With the June 17 Democratic primary days away, six candidates locked in a quiet-but-crowded race for lieutenant governor are making their final push to stand out — and to convince voters they’re the best bet to take on Republicans this fall.
The contenders include state Sens. Ghazala Hashmi and Aaron Rouse, former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, Prince William County School Board Chair Babur Lateef, former federal prosecutor Victor Salgado, and attorney Alex Bastani.
The six candidates have done little to differentiate themselves from one another and only a few personal attacks have been made. Running on experience and ideology has been the key talking point for each — until eight days before the primary, when Rouse made a slight toward Stoney, and then Stoney’s campaign responded with a pointed critique of Rouse’s experience.
During an event with Black leaders in Richmond on Monday, Rouse said he worked to provide clean drinking water for Virginia Beach while serving on City Council. The crowd audibly murmured at the veiled shot at Stoney, who was mayor of Richmond until six days before the city’s water system malfunctioned, leading to a widespread outage lasting days and impacting multiple localities.
It became known as “the water crisis” to Richmonders, who place the blame on Stoney for failing to provide adequate maintenance and oversight during his eight years as mayor.
After the crowd reacted to Rouse’s statement Monday, he followed up with: “Yeah, I said it.”
Two days before that, after a campaign event in Northern Virginia, Stoney, who was elected mayor in 2016, said he wished Dwight Jones, Richmond’s mayor before Stoney, had done the work to replace the broken part in the water treatment plant.
“This came out in the administration before me, and we were the ones that finally got it done,” he said about procuring the part that needed to be replaced. “Now, do we wish that the prior administration would have gotten it done so we didn’t have to deal with it? Obviously, we wish that would have occurred, but we actually were the ones who procured the project and started to work on the project.”
The broken part still had not been replaced by Jan. 6, 2025, when the water treatment plant shut down, causing the crisis.
“The city is extremely old and (it is) difficult, in eight years, to fix systemic problems,” Jones said in a statement to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “It’s unfortunate that someone would blame a predecessor because you get what you get, and you deal with what you have to deal with.”
In a statement to the Richmond Times-Dispatch after his event Monday, Rouse said: “My opponent let his city down and now is trying to blame Reverend Jones. Virginians know better and deserve better.”
Jones endorsed Rouse in the primary.
Another flashpoint came during a May forum, when Salgado criticized Rouse and Hashmi for accepting money tied to the gambling industry.
“Unfortunately, we have Senator Hashmi and Senator Rouse, who are financing their campaigns with big casino money and skill gaming money,” Salgado said during the May forum.
Rouse has been a sponsor of skill games legislation in the past, and both he and Hashmi voted in favor of allowing Fairfax County to hold a referendum on bringing a casino to Tysons Corner. That legislation failed to advance out of the House of Delegates earlier this year.
Comstock, the company behind the Northern Virginia casino effort, gave Hashmi’s campaign $50,000 in June. Comstock also gave Rouse $25,000 in June, and he received more than $75,000 from gambling-related entities in recent months.
Hashmi and Rouse did not directly address the attack from Salgado, but defended their records on labor and economic opportunity.
“Any time I take a look at a bill or an item of legislation, it is through the lens of working families,” Hashmi said during the forum.
Rouse also pointed to his time on the Virginia Beach City Council, and said he disliked state lawmakers dictating local decisions.
“I never liked Richmond telling us what to do, so I supported legislation giving the localities the option to decide to put on a referendum to decide whether or not they want a casino,” he said during the forum.
Lateef and Salgado oppose a new casino in Northern Virginia, while Stoney said he does not support an outright ban, but he does not believe the proposed site in Tysons Corner should move forward.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from residents all across the county, but particularly in Tysons Corner that they do not want to see a casino there. So I support the residents on this one,” Stoney said during the forum.
Bastani is also not calling for an outright ban but said he does not support the proposed Northern Virginia casino.
Now, with little contrast between candidates, they are focused on the final stretch. Each is making a closing argument — a distilled version of their message — in hopes of resonating with undecided voters — if any exist.
While the candidates share many broad goals — expanding access to health care, defending abortion rights, and opposing Trump — their differences lie in approach and background. Hashmi and Rouse bring legislative experience. Stoney offers executive leadership. Salgado touts his legal record. Lateef emphasizes education and tax reform, while Bastani is pushing for structural overhaul.
“We’re laser-focused on the issues that Virginians care about, like protecting our federal workers, housing affordability and repealing Virginia’s regressive car tax,” Lateef said in a statement to Virginia Scope.
Lateef has made repealing the car tax his main focus in the final days — a policy recently backed by Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger.
“I’m against the car tax,” he said during a recent virtual forum with the NPHC Metro Richmond Social Action Committee. “When Virginia runs one to $2 billion surpluses every year I’ve been a school board member, those surpluses need to be returned to our communities to fully fund our schools, new construction for our schools, roads, transportation, metros and infrastructure projects, that is critical.”
“I’m undefeated against Trump since 2018,” Lateef continued in his written statement to Virginia Scope. “We beat back his attempts at whitewashing our curriculum [and] defended his attacks on vulnerable students. As lieutenant governor, I’m going to scale up all of our successes: tax cuts, record teacher raises, and record student achievement.”
Hashmi, who is in the middle of her second term in the Senate, is emphasizing her legislative experience and her perspective as the only woman in the race as key reasons voters should choose her.
“[I] have an actual legislative track record that addresses the issues that Virginians most care about: education, health care, housing, and opportunity,” she said in a statement to Virginia Scope.
“When Trump came after abortion rights, I wrote the bill protecting contraception and helped to draft language for our constitutional amendment protecting abortion; that’s why I’m the only candidate endorsed by abortion rights groups,” she continued. “When Trump came after our health care, I wrote the plan to protect Medicaid in Virginia. In the face of attacks on public education, I crafted the budget plan to increase funding for our schools.”
Stoney is also leaning on his experience, as the only candidate in the race to work as an executive in government.
“As secretary of the Commonwealth and mayor of Richmond, I didn’t just talk; I delivered,” he wrote in a statement to Virginia Scope. “We cut poverty by a third, increased school funding by nearly 60%, and built new schools and affordable housing. We created real jobs that lift people up, and when history called on us to remove every Confederate monument in the former capital of the Confederacy, we got it done.”
“Donald Trump and his allies have a target on Virginia’s back,” Stoney continued. “From federal workers to families who rely on food assistance and Medicaid, they’ve shown us exactly who they are. This moment demands leadership with experience, urgency, and a track record of getting things done.”
Rouse says he is the fighter Virginia needs to stand up to Trump’s administration, citing his recent action to block former Virginia Attorney General and Trump appointee Ken Cuccinelli from the University of Virginia Board of Visitors.
“We need a fighter who can stand up to Trump and get things done for Virginians, and my record is crystal clear,” he said in a written statement to Virginia Scope. “Just this week, when Trump Project 2025 architect Ken Cuccinelli defended the use of the American military against American citizens, I kicked him off the UVA board because MAGA extremism doesn’t belong in our Commonwealth.”
Rouse also cited how he voted to protect abortion rights after flipping a Republican Senate seat in a special election, passed legislation to protect federal workers laid off by the Trump administration from being evicted, and introduced legislation to lower prescription drug prices.
Salgado, who has never held elected office but served as a federal prosecutor, is using that experience to persuade voters.
“Who would you want next to Governor Spanberger if and when President Trump does here in Virginia what he’s doing in California?” he said in a written statement to Virginia Scope. “I’ve been preparing my entire career for this type of fight.”
Salgado said he would also pursue campaign finance reform along with safety and pro-growth policies that prioritize Virginia’s small- and medium-sized businesses.
Bastani, who has raised little money and is largely self-funding, is calling for sweeping changes in the commonwealth like universal health care and a $20 minimum wage.
“We need deep, structural change to our system,” he said during the NPHC forum.
Primary day is June 17, and with no clear front-runner, each candidate is hoping their message will be the one that cuts through.