The Republican infighting that’s permeated the Lynchburg City Council over the past four years pushed GOP incumbents to run again — among two different factions, but technically as independents — while energizing a full Democratic slate as well as another challenger.
The city council has a 6-1 Republican majority that is often seen as divided between two groups, one including Marty Misjuns, Vice Mayor Curt Diemer and Jacqueline Timmer and the other with Mayor Larry Taylor, Stephanie Reed and Chris Faraldi. It’s the three at-large council seats held by Misjuns, Taylor and Reed that are on this year’s ballot, and all are running for reelection.
They’re on opposing slates: Misjuns is joined by Veronica Bratton on one team, and Taylor and Reed are joined by Chris Boswell on the other.
This year’s Democratic candidates are Christina Delzingaro, Dave Henderson and Nat Marshall. Also running is independent Eli “Shawn Hunter” Rybinni.
The GOP division has been on display at heated council meetings often filled with insults and interruptions, with the climate being criticized by residents as a circus and classified by sitting council members as political theater. The situation was intensified by a Republican firehouse primary in May, which was later voided by leaders of the state party.
It all sets the stage for what’s been an unusual — but important — 2026 election for voters.
Interest in this year’s race is already showing, said Registrar Patricia Jones in an email. As of Oct. 9, 4,915 people had voted early in the city — just shy of the about 5,000 that had voted by that time ahead of the 2024 presidential election, and above the about 4,000 that had voted by that time ahead of the 2025 gubernatorial election. She credits the turnout partly to the fact that “city council and the constitutional amendments bring a lot of interest.”
Here’s more about the nine candidates:
The Bratton and Misjuns team want what they sought four years ago — a voting bloc on the dais
Bratton and Misjuns are running as a team, with campaign materials that say their goal is to “stop tax-and-spend policies,” “hold city hall accountable,” “reject Spanberger’s overreach” and “defend conservative values.” They are distributing a sample ballot that says “Republican” at the top.
There are no official Republican candidates this year, in the aftermath of the nullified nomination process.
Bratton, Misjuns, Reed, Taylor and Boswell all sought the Republican nomination at the firehouse primary run by the Lynchburg Republican City Committee in May. Misjuns, Taylor and Bratton secured the nominations after about 1,600 residents cast their votes. A firehouse primary is run by a political party — versus the state or locality — and is normally held at one location where voters have a few hours to cast a ballot.
The Republican Party of Virginia’s state central committee voted 55-17 in June to throw out the nominations and approve other remedies in response to three appeals that contested the firehouse primary. Those remedies included an order to declare the Lynchburg Republican City Committee defunct. The local committee will not formally reconstitute until after the election and is not participating in city council campaigns, said Jeff Ryer, the state party’s chair.
Bratton and Misjuns have relied on volunteer support in the absence of local party support, they said. They’ve been endorsed by members of a local group called Republicans for Liberty, who have knocked on about 5,000 doors in support of the team so far, Bratton said. The group is simultaneously campaigning against the Reed, Taylor and Boswell slate.
More on the race
Residents can cast three votes for the three city council candidates they’d like to see on the dais — and don’t have to vote by slate.
To learn more about each candidate’s individual stances on economic growth, public safety, education, affordability and other key campaign issues — along with how to vote and what else is on the ballot — visit Cardinal News’ voter guide.
Bratton said in an interview that she’s seeing strong energy from supporters who are “in shock that they could stand in line to vote in America and then have it thrown out,” referencing the nullified firehouse primary vote.
Bratton and Misjuns are asking their supporters to amplify their chances at the polls by casting two votes for them and not using the third vote. In an interview, Misjuns said that if the plan works, the team can keep thousands of votes from going to other candidates and secure a majority voting bloc on the dais with the currently sitting Diemer and Timmer.
Bratton and Misjuns were once joined by a third team member, James “Trae” Watkins, but he withdrew from the city council race in August, citing the demands of his role as a husband, father and community leader.
Bratton was chair of the Lynchburg Republican City Committee the last time the council’s at-large seats were up for grabs, four years ago, when voters elected a Republican majority for the first time in about two decades. The majority did not become a voting bloc as she — and Republican volunteers who helped run the campaign — had hoped, she said.
The bloc that Misjuns and Bratton are hoping for this time around would prioritize government accountability measures for spending and operations, such as a forensic audit, they said.
At a candidate debate this month, Misjuns said “citizens deserve a real debate” on tough questions, in response to a prompt about the contentious climate on council.
“We need a much leaner and more efficient government. I think that there’s too much bureaucracy that’s slowing things down. We need to figure out what the issue is there, and we just need to hold city staff accountable to actually deliver,” he added in an interview.
“The city council’s job is to set the bar for the city government and to oversee it,” Bratton said. “And that bar has clearly been set too low and needs to be raised.”
Meanwhile, Misjuns’ social media posts were criticized by a resident as “hate speech” last week, and Misjuns told Cardinal News in response that he “will always stand against” attempts to silence conservatives.
The slate of Boswell, Reed and Taylor keep sights on Lynchburg’s strengths
Boswell, Reed and Taylor’s team also have sample ballots that read “Republican.” Their attention is on lowering taxes, supporting first responders, growing the economy, strengthening schools, defending Lynchburg’s values and prioritizing “the basics,” such as road maintenance, according to their campaign materials.
Boswell, Reed and Taylor said in an interview that there’s been positive momentum in Lynchburg over the past four years: Major local employers such as Framatome have expanded, violent crime rates are down, flight options at the airport have expanded and the city made a $60 million investment in school infrastructure, for example, they said. If the council can continue to promote a strong city and encourage businesses and residents to move in and stay, the tax base will broaden and individual tax burdens can be lowered, they said.
“I think that’s what differentiates us,” Reed said of her team compared to the other Republican slate. “We are ambassadors for success and not for destruction.”
Accountability for city staff is still a focus if expectations aren’t met, the candidates said.
“Things happen. But we’re here to prop them up and to find solutions, not point fingers and drag people through the mud,” Boswell said. “If they slip or fail, it’s just as much our responsibility to help prop them up and make them successful.”
The candidates said they take their role as an at-large council member to mean that they have a responsibility to make every resident feel comfortable expressing their concerns and ideas to them.
“We have to have leadership that can work together, reach across the aisle,” Boswell said at a candidate debate this month. “I don’t look the same as everybody in this room. I don’t believe the same things as everybody in this room. But I bet you I can find common ground, and I can work with you.”
It’s a message that’s important now, the candidates said, as they hear from voters who are afraid to donate to campaigns or display political signs due to fear of retaliation in the current political climate.
Even so, they said they’re seeing energy from supporters and volunteers who feel like their voices haven’t been heard by the local Republican party recently — especially in the lead-up to and execution of the firehouse primary — and who are tired of watching fights on the dais.
“The darkness is everywhere, but we need to be lights,” Taylor said of city council members’ responsibility to be role models who listen to and treat everyone in the city with respect.
Democratic candidates say they’ll focus on potholes, not politics
While the firehouse primary played out on one side of the aisle, the three Democratic candidates did not need to compete in a primary because no other candidates applied for their local party’s nomination.
Delzingaro, Henderson and Marshall announced their team in January with a campaign focused on “strong schools, affordable housing, smart economic development that makes the most of long-term infrastructure investments, and good-paying jobs” with the goal of bringing “competent, respectful governance” back to city hall, according to their campaign website.
The Democratic candidates said in an interview that the division and lack of decorum in the current city council motivated them — and their supporters and volunteers — to take action this election season. They added that they plan to work with each other, fellow city council members and city staff professionally and respectfully if elected. That’s the foundation needed to focus on a long-term vision for Lynchburg and the policies that will get the city there, they said.
“We haven’t even had a chance to get to policy differences,” Delzingaro said of the current city council, at a candidate debate this month. “There’s so much name calling and grandstanding, and frankly, embarrassing and disrespectful behavior. And I think it’s rich that some members of the current city council on this dais are pretending like it’s not happening. We can see it with our own eyes, and more importantly, we can feel it.”
With help from the Lynchburg Democratic Committee and a group called Lynchburg Better Together, the team and its supporters have knocked on about 20,000 doors, sent out 12,500 handwritten postcards and held listening sessions across the city, said Nikki Sanders of Lynchburg Better Together. The group is a local volunteer initiative partnered with Rural GroundGame, an organization that supports Democratic campaigns, committees and community leaders, according to its website.
Marshall described the slate as “solidly center” when it comes to policy. “I’ve got a lot of Republican friends who are saying, because of you all, this will be the first time I’ve ever voted for a Democratic candidate,” he said.
“Potholes aren’t political. Having clean, running water isn’t political,” Henderson said, speaking to the basic local needs that the city council should focus on.
Delzingaro added that, when listening to candidates’ responses to questions at recent forums, she’s noticed much overlap in priorities regardless of candidates’ political affiliation.
“We’re all saying the same things are important to us: the schools are important to us, affordability is important to us, quality of life is important to us,” she said. “It’s just that how we get there looks quite different, and the pieces within there that we think are broken or are working are different.”
Lynchburg Democratic Committee Chair Randy Smith said the five Republican candidates could split the GOP vote and benefit the unified team of Democrats.
“But it doesn’t mean that it’s easy,” he said. “We just preach so much that you’re not alone. It can feel like you’re a blue dot in a red ocean, and that you just have your dinner party friends that you get together and commiserate with. But those dinner parties are on every block and every street.”
In the 2025 gubernatorial race, 49% of Lynchburg voters supported Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, and 50% voted for Winsome Earle-Sears, a Republican, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. In the recent redistricting referendum vote, 57% of Lynchburg voters voted “no,” in alignment with Republican campaigns. About 53% of Lynchburg voters supported President Donald Trump in 2024.
Party division also motivated independent candidate to run
Also in the race is the independent Rybinni, who is listed as Eli “Shawn Hunter” Rybinni on the ballot.
He said his focus is on homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, crime and other issues in the city’s underserved neighborhoods that he hopes to give a voice to. Rybinni said it’s been frustrating to watch city council members argue over party division for the past four years when there are bigger topics that need to be addressed — many Lynchburg residents don’t feel safe in their neighborhoods, don’t feel supported by the city school system and don’t have the wraparound services needed to live day-to-day, he said.
