Two incumbents — Mayor Larry Taylor and council member Stephanie Reed — are joining with challenger Chris Boswell to seek Republican nominations for the three Lynchburg City Council seats that will be up for grabs this November.
The slate, campaigning under the name of “Team Lynchburg,” does not include Marty Misjuns, the other incumbent whose seat will be up for a vote this year. The group made the announcement Monday, citing their joint goals of “growing the local economy, supporting law enforcement, improving Lynchburg City Schools, and being good stewards of taxpayer dollars” with “steady, trustworthy leadership.”
“We have opportunity, tons of opportunity, and that opportunity is leaving our grasp with each and every day that silliness persists. We need serious leadership,” Boswell said at a press conference Monday, referencing what he sees as incivility that has limited the city council’s productivity.
The announcement comes in the context of division already observed on the dais among the six city council members who currently hold seats as Republicans. Council members’ votes, residents’ public discourse and general attitudes in city hall have cast Taylor, Reed and Chris Faraldi in a group separate from Misjuns, Vice Mayor Curt Diemer and Jacqueline Timmer.
The seats held by Taylor, Reed and Misjuns are on the ballot this year because they are the three at-large positions. The other four seats are elected by ward, and come due in 2028.
Misjuns has not yet announced a bid for reelection.
“I’m prayerfully considering running for reelection to City Council and will make an official announcement soon,” Misjuns wrote in a statement to Cardinal News on Monday. “I’ve been strongly encouraged by volunteers, donors, and many Republican voters who want strong fiscal conservative representation. Republican voters will have the opportunity to select their nominees for the general election.”
Veronica Bratton, the chair of the Lynchburg Republican City Committee, said voters should expect more Republican candidate announcements soon. That means a Republican primary — either in the party’s preferred firehouse model or a state-run model — is certain for this summer.
Meet the candidates
Boswell was born and raised in Southside Virginia before making Lynchburg home in 2000. He owns a downtown business, Barracks Financial Group, and helped to found the local Mustaches 4 Kids chapter, which has generated more than $4 million since 2014 for nonprofits that serve children in the Lynchburg area.
Boswell has served as president of the Downtown Lynchburg Association board and the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lynchburg board, and continues to serve as a general member of the Boys & Girls Club board.
“Through my work in the community, I’ve been able to bring so many people together from all different kinds of backgrounds to work for a common good. So why can’t that work for our city government?” he said at Monday’s press conference.
He doesn’t consider himself a politician, he said, but felt called to run for the city council because “something has got to change.”
“Our council has been too bogged down in name-calling and infighting and childish accusations and has lost sight of the business of our city,” he said.
“We cannot lose the best people, the best businesses and the quality business investments to other locales simply because we can’t keep our house in order and practice basic things like civility, reason, compromise and collaboration.”
Other than promoting civility, Bowsell said his priorities are to encourage economic development, improve the public school system, prioritize public safety and invest in infrastructure.
His calls echoed those made by Democratic city council challengers at a press conference last month. When Christina Delzingaro, Dave Henderson and Nat Marshall announced their bids for open council seats, they focused on themes of civility, collaboration and steady leadership while emphasizing their support for Lynchburg City Schools and economic development initiatives.
Incumbents Taylor and Reed are joining Boswell on the slate.
Taylor started his council term in 2023 and became mayor in 2025. He owns a contracting and restoration business. Taylor is also involved at All Nations Community Church, where he serves as the minister of evangelism and mentors children and families.
Taylor said his top three priorities are investing in public safety, supporting schools and “taking care of all of our citizens.”
Reed also started on the city council in 2023, acting as mayor from then until 2025. She is the chief executive officer of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lynchburg. She serves on the Virginia Board of Workforce Development and has also served on Thomas Road Baptist Church’s women’s ministry leadership team and the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center board.
She said her priority for this campaign is listening to residents and delivering what they ask for.
“They want a safe city they can raise their families in, that they can afford to live in. That’s what they want. They want good schools for the future of our city. They want jobs that they can have for themselves, and for their children to have when their children grow up. And they want a civil city council,” she said, reflecting on what she’s learned so far.
Schools were top of mind for all three candidates, they said, because of recent news that Lynchburg City Schools ranked 122 out of 131 school divisions across the state, or in the bottom 10%, for its preliminary raw 2024-25 Standards of Learning scores.
A primary awaits
Bratton said voters will get a say in which Republican candidates — and hence, which priorities — will end up on their local ballots in November.
The Lynchburg Republican City Committee voted last month to use a firehouse primary to select its nominees for the 2026 city council race, Bratton said. “We intend to go forward with that unless we’re stopped, in which case, then we will have to do the state-run primary,” she said.
A firehouse primary is run by the party, not the state. Because Virginia does not register voters by party, state-run primaries are open to all voters. Firehouse primaries, on the other hand, require party loyalty oaths and are often posited as a method to keep members of other political parties from diluting the vote.
Legislation that passed in 2021 and took effect in January 2024 effectively banned firehouse primaries and other party-run processes. It was designed to ensure that absentee voters are not excluded from participating in nominating processes, and it received bipartisan support.
The Lynchburg Republican City Committee filed a federal lawsuit in April against the Virginia Department of Elections, the State Board of Elections and Elections Commissioner Susan Beals, arguing that the law unconstitutionally strips political parties of their First Amendment right to free association.
In July, a U.S. district judge granted a motion by Virginia election officials to dismiss the lawsuit. The decision states that the Republican committee can still “seek and receive approval” from state elections officials for using a non-primary method of selecting candidates.
That’s what Bratton is doing, she said. If approved, the firehouse primary would be set for late May or early June, she added. If not, state-run primaries are planned for June 16.
In the meantime, Bratton said, the party’s six-person elective office committee is requiring each person seeking the Republican nomination to submit an application, meet with the committee and participate in two public forums — one with Republican party members and one for the general public.
“I really want to spend time at the beginning of the year intentionally ensuring we have good quality candidates who will actually represent us the way that we expect them to, with Republican values, when they’re elected,” she said.
Have thoughts on the role of civility in the Lynchburg City Council and the upcoming election? Cardinal News wants to hear them. Email Lynchburg reporter Emma Malinak at emma@cardinalnews.org.
