Roanoke City Council member Trish White-Boyd has announced that she will not seek reelection in the November 2024 council elections.
“I will not be seeking any public office,” she said in an email to Cardinal News. Her announcement was first reported on independent journalist Dan Smith’s website.
White-Boyd’s announcement, coupled with the previous announcement that Mayor Sherman Lea won’t be seeking reelection, means that at least two new members will be joining the council in 2025.
The Roanoke mayor’s post is elected separately. Other council members whose seats will be on the ballot in November are Stephanie Moon-Reynolds and Luke Priddy.
White-Boyd first ran for the Roanoke City Council in 2016 and finished fourth, 47 votes behind third-place finisher John Garland in a race where the top three candidates won. When Garland resigned from the council in 2019, White-Boyd was appointed in his place. She sought a full term in 2020 and led the balloting, which made her vice mayor in 2021-2022. This year, she was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for the state Senate against state Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, for the seat that covers Roanoke, Salem and parts of Roanoke and Montgomery counties. She carried the city with 60.89% of the vote but took 46.57% district-wide.
Roanoke council elections are now held in November. That means party nominations will be decided in June primaries. Candidates mentioned for mayor have included current Vice Mayor Joe Cobb, a Democrat; Moon-Reynolds, who was elected as an independent; and former Mayor David Bowers, who has switched his party identification from Democrat to Republican.