The contest for the Democratic nomination in the 6th Congressional District became clearer Wednesday — and so did Roanoke author Beth Macy’s path to that nomination.
One of her two rivals — Ken Mitchell of Rockingham County, the party’s nominee two years ago — surprised a Roanoke audience by announcing he is dropping out and endorsing Macy.
“We need to give Beth Macy the entire full runway from June to November to run a campaign,” Mitchell told a meeting of the Roanoke Valley Democratic Women group, which gave him a standing ovation.
Attention immediately turned to the other candidate for the nomination: Dave Kennedy, a retired educator from Arlington County who recently entered the race, even though he doesn’t live in the district.
One of the attendees, former 6th District Democratic chair Sandra Ryalls, turned to Kennedy and asked him to drop out in favor of Macy. “You see the support here for Beth Macy,” Ryalls told him. “She’s the strongest candidate in my lifetime. We need to be 100, 500, 1000 percent behind the best possible candidate, so I’d ask you with great respect and admiration, will you withdraw?”
Kennedy, who later said he was surprised by the turn of events, said he had a meeting with Macy scheduled and wouldn’t make any decision until then. Notably, though, after the event, he stayed at his table and didn’t mingle the way candidates normally do.
Kennedy originally declared his candidacy with the anticipation of running in a redrawn version of the 7th District; his website is still davekennedy07.com. He was a late entrant there, too, not getting in until April 9. When the Virginia Supreme Court recently ruled that the redistricting amendment had been unlawfully placed on the ballot because the General Assembly didn’t follow the rules on scheduling such votes, most of the candidates for that Democratic nomination dropped out. Instead, Kennedy announced he would run in the 6th; House members aren’t required to live in their districts.
It’s unclear how significant a candidate Kennedy is, given his late start generally, his late start in the 6th specifically and his lack of residency in the district. He entered the race too late to be in the latest campaign finance filings, while Macy has proven herself a formidable fundraiser, especially for a Democratic candidate in a Republican district. Through the end of March, she had more cash on hand than the Republican incumbent, Ben Cline — $719,305 for Macy, $655,823 for Cline.
The next significant campaign date is May 26: That’s the deadline for candidates to file for the Aug. 4 primary. Macy’s campaign was circulating petitions to collect signatures at the Roanoke event; Kennedy was not.
If Kennedy either drops out or fails to make the ballot (and there often are candidates who don’t collect enough signatures), then Macy would win the Democratic nomination by default — and the fall campaign between Cline and Macy would be set.
A similar situation exists in the 5th District, where former Rep. Tom Perriello of Albemarle County is the clear frontrunner; the only other contenders are little-known candidates whose campaign presence has been slight.
By contrast, there are active campaigns for Democratic nominations in other congressional districts — including the 9th in Southwest Virginia — as well as for some Republican nominations.
It will be sometime after May 26 before all the paperwork is verified, but come early June, we will have a much clearer picture of who is running for Congress across Virginia — and which districts will have primaries on Aug. 4.
What we know for sure is that on Aug. 4, Republicans will be voting statewide to pick a U.S. Senate candidate to run against Mark Warner, the Democratic incumbent, while Democrats will be voting in Arlington County (board of supervisors), Chesterfield County (board of supervisors), Harrisonburg (city council), Manassas (city council), Montgomery County (sheriff) and Roanoke (city council) in local primaries.
Lynchburg Republicans will pick city council candidates in a party-run nominating process on May 30, while Montgomery County Republicans will pick a sheriff nominee in a party-run process on June 20.
We’ve begun the process of updating our Voter Guide. For now, the main page and the individual pages for Lynchburg, Montgomery County and Roanoke are up to date. We’ll update the rest after we know who has made the congressional ballot.
We’ll have more to say about the congressional races in Friday’s edition of West of the Capital, our weekly political newsletter. Sign up here:
