Virginia Democrats are looking to generate momentum in the 2025 statewide elections after maintaining their majorities in the House and Senate, but before November they must pick a leader to guide them through the looming campaign.
Susan Swecker abruptly announced last month that she would be stepping down as chairwoman of the Virginia Democratic Party, a role she has held since 2015, once a new chair is elected. The party will elect her successor on March 22.
“As I step down, I do so with pride and confidence, knowing that our party is in capable hands. The solid foundation we’ve laid will ensure Virginia remains a beacon of Democratic strength for generations to come,” Swecker said in a statement.
Only one candidate has publicly declared his candidacy, but NOTUS reports that the party is aware of at least one other contender ahead of Saturday’s deadline to file. The lone public candidate, state Sen. Lamont Bagdy, announced his bid shortly after Swecker said she would step down.
“Now more than ever, we need to be united in our mission to retake the Governor’s Mansion, expand our House majority, and push back on the extreme, chaotic agenda we are seeing in Washington,” Bagdy, who chairs the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, said in a post announcing his candidacy.
He has received endorsements from high-profile Democrats in the Old Dominion, including Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), state House Speaker Don Scott, state Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, among others.
The newly elected party chair will lead Virginia Democrats into a campaign to reclaim all three statewide offices on the ballot in November: governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.
After winning a trifecta in the commonwealth for the first time in decades in 2019, Democrats faced a bruising 2021 election in which they lost control of the state House and got swept by Republicans in statewide offices.
The Virginia GOP, once thought to be on its way out, mounted a comeback led by popular Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) in the 2021 election, gaining ground across the commonwealth — a trend that continued into the 2024 presidential election.
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While Democrats are still the stronger party in Virginia, holding majorities in both state houses, the next chair faces an opposition that appears to be gaining ground.
Virginia Democrats have made President Donald Trump’s downsizing of the federal workforce, which affects a significant portion of the northern part of the state, a key part of their campaign against Republicans. The matter could become a defining issue in the looming campaign.
