All five incumbents were reelected to fill the open seats on Danville’s city council, marking the second consecutive council election in which no challengers won a seat. Two incumbents and two challengers will fill the four open seats on the city school board.
Nine candidates ran for city council this year — five male incumbents and four female challengers. Danville has not had a woman on city council since 2012.
The incumbents on the ballot were Lawrence G. Campbell Jr., Barry Mayo, Sherman Saunders, Lee Vogler and Madison Whittle. Challengers were Maureen Belko and Petrina Carter, who both ran in 2022, and newcomers Shakeva Frazier and Felice McWilliams.
Average turnout for Election Day at the polls was about 29%, and another 30% of residents voted early or by mail, according to River City TV.
The vote count was as follows, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.
Vogler: 8,980
Whittle: 8,791
Campbell: 8,097
Saunders: 7,484
Mayo: 7,481
Frazier: 6,614
Carter: 5,959
Belko: 3,732
McWilliams: 3,288
These numbers are unofficial until the election is certified Nov. 15. Provisional ballots are not expected to change the outcome of either race, according to River City TV.
Vogler said he is grateful to Danville residents for “showing such an outpouring of support,” in a statement to Cardinal News after the results were in.
“Eleven months ago, I had a brief run for State Senate that didn’t turn out the way we wanted,” he said. “At the time, some folks had written me off politically. But, like they always have, the people of Danville had my back. And tonight, the people of the comeback city made me the comeback kid.”
Almost all of the incumbents had a long history of reelection going into this year’s race. Only Mayo had a single term under his belt.
Being an incumbent didn’t feel like being a shoo-in, Mayo said, comparing the process to a sports game.
“I may have beat the opposing team before, but that doesn’t mean I will beat them again,” he said. “But I’ve been confident in myself.”
Campbell was first elected to council in 2008. Saunders was first elected in 1996, served as mayor from 2008 to 2016, and has been reelected every election since then. Vogler was first elected in 2012 at 24 years old, making history as the city’s youngest council member. Whittle was first elected six years ago in 2016.
McWilliams, who is involved with a variety of local organizations, said she owes a big thank you to Danville voters, despite the outcome of the race.
“I’ve had great support and the numbers will be what they’re going to be, but I won’t stop serving my city,” McWilliams said.
She said she’d run again in 2026, and “try one more time” for a spot on city council.
Belko said she wasn’t sure if she’d run again, after two campaigns. She said she’s grateful to her volunteers and those who voted for her during her watch party on election night at Two Witches Winery and Brewery.
“Even here at Two Witches, we got one of the workers here to register to vote for the first time,” Belko said. “There are little wins.”
For the school board race, five candidates were seeking four open seats. The three incumbent candidates, Charles McWilliams, Tyrell Payne and Keisha Walker, were challenged by newcomers Kacey Cunningham and Corey Williams.
Cunningham, Payne, Walker and Willaims were elected. The vote counts were as follows:
Payne: 8,730
Walker: 8,632
Cunningham: 8,624
Williams: 7,880
McWilliams: 5,476
Payne, the current vice chair of the school board, was first elected in 2020. He said that the district will continue to move forward with the progress it’s made in the last four years.
“We’re going for more, that’s all I can say,” he said at his watch party on election night.
He also said that he was impressed with the voter turnout in Danville.
“I went to the polls this morning, and there were already hundreds of votes right at 9 or 10 o’clock,” Payne said. “It’s a blessing that voters came in large numbers.”
Walker was also reelected to another term. She was first elected in 2022 in a special election to finish the term of Renee Hughes, who resigned in 2021. She said she was motivated to run again because of her belief in the power of education and her passion for working with youth.
She said that family engagement is a major component in student success. Improving this will result in improved student achievement and SOL scores, she said.
“Kids engage more when you have family support,” Walker said. “That component, even though it’s just one piece of the pie, is very vital.”
Cunningham, who was elected tonight for the first time, also mentioned the importance of family engagement. She said she was inspired to run for her first term because she wants to see improved transparency and communication with parents, like herself.
She is a board member for CIC Head Start, a preschool in Danville, and has served with the school system’s parent and family engagement committee and renaming committee.
Williams, a native from Halifax County, was also elected to his first term. The district is “on the right path,” he said. “There are just some areas where we still need a little bit of help.”
Almost all of the candidates remarked about how exhausting it was to campaign during a presidential election year.
“The campaign process, with nine people running during a presidential election year, was way harder than in 2022,” Belko said.
Williams described how he was feeling as “all capital letters, exhausted.”
Terms for each of these elected officials will begin in January.
