UPDATE Wednesday 5:41 am – With 2510/2533 precincts reporting, Ghazala Hashmi now leads 27.39%-26.64% over Levar Stoney, with Aaron Rouse at 26.33%.
UPDATE 10:07 pm – With 98% of precincts reporting, Ghazala Hashmi leads with 27.39% (131,587) over Levar Stoney (26.64%; 127,973) and Aaron Rouse (26.34%; 126,525).
UPDATE 9:51 pm – Chaz Nuttycombe also has called the Democratic LG primary for Ghazala Hashmi.
UPDATE 9:43 pm – Looks like Lindsey Dougherty has won the HD75 Democratic primary over Dustin Wade and Stephen Miller-Pitts. Also of interest: incumbent Ramin Fatehi won the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney primary over John F. Butler; incumbent Colette McEachin is winning her primary, over Tom P. Barbour Jr., by a large margin (71%-29%) with 67/72 precincts reporting…
UPDATE 9:38 pm – Ben “Not Larry Sabato” Tribbett calls it for Hashmi for LG, says “Your 2025 Democratic Ticket is now settled. Spanberger Hashmi Jones”
UPDATE 9:34 pm – Per VPAP, with 2415/2533 (95%) of precincts reporting, it’s Hashmi 26.81%-Rouse 26.67%-Stoney 26.58% for LG; with 2413/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 51.02%-Taylor 48.98% for AG.
UPDATE 9:30 pm – Per VPAP, with 2132/2533 (84%) of precincts reporting, it’s Hashmi 26.73%-Rouse 26.65%-Stoney 26.64% for LG; with 2130/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 51.0%-Taylor 49.0% for AG.
UPDATE 9:25 pm – Chaz Nuttycombe just called the AG primary for Jay Jones. He adds: “We are not expecting a call for #VALG tonight, and this may go into next week. But with what is left, Ghazala Hashmi is probably favored to win this.”
UPDATE 9:21 pm – Per VPAP, with 2092/2533 (83%) of precincts reporting, it’s Hashmi 27.14%-Stoney 26.87%- Rouse 25.84% for LG; with 2013/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.8%-Taylor 49.2% for AG.
UPDATE 9:17 pm – Ben “Not Larry Sabato” Tribbett says “I don’t see a path for Taylor in the AG race based on what VPAP and SBE are showing- but I’m not calling the race yet because so many of these numbers of votes outstanding have been WRONG tonight.”
UPDATE 9:13 pm – Per VPAP, with 2072/2533 (82%) of precincts reporting, it’s Hashmi 27.14%-Stoney 26.87%- Rouse 25.78% for LG; with 2013/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.78%-Taylor 49.2% for AG.
UPDATE 9:06 pm – Per VPAP, with 2015/2533 (80%) of precincts reporting, it’s Hashmi 27.40%-Stoney 26.96%- Rouse 25.15% for LG; with 2013/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.64%-Taylor 49.36% for AG.
UPDATE 9:01 pm – Per VPAP, with 2015/2533 (80%) of precincts reporting, it’s Hashmi 27.40%-Stoney 26.96%- Rouse 25.15% for LG; with 2013/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.64%-Taylor 49.36% for AG.
UPDATE 8:51 pm – Per VPAP, with 1901/2533 (75%) of precincts reporting, it’s Hashmi 27.48%-Stoney 27.17%- Rouse 24.82% for LG; with 1899/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.49%-Taylor 49.51% for AG.
UPDATE 8:39 pm – Per VPAP, with 1818/2533 (72%) of precincts reporting, it’s Hashmi 27.47%-Stoney 27.25%- Rouse 24.54% for LG; with 1761/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.32%-Taylor 49.68% for AG.
UPDATE 8:33 pm – Per VPAP, with 1763/2533 (70%) of precincts reporting, it’s Hashmi 27.49%-Stoney 27.45%- Rouse 24.53% for LG; with 1761/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.45%-Taylor 49.55% for AG.
UPDATE 8:28 pm – Congrats to Leslie Mehta in HD73…and May Nivar with a sizeable lead in HD57, Lindsey Dougherty with a small lead over Dustin Wade in HD75.
UPDATE 8:22 pm – Per VPAP, with 1672/2533 (66%) of precincts reporting, it’s Hashmi 27.63%-Stoney 27.59%- Rouse 24.20% for LG; with 1670/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.25%-Taylor 49.75% for AG.
UPDATE 8:17 pm – Per VPAP, with 1522/2533 (60%) of precincts reporting, it’s Stoney 27.3%- Hashmi 26.3%-Rouse 25.0% for LG; with 1520/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.3%-Taylor 49.7% for AG.
UPDATE 8:10 pm – Per VPAP, with 1444/2533 (57%) of precincts reporting, it’s Stoney 27.4%- Hashmi 26.4%-Rouse 24.8% for LG; with 1443/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.1%-Taylor 49.9% for AG.
UPDATE 8:10 pm – Per VPAP, with 1345/2533 (53%) of precincts reporting, it’s Stoney 26.8%- Hashmi 25.6%-Rouse 25.5% for LG; with 1344/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.9%-Taylor 49.1% for AG.
UPDATE 8:07 pm – Per VPAP, with 49/54 precincts reporting, incumbent County Board member Takis Karantonis is winning easily (65.2%-34.8%) over his challenger, James DeVita.
UPDATE 8:05 pm – Per VPAP, with 1281/2533 (51%) of precincts reporting, it’s Stoney 26.7%- Hashmi 25.6%-Rouse 25.5% for LG; with 1280/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.8%-Taylor 49.2% for AG.
UPDATE 7:59 pm – Per VPAP, with 1075/2533 (42%) of precincts reporting, it’s Stoney 26.7%- Hashmi 26.0%-Rouse 25.8% for LG; with 1074/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.6%-Taylor 49.4% for AG.
UPDATE 7:57 pm – Per VPAP, with 1042/2533 (41%) of precincts reporting, it’s Hashmi 27.7%-Stoney 27.7%-Rouse 23.2% for LG; with 1041/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.5%-Taylor 49.5% for AG.
UPDATE: 7:49 pm – Per VPAP, with 17/21 precincts reporting in HD1, it’s Del. Patrick Hope 69.5%-Arjoon Srikanth 20.7%-Sean Epstein 9.8%.
UPDATE 7:45 pm – Per VPAP, with 661/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Stoney 26.7%-Rouse 25.4%-Hashmi 25.1% for LG; with 655/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.58%-Taylor 49.42% for AG.
UPDATE 7:42 pm – Interesting that former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney is currently leading (albeit not by much) in the LG race, but is in fourth place in Richmond, with just 5.6% there (Hashmi’s at 71.8% in Richmond).
UPDATE 7:38 pm – Per VPAP, with 416/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Stoney 26.3%- Rouse 25.7%-Hashmi 23.9% for LG; with 410/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.4%-Taylor 49.6% for AG.
UPDATE 7:34 pm – Per VPAP, with 335/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Stoney 26.2%- Rouse 25.9%-Hashmi 24.3% for LG; with 329/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.2%-Taylor 49.8% for AG.
UPDATE 7:30 pm – Per VPAP, with 187/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Rouse 25.9%-Stoney 25.7%-Hashmi 23.8% for LG; with 181/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.04%-Taylor 49.96% for AG.
UPDATE 7:23 pm – Per VPAP, with 170/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Stoney 25.9%-Rouse 25.0%-Hashmi 23.8% for LG; with 164/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Jones 50.01%-Taylor 50.0% for AG
UPDATE 7:20 pm – Per VPAP, with 51/2533 precincts reporting, it’s Rouse 28.1%-Stoney 26.3%-Hashmi 25.6% for LG; Jones 51.7%-Taylor 48.3% for AG.
UPDATE 7:10 pm – With 12/133 localities reporting, Ghazala Hashmi is leading the LG primary with 34.8% of the vote, followed by Levar Stoney with 31.9%, Aaron Rouse with 15.2%, Babur Lateef with 8.6%, Victor Salgado with 5.1% and Alex Bastani with 4.3%. For AG, it’s Jay Jones with 51.2% and Shannon Taylor with 48.8%.
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It’s 6:45 pm, and polls will close in Virginia in 15 minutes. In this live blog of the primary election returns, I’ll primarily (no pun intended, lol) be checking the VA Department of Elections website (Democratic results here; Republican results here) and VPAP for results as they come in. Also see here for Chaz Nuttycombe’s statewide results/calls and here for his House of Delegates results/calls. And Sam Shirazi’s predictions are here, if you want to compare them to the results. Feel free to use the comments section of this post to report what you’re hearing. The top races I’ll be closely watching – in roughly descending order – are:
- Democratic Lt. Governor Primary: The candidates are State Senators Aaron Rouse and Ghazala Hashmi; former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney; Prince William County School Board Chair Babur Lateef; former Dept. of Justice prosecutor Victor Salgado; union leader and attorney Alex Bastani.
- Democratic Attorney General Primary: The candidates are Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor and former Del. Jay Jones.
- HD75 Democratic Primary: This Chesterfield/Hopewell seat is held by Republican incumbent Del. Carrie Coyner, but it went by 6 points for Harris and by 9 points for Kaine last November, so it’s a strong target for Dems to flip in November. The three Democrats competing to take on Coyner are Lindsey Dougherty, Stephen Miller-Pitts and Dustin Wade, with the top two in terms of fundraising being Dougherty and Wade.
- HD57 Democratic Primary: This western Henrico seat is one of the top targets for House Democrats to flip this November, given that it went by over 9 points to Kamala Harris last November and has been trending blue in general. The two Democrats running for the nomination are May Nivar and Andrew Schear, with Nivar holding a massive lead in cash-on-hand, endorsements, etc, etc.
- HD73 Democratic Primary: This Western Chesterfield district is potentially winnable for Democrats in November (both Harris and Kaine won it very narrowly last November), although it will be tougher than HD57. The two Democrats vying for the nomination are Leslie Mehta and Justin Woodford, with Mehta holding a signficant lead in cash-on-hand, endorsements, etc.
- HD89 Democratic Primary: This Chesapeake/Suffolk seat – won by both Harris and Kaine by a few points last November – is an open seat, as incumbent Del. Baxter Ennis (R) is not running for reelection. On the Democratic side, the candidates are Blaizen Buckshot Bloom and Karen Carnegie, with Carnegie far ahead in terms of money and endorsements.
- HD01 Democratic Primary: Long-time incumbent Del. Patrick Hope (D) faces two challengers (Sean Epstein and Arjoon Srikanth) in this deep-blue north Arlington district. In part because Hope faces more than one opponent, in part because he’s a popular incumbent, Hope is likely to win big tonight – the question being what his margin ends up being.
- Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Democratic Primary: Incumbent Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin vs challenger Tom Barbour, Jr.
- Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Democratic Primary: Incumbent Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi vs John F. Butler
- Arlington County Board (Democratic): Incumbent County Board member Takis Karantonis and Democratic challenger James DeVita. Go Takis!
