Favorites cruise to victory in primary elections

There were no surprises in the five primary elections Tuesday that involved Henrico candidates.

Two incumbent members of the Board of Supervisors – Democrat Frank Thornton (Fairfield District) and Republican Tommy Branin (Three Chopt) – retained their party nominations with relative ease, while Delegate Debra Rodman earned the Democratic nomination for the 12th District Virginia Senate seat by a comfortable margin.

Alisa Gregory, chief deputy of the Henrico Sheriff’s Office, outdistanced her two challengers to win the Democratic nomination for the sheriff’s seat. And Republican Garrison Coward coasted to a dominant win in the race for his party’s nomination in the 68th House of Delegates district.

Voter turnout for the races was predictably low. The highest profile local race took place in the Three Chopt District, where Branin (65 percent) had no problem outpacing challenger Dishant Shah (35 percent) by slightly more than 1,000 votes in a race that attracted only about 3,500 voters. Shah had waged a persistent attack on Branin’s record, claiming the incumbent was out of touch and beholden to developers. Branin stood by his record and accomplishments during his first term, largely ignoring Shah’s criticisms.

Thornton (63 percent) had little trouble dispatching challengers Maurice Tyler (20 percent) and Joseph Brown (16 percent) to earn a Nov. 5 general election date against incumbent Delta Bowers, the interim dean of Virginia Union’s School of Business. Thornton is seeking his seventh and final term on the board.

In the only countywide primary, Gregory used the endorsement of current sheriff Mike Wade – a Republican – to claim the Democratic nomination. Though some in the party questioned her original announcement that she would run as a Republican, Gregory won almost exactly half of the nearly 18,500 votes cast to defeat Richmond Police Officer Harold Ford (30 percent) and former Capitol Police Lt. James Layne (19 percent), who was the party’s nominee four years ago.

Rodman, a Randolph-Macon professor who rose to prominence two years ago when she shocked longtime Republican Delegate John O’Bannon to claim the 73rd District House of Delegates seat, was a late entrant into the 12th District Senate race but still won handily. She earned nearly 60 percent of the vote to defeat Henrico attorney Veena Lothe, a political newcomer. Lothe began campaigning for the seat nearly a year before Rodman entered the race, but Rodman’s widespread support among the Democratic establishment was too tough for her to overcome.

Rodman will face first-term Senator Siobhan Dunnavant in the Nov. 5 general election. The 12th District includes 55 Henrico precincts and seven Hanover precincts.

In the 68th House District, Coward (the chief operating officer at analytics firm BizCents) earned nearly three-quarters of the vote to win the Republican nomination against Lori Losi, a financial consultant. The district encompasses portions of Henrico, Chesterfield and Richmond. Coward, a former aide to U.S. Representative Rob Wittman of Virginia’s First District, will face first-term incumbent Democrat Dawn Adams in the Nov. 5 general election.

Henrico voters told the Citizen they were drawn to the polls Tuesday for a variety of reasons.

Three Chopt resident Melissa Laughon took an Uber to her precinct (Three Chopt Elementary) to vote in the Democratic primary. She chose Lothe in the 12th District Senate race but said she approved of Rodman’s platform, too.

“I think they’re both really amazing,” Laughon said. “At the end of the day, Veena’s been in the race longer, and I just felt like she has just really done a lot of outreach to a lot of different communities, and I think that’s what we need for our future.”

At Short Pump Middle School, Mike Canova also cast his ballot for Lothe, in part because he was disillusioned by Rodman’s quick jump from the House of Delegates.

“We worked very hard to get her elected as a delegate, and then after basically less than two years, she’s flipping and dropping, walking away from that scene,” he said of Rodman. “That was kind of disappointing.”

At Henrico High School in the Fairfield District, Deborah Fels admitted she hadn’t realized the primary election was Tuesday until her daughter asked if she was going to vote.

“I said, ‘Yeah, I am now,’” Fels said. She cast her ballot with the hope of fostering change in the district, she said.

At the same precinct, another voter said she wished the district would experience more commercial and retail development.

“It could be way better,” said the woman, who gave only her first name (Ebony). “I’ve been living in Henrico County all my life and it’s been the same businesses, with the exception of [The Shops at] White Oak.”

She voted for Joseph Brown for supervisor and James Layne for sheriff in the Democratic primaries.

– Katherine Schulte contributed to this article.