Levar Stoney Campaign “Internal” Poll of the 2025 VA Democratic Lt. Governor Primary Has Stoney Up 16%-10%-8%-2% Over Aaron Rouse, Ghazala Hashmi and Babur Lateef; 63% of Voters “Not Sure”

See below for a new “internal” poll by the Levar Stoney for Lt. Governor campaign. A few thoughts:

• As far as I’m aware, there have been no public polls released on the 2025 Virginia Democratic Lt. Governor primary.
• I’ve heard there could be other “internal” polls by other Democratic Lt. Governor campaigns, but I haven’t seen them.
• When it comes to “internals,” obviously keep in mind which campaign conducted them, but also look at: a) whether the firm that did the poll is serious/legitimate (in the case of Garin-Hart-Yang, that’s definitely the case); b) whether the questions, including “neutral” descriptions of the candidates being polled, are fair/balanced (that seems to be the case here as well); c) whether the results make intuitive sense, based on what we already know about the candidates’ name IDs (in this case, you’d definitely expect Stoney’s name recognition to be the highest, given that he got a LOT of publicity over tearing down Confederate monuments in Richmond, also as Secretary of the Commonwealth…); etc. (again, I’d say that appears to be the case with this poll).
• As for the results of this poll, “Levar Stoney currently leads the field in the Democratic primary for Lt. Governor, although a substantial majority of voters are undecided.” Of course, with an enormous 63% of likely Democratic primary voters not knowing who they support, and with the highest support for any candidate at just 16% (for former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, followed by State Senator Aaron Rouse at 10%, State Senator Ghazala Hashmi at 8%, Prince William County School Board Chair Babur Lateef at 2%), it’s really a wide-open race, which will depend heavily on whether candidates have the resources to communicate with likely Democratic primary voters – and whether they communicate effectively/persuasively/etc. That will require money, of course, with the next major campaign finance reports due to be released publicly in mid-April.
• “Stoney starts the race with a firm advantage in the Richmond area (where he recently completed his two-terms as Richmond’s Mayor). While Virginia Beach Senator Rouse similarly leads in his native Tidewater region, Stoney currently polls in the double digits in Tidewater whereas Rouse is in single digits in Richmond.”
• “Former Mayor Stoney expands his lead after we provide positive, biographical statements for each of the candidates that included the following core biographical  information…Former Mayor Stoney expands his lead after we provide positive, biographical statements for each of the candidates that included the following core biographical information” (Stoney hits 30% after the descriptions of the candidates are read, while Rouse goes up to 18%, Hashmi to 15% and Lateef to 4%).
• There are three other Democratic candidates in this race – relative unknowns Alex Bastani, Carl Eggleston, Victor Salgado – but they aren’t mentioned in this poll.
• I’d definitely be interested in seeing other LG campaigns’ “internals,” and a poll of the Democratic Attorney General primary would also be nice.