinct in Glen Allen had received 791 votes. “It’s been steady since we opened. There’s some periods where … we had a good little crowd for a while,” said Maurice Talley, a volunteer poll worker at the elementary school.
Incumbent Republican state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant stopped at the school to greet voters as she campaigned at multiple polling locations during her ultimately unsuccessful battle against her Democratic challenger, state Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg. Voters who recognized Dunnavant or her name after an introduction were enthusiastic, she said. “They’re excited to be turned out. They say, ‘You’ve got this. This is great,’” she said.
Angie Madison, a Glen Allen Pilates instructor who said she isn’t loyal to one party and goes back and forth depending on the issues, said she voted for Democratic candidates Tuesday. “I’m trying to do my part by voting Democratic and trying to vote for abortion rights and all that stuff,” she said. “It feels like we’re going back in time versus forward in time, so I want to go forward in time.”
High stakes, high rollers
According to VPAP, the following state Senate candidates raised the most money, as of Oct. 31:
Democrat Russet Perry — $6,071,414
Republican Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant — $5,104,711
Democrat Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg — $5,069,960
Democrat Sen. Monty Mason — $5,043,533
Republican Juan Pablo Segura — $5,003,665
Among delegate candidates, Democrats dominated fundraising:
Democrat Joshua Cole — $3,816,605
Democrat Michael Feggans — $3,255,257
Democrat Josh Thomas — $3,198,811
Republican Del. Karen Greenhalgh — $2,778,182
Democrat Kimberly Pope Adams — $2,706,971
Not surprisingly, familiar names were among the biggest donors in the elections. The Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus donated $7.5 million for Democratic candidates, while Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC doled out $4.8 million to GOP candidates. Dominion Energy and the Clean Virginia Fund — a fund created by Charlottesville millionaire Michael Bills to dilute the political influence of Dominion — gave just over $4 million each to Senate candidates this year.
In the House races, the House Democratic Caucus donated $10.8 million, while the Republican Commonwealth Leadership PAC gave $4.1 million. Dominion and the Clean Virginia Fund made donations of $3.8 million and $3.6 million, respectively.
For those watching broadcast television in the days before the elections, negative ads ran thick and fast in competitive districts, and Youngkin blazed a trail across the state to get out Republican voters to the polls for early voting in October and early November. Democrats, meanwhile, called on Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and gun-control advocate David Hogg to get out the vote.
In Richmond’s casino battle redux, Churchill Downs and Urban One, corporate backers of the proposed $562 million Richmond Grand Resort & Casino, sank more than $10 million into their campaign to pass the city’s second casino referendum, almost four times the amount spent in 2021 and more than for any individual candidate running this year. Ultimately, the second referendum failed by a 58% to 42% margin.
Richmond’s do-over casino referendum failed at the ballot box Tuesday by a much larger margin than the first casino referendum did in 2021, as about 61% of Richmond voters said no to the $562 million Richmond Grand Resort & Casino.
The pro-casino PAC Richmond Wins, Vote Yes issued a statement Tuesday night about the second Richmond casino referendum’s defeat: “We are proud to have run a community-centered campaign to create more opportunities for residents of this great city to rise into the middle class. We are grateful to the thousands of Richmonders who voted for good jobs and a stronger city, especially those in South Side who poured their hearts into this project.”
Everything was bigger this time, especially spending by the proposed Richmond casino’s corporate backers, Urban One and Churchill Downs, which sank more than $10 million into advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts that included a free Isley Brothers concert next to an early voting facility and subsidized food truck meals for voters through October and November.
But the controversy also was bigger, as the pro-casino side was dogged in recent days by reports of antisemitic and racially insensitive speech on Urban One-owned radio stations in Richmond.
In the end, the gap between “no” voters and “yes” voters was much bigger in 2023, after a narrow defeat of about 1,500 votes in 2021. This year, 64,533 people voted in Richmond, compared to about 79,000 in 2021, although the referendum’s geographical and demographic divide remained similar. With 72 precincts reporting Election Day votes and about 13,506 early votes and 4,705 absentee ballots counted, 39,768 Richmonders voted no and 24,765 people voted yes, a 61.62% to 38.38% margin, according to the Virginia Department of Elections‘ website Wednesday.
In 2021, more of the city’s North Side and West End voters — typically whiter and wealthier — voted against the casino referendum, while more South Side and East End residents, in majority Black districts, voted yes. The divide was similar in 2023, with South Side precincts and a few others in Richmond’s East End with a “yes” majority.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, a casino supporter who had put forward a plan to dedicate some of the casino’s tax revenue to providing child care in the city, said in a statement: “I will continue to be a voice for communities that have been historically overlooked and underserved. I will work for more accessible and affordable child care, for good-paying jobs, and for an abundance of opportunities for ALL Richmonders — no matter their zip code or socioeconomic status.”
Paul Goldman, a former campaign manager for Gov. L. Douglas Wilder and a key casino opponent, made a statement Tuesday night that included a jab at Stoney.
“The people of Richmond have made the following clear: You can’t build a new city on old resentments. For too long, the politics of Richmond has been controlled by politicians and their allies who put their own self interest before the public interest. Today, the people of Richmond said clearly those days are over. Those who can’t put aside the politics of resentment need to step aside, and I think we all know who they are. Richmond can afford right now to fix our schools, provide affordable day care, achieve equality for all and reduce the tax burden on the citizenry,” Goldman said. “The losing side tonight said the only way to do that is to fleece the poor. The winning side — a team effort of which I was one of many — said the way to do that is for all of us to work together for the common good. I’d like to think we can start on this new path tomorrow.”
On Wednesday just before closing of the stock market, Urban One’s shares were worth $3.45 each, down 38.94% from closing Tuesday, before the referendum results came in.
The proposed casino would have included a 250-room hotel, a 3,000-seat concert venue and a soundstage where Urban One pledged to invest $50 million over 10 years in TV, movie and audio productions. Casino backers estimated that the project would have created an estimated 1,300 permanent jobs and generated $30 million in annual tax revenue.
Unlike in 2021, Urban One joined this time with Kentucky-based Churchill Downs, which last year purchased the assets of Urban One’s previous casino partner, Peninsula Pacific Entertainment. Urban One and Churchill Downs were equal partners in the venture, and the companies spent about four times the amount Urban One spent in 2021, according to campaign finance reports.
The outcome? Extensive door knocking, TV ads, campaign mailers, free music and free food. Urban One-owned Praise 104.7 FM aired a daily “Richmond Grand Update” show that regularly included Cathy Hughes, founder and chairman of Urban One, promoting the project in conversations with host Gary Flowers, and in the final weekend before Election Day, the casino’s backers hosted parties in Richmond’s public housing neighborhoods.
Lushan Phang, owner of the Taste Good Authentic Jamaican Flavor food truck, was at the city registrar’s office parking lot on Nov. 1, handing out meals to a few takers. He said that at the end of the day, he would invoice the casino campaign $15 per lunch distributed. Phang noted it was way busier at the South Side location the previous week, compared to the registrar’s office north of the James River.
With a budget just below $200,000, casino opponents — including Paul Goldman, the Ukrop family and NewMarket Chairman CEO Thomas E. Gottwald — made their cause visible with yard signs and letters sent to city residents, as well as an airplane carrying a sign reading “VOTE NO CASINO … AGAIN” flying over the Richmond Folk Festival in October.
This year, casino proponents used their large budget and platform to get out the vote — but also contributed some negative commentary against casino opponents.
In October and early November, Hughes and two Urban One radio hosts used their radio broadcasts not only to promote the project but also to denigrate casino opponents. Speaking on the Praise 104.7 FM “Richmond Grand Update” program, Hughes criticized U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who opposed the 2021 referendum, and two Black activists who have spoken out about the casino, Allan-Charles Chipman and Chelsea Higgs Wise, whom Flowers called “self-hating Black people.” Hughes, in an Oct. 18 clip, characterized middle-class Black Richmonders who oppose the casino vs. working-class Black Richmonders who support it as “house n——s and field n——s.”
Competing Richmond casino signs outside the city registrar’s office, Nov. 1, 2023. Photo by Kate Andrews
In another instance, guest radio host Preston Brown was banned from Urban One’s 99.5 FM The Box for using “antisemitic language” to criticize a casino opponent, according to a statement from the Richmond Wins, Vote Yes PAC. The No Means No Casino website posted an audio clip of Brown saying on air, “Paul Goldman is a Jew who got the same trait as Judas. He’s a white Jew with the background of Judas. I’m talking about one person, and his name is Paul Goldman, and he’s a Judas. And I think somebody might have heard me say ‘Jew.’ He’s a Judas, and Judas was with Jesus.”
In a statement released Friday, Goldman accepted an apology offered by Hughes’ son, Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins. But Goldman added, “The whole pro-casino side seem oblivious to the damage they have done to Richmond. … It isn’t merely their failure to apologize to all the people individually singled out, but to our city as a whole, to our people as a whole. For the love of money, for personal gain, they are willing to turn their casino project into a wedge of division, to attempt to win by a divisive strategy serving only their selfish interests.”
However, several prominent Richmond leaders and organizations gave the project their approval, including ChamberRVA, the Metropolitan Business League, Richmond Region Tourism, former Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones and the Richmond NAACP, and several local union chapters joined the pro-casino side, focusing on jobs that casino officials said would provide an average of $55,000 in annual compensation — although that was likely to come out to about $16 an hour, depending on health care coverage, according to a VPM story.
Columbia, Maryland-based BigBear.ai Holdings is acquiring Pangiam Intermediate Holdings, a McLean-based facial recognition and biometrics solutions provider for the trade, travel and digital identification industries, in a $70 million, all-stock deal, BigBear announced Monday.
The move will combine Pangiam’s technologies with BigBear.ai’s computer vision capabilities and allow BigBear.ai to expand its customer base and offerings to airlines, airports and identity-verification companies, as well as within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024 and is subject to regulatory approval.
BigBear.ai has more than 20 federal defense and intelligence customers and 160 commercial customers.
“Vision AI [artificial intelligence] has long been considered the holy grail of applied AI because of its potential to perceive and interact with the world in a human way,” BigBear.ai CEO Mandy Long said in a statement. “BigBear.ai’s acquisition of Pangiam will create a full-vision AI portfolio — among the first in the industry — leveraging near-field vision AI in support of localized environments and far-field vision AI in support of global-scale environments.”
Pangiam was created in 2020 by Boca Raton, Florida-based private equity firm AE Industrial Partners through the acquisitions and combination of Alexandria-based software company Linkware and Pangiam’s predecessor company, PRE. In 2021, Pangiam purchased veriScan, an integrated biometric facial recognition system for airports and airlines, from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
“The combination of Pangiam and BigBear.ai will position our combined companies to vault solutions currently available in market,” Pangiam CEO Kevin McAleenan said. “With our shared mission and a complementary customer base and product set, our teams will be able to pursue larger customer opportunities, enhance our technology development and accelerate our growth. We’re thrilled to soon join the BigBear.ai team.”
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