Democratic congressional nominee Elaine Luria is suing the Virginia Department of Elections in an effort to remove Independent candidate Gerald “Bishop” Staten from the November ballot in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District.
Luria and her campaign filed the lawsuit Thursday in Virginia Beach Circuit Court, arguing that Staten did not submit the 1,000 valid voter signatures required under Virginia law to qualify for the ballot.
According to the lawsuit, Staten submitted 1,667 signatures to the Virginia Department of Elections. Election officials determined that 653 were invalid, leaving Staten with 1,014 valid signatures — just 14 more than the required threshold.
The Department of Elections did not respond to a request for comment on Friday morning, but Staten is listed as a candidate on the website.
Luria’s lawsuit argues that at least 18 additional signatures should have been rejected. The campaign says those signatures either lacked a signature, lacked a residential address or listed an address that did not match the voter’s registration information. That would leave Staten with 996 valid signatures, below the threshold required to appear on the ballot.
Staten is running on the Democratic Socialists of America platform, though Virginia Scope has previously reported past social media posts from him praising President Donald Trump.
The Tidewater Chapter for Democratic Socialists of America denied any association with Staten.
When reached for comment Friday morning, Staten responded with a screenshot of the previous story from Virginia Scope.
“You had your shine… once,” Staten wrote on Facebook Messenger.
When pressed again for comment in this story, Staten responded with: “I won’t be . Keep going. You have a freedom of speech .. but I’m hip to who your are and what you do. Thanks again.”
Staten posted screenshots of the lawsuit on Facebook before deleting them Friday morning. He later posted a message that appeared to be a response.
“I’m already on Ballot, and it’s been weeks and early – voting is here … and if you didn’t get the rule change of August 4th-5th… that’s not my problem,” he wrote. “The Ballots are Already been printed many places if not finished.. disregard Elaine Luria plan to Stop Black History.. and to keep me off the ballot … unprofessional, timid, last minute, passed all deadlines and weeks after I have already been certified . And just days before Early-Voting. No means No.”
Luria’s campaign insinuated in a statement to Virginia Scope that Staten is a spoiler candidate put up by Republicans.
“Vulnerable incumbent Republicans in Virginia’s Second Congressional District have a history of lying and deception when Elaine Luria is on the ballot,” said a Luria spokesperson. “It’s no surprise that when Jen Kiggans is in the most desperate election of her life for raising prices on working families, this spoiler candidate who has a lengthy criminal record, supported Trump, and voted in the 2024 Republican primary shows up on the ballot.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee attacked Luria over the lawsuit.
“Corrupt Elaine Luria is once again trying to rig the system to benefit herself after Democrats’ shameless power grab went up in flames earlier this year,” said Reilly Richardson, a spokesperson for the NRCC. “Luria knows the radical socialists are in control of her party, and she’s terrified her base will come for her as they’ve come for countless other Democrats across the country. Her lawsuit is yet another pathetic attempt to silence Virginians’ voices.”
The lawsuit also takes aim at the timing of the state’s review. Virginia law generally gives candidates challenging another candidate’s ballot qualification significantly more time, but the General Assembly moved this year’s Independent candidate filing deadline to Aug. 4 because of the state’s failed congressional redistricting process. That left just one day between the filing deadline and the Aug. 5 deadline for challenges.
Luria’s campaign says it did not receive Staten’s petition and supporting signatures until Aug. 26, despite requesting them on Aug. 12. The lawsuit says the records provided were also incomplete, with additional pages containing roughly 62 signatures still unavailable for review.
The lawsuit argues that enforcing the Aug. 5 deadline under those circumstances would violate Luria’s constitutional right to due process. It also alleges violations of Virginia’s constitutional protections for due process and voting rights.
Luria is asking the court to issue an emergency temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction preventing Staten from appearing on the ballot, invalidate the disputed signatures and order election officials to remove his name from any ballots already printed.
The timing is critical. The lawsuit notes that ballots are scheduled to be finalized by Sept. 17, with early voting beginning Sept. 18. It asks the court to act by Sept. 8.
Luria is trying to win back her old seat by defeating Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans. Democrats are highly optimistic that they can win this seat. Kiggans was reelected in 2024 by four percentage points, with an Independent candidate receiving a little more than two percent of the vote.
Kiggans did not provide a comment for this story.
Luria signed the complaint, and attorneys at Elias Law Group filed it.