Hi everyone, I'm Sam Shirazi and this is Federal Fallout the 2025 Virginia Elections. This is a special bonus episode where I'm going to quickly go over some of the things that happened on the in the Virginia primary. I will do a longer episode during my regular podcast which will come out Saturday morning, but I did want to just kind of do this quick podcast.
00:19.54
Sam Shirazi
As you can probably tell, I'm a little bit tired. I'm recording this Tuesday evening. Definitely a lot happened during the primary and I want to talk about it quickly. Again, i want to put this out just give a quick update. I'm mainly going to be talking about the statewide offices for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General for the Democrats. I will talk about the House of Delegates on the podcast on Saturday, but did want to just kind of quickly update you on what happened in Virginia on Tuesday night during the Democratic primary, and then also just give you my hot, hot take, and i will give you another take on Saturday once I have a little bit more time to process all the data. So,
00:59.87
Sam Shirazi
Let's talk about the lieutenant governor's race. So it was super close. I was frankly surprised that it was a three-way race. I think former Richmond mayor LeVar s Stoney did better than I expected, and i think better than most people expected. However, it looks like the winner is going to be she declared victory, and I think Abigail Spamberger, her top-of-the-ticket running mate, has said that Ghazala Hashemi will be the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.
01:28.52
Sam Shirazi
She is a state senator from the Richmond suburbs, and she will become the first South Asian person to be on a statewide ticket in Virginia. And I think that's pretty notable because that's a growing community in Virginia. it has growing political influence.
01:44.67
Sam Shirazi
There's already a member of Congress from the 10th district, Suhasu Abramiam, who is South Asian. So I think it's kind of important and interesting to note that she will be on the ticket.
01:55.97
Sam Shirazi
All right. So like, how did she win? You know, why was she the one that was able to put together that coalition that was able to get to the magic number? I I had said the magic number was going to be 35%. The magic number was actually much less than 35%.
02:07.94
Sam Shirazi
It looks like the magic number to win for the lieutenant governor primary was about 27 and a half percent, which is just crazy. It's crazy to think how fractured the field was. It's crazy to think there was no ranked choice voting. So the winner was able to get less than 30% of the vote, but Ghazal Hashmi was able to win.
02:24.75
Sam Shirazi
So, you know, I want to kind of just go over how she was able to do it. I think it was pretty straightforward. She did what she needed to do in the Richmond suburbs where she's from. She won Henrico, she won Chesterfield, and then she did pretty well in Northern Virginia. She won Fairfax, she won Arlington pretty narrowly, but she won them.
02:42.01
Sam Shirazi
She actually did surprisingly well, I would say, in Western Virginia, which I don't think a lot of people anticipated. But that also, frankly, ah given how close it was, I mean, that gave her a decent margin out of Western Virginia.
02:55.05
Sam Shirazi
And so it wasn't a huge surprise that Aaron Rouse did well in Hampton roads. I think the reason he did, he wasn't able to win is he just didn't get the margins he needed in Northern Virginia and with black voters in South side, uh, Richmond mayor, LeVar Stoney. I think he did really well in Northern Virginia, a lot better than I expected.
03:15.12
Sam Shirazi
And he did well with black voters in South side of Virginia. I think the issue really for him, which was a killer was he just didn't get the numbers he needed from the Richmond area. Obviously Richmond is his base. Um,
03:26.15
Sam Shirazi
Ghazal Hashmi actually won Richmond City, which is just crazy to think about because Levar Stoney was the mayor of Richmond. I think if he was able to get a better margin out of Richmond, he probably would have won. But at the end of the day, Ghazal Hashmi was able to put together that coalition that was able to win.
03:43.29
Sam Shirazi
So I think it'll be interesting to see her on the ticket with Abigail Spanberger. And we'll talk about the third spot on the ticket with Jay Jones for Attorney General.
03:54.66
Sam Shirazi
And I think given the numbers, he pretty much did what he needed to do in Northern Virginia. That was really the story of the Attorney General race. I think, frankly, he did better than I was expecting in Northern Virginia.
04:08.64
Sam Shirazi
He won Arlington, which I didn't necessarily think he'd do. he got He kept it pretty close in Fairfax, a lot in Prince William. And given the margins he was able to get out of Hampton Roads, and that was enough where it kind of, it was enough for him to overcome the margins that Taylor was able to get in the Richmond suburbs of Henrico. And, you know, it was surprising that J. Jones actually won Chesterfield and Richmond City. And I think so it's kind of the story of J. Jones did well in,
04:39.73
Sam Shirazi
Hampton Roads, he kept Richmond area close and he kept Northern Virginia close and just the margins he was able to get out of Hampton Roads, he was able to win. I will say that I think relative to where she started, Shannon Taylor did pretty well and obviously came up short by just a little bit. And I think, you know, at the end of the day, like that was a very competitive primary and J. Jones was able to pull it out.
05:04.77
Sam Shirazi
So a lot of stuff going on. i did want to talk about two things for November and actually for next year. So for November, the Democratic ticket is set. so you get Abigail Spamberg at the top of the ticket.
05:15.49
Sam Shirazi
You have Ghazal Hashmi in the middle spot. And then you got Jay Jones in the attorney general role. And I think the fact that there is going to be one black person on the ticket,
05:26.99
Sam Shirazi
that will help with turnout of the Black community. And there is also a person from Hampton Roads. So you do see some regional diversity, even though Abigail Spanberger and Ghazal Hashmi are both from the Richmond area.
05:42.68
Sam Shirazi
Jay Jones is also relatively young, certainly for a politician. He is 36 years old and obviously there's been a lot of talk about how the Democratic Party needs to start nominating perhaps more younger candidates and Jay Jones certainly is that and I think will add a little bit of ah youth to the ticket, although even even though Abigail Spanberger, governor nominee, is also relatively young as well for a politician. so I think that's kind an interesting dynamic. I think you'll see an interesting matchup with Lieutenant Governor Winston Mayweather Sears, the Lieutenant Governor candidate for the Republicans, John Reed, and the current Attorney General, Jason Meares. And I think obviously the Republicans also have a diverse ticket. So it's kind of interesting. Both sides have these diverse tickets. They all bring their strengths and it'll be a really interesting general election.
06:29.86
Sam Shirazi
I did want to note one thing that's more online speculation. I frankly don't even know if these people are interested in it. But obviously, Aaron Ross came up short in lieutenant governor's race and Shannon Taylor came up short in the attorney general's race. And happens to be that both of those people live in areas and districts where the Democrats are targeting next year.
06:51.89
Sam Shirazi
with the second congressional district in Hampton Roads, specifically the Virginia Beach area. And then you have the first district, which is Richmond suburbs and goes into the Chesapeake area of Virginia, but that includes Western Henrico, where Shannon Taylor is from. So if either of those people are interested potentially in a congressional run, I do think they both you know obviously came up short, but ran strength, strong campaigns, came up short by just a little bit. And so I think they do have a big name ID, obviously they have a political organization behind them.
07:25.72
Sam Shirazi
And so if they decide to run next year, i think that'll be really interesting to see some of the effects of that. Again, I have no idea if they want to do that. It's very possible they don't run. I don't want to like speculate for them. I'm just saying that's been thrown out there by people online, including you know some national observers of politics and congressional races.
07:45.20
Sam Shirazi
All right. You know, as you can tell, I'm a little bit tired at this point. Election nights are always fun, but they they often go a little bit too long. And it's probably time for me to log off. And, you know, you'll hear this on Wednesday morning. I did want to just kind of give you my initial thoughts. Hopefully they are somewhat coherent. I will try to do one for Saturday morning that is more of a comprehensive look at everything.
08:11.11
Sam Shirazi
probably repeat some of the things I've already said, but also just kind of give some more detail. I did want to go over the House of Delegates because I think there were some important races, both for the battleground districts in November and also some safe seats where the winner is almost certainly going to win the general election. So lot of stuff going on in Virginia.
08:29.23
Sam Shirazi
and think tomorrow when this podcast comes out, this is going to be like the beginning the general election. There's going to strength in November. lot of stuff going on. Really interesting. i I'm glad people are uh, listening to the podcast. I've gotten good pee feedback. hopefully I will continue to be able to do this all the through November and give people my latest updates on what's going on in Virginia.
08:51.37
Sam Shirazi
Really interesting Virginia primary. I think, uh, as the results came in, we were all in suspense for a little bit, trying to figure out who's going to end up on top. And I frankly thought the lieutenant governor's race was going to take a while to call, but it looks like Zahal Hashmi going to be able to pull it out. So anyways, the Virginia elections are always a wild ride. And that's why i made this podcast. There's always something to talk about. It's always super interesting. So I appreciate everyone listening.
09:17.60
Sam Shirazi
This has been Federal Fallout. Please listen to the longer version of the primary recap on Saturday morning and feel free to share this with anyone. this podcast with anyone who's interested in Virginia politics.
09:29.84
Sam Shirazi
But for now, that this is Federal Fallout, and I'll join you next time.
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