2023 Election Preview
Engage Louisa is a nonpartisan newsletter that keeps folks informed about Louisa County government. We believe our community is stronger and our government serves us better when we increase transparency, accessibility, and engagement.
Louisa voters head to polls for state, local elections
Virginia voters are heading to the polls this fall for high stakes state legislative elections that will determine which party controls the General Assembly’s two narrowly divided chambers. Voters will also cast ballots in a bevy of local contests, filling seats on boards of supervisors, school boards and other county and municipal offices.
In Louisa, residents will choose our representatives in the House of Delegates and state Senate with all 140 state legislative seats up for grabs in newly drawn districts.
At the local level, 11 county offices are on the ballot including all five constitutional offices—clerk of court, commonwealth’s attorney, sheriff, treasurer and commissioner of the revenue—and three seats on the Louisa County Board of Supervisors and School Board (Cuckoo, Jackson and Louisa Districts).
Beyond those races, voters in the Town of Mineral will have a special election to fill one of six seats on Town Council and residents county-wide will choose Louisa’s two representatives on the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District’s board of directors.
While there are plenty of races this fall, only a few feature more than one candidate. There are multiple names on the ballot in three of four state legislative contests and, in the fourth, a candidate is running a write-in campaign. But, in local contests, only the Louisa District Board of Supervisors and the Jackson District School Board races are contested.
Check out our Election Preview below for a full rundown of which offices are on the ballot, who’s seeking them and other pertinent voter information.
At Engage Louisa, we work hard to provide fair and nonpartisan coverage of local government and politics. While we try not to take sides, on this we’ll be clear, our democracy depends on engaged and informed citizens. So please read on and vote on or before November 7.
The General Assembly
All 140 seats in Virginia’s General Assembly—40 in the state Senate and 100 in the House of Delegates—are up for grabs in 2023 in newly drawn districts reshaped by the once-a-decade redistricting process. Maps approved by the Virginia Supreme Court in late 2021 place most of Louisa County in the 10th Senate District. The rest of Louisa—the Patrick Henry 1, Green Springs 1 and 2, and Louisa 3 precincts—are in the 11th District. The county is split along the same lines for House districts with most voters in the 59th District and the county’s western end drawn into the 55th.
Read more about how redistricting impacted Louisa County:
New General Assembly, congressional maps approved, January 2, 2022
Virginia state Senate, District 10
The new 10th state Senate District covers solidly Republican terrain including most of Louisa County and western Hanover at its northern edge. The district stretches south across eight other mostly rural localities: Fluvanna, Goochland, Buckingham, Amelia, Powhatan, Cumberland, Appomattox and part of Prince Edward.
Governor Glenn Youngkin won the district by 36 points in 2021 en route to becoming the first Republican to win the governor’s office in more than a decade. Republican congressional candidates claimed more than 65 percent of the vote in last year’s midterm elections.
The 10th District race features only one candidate on the ballot, Republican John McGuire. McGuire’s Democratic challenger, Louisa County resident Dan Tomlinson, is running as a write-in candidate.
John McGuire (R): McGuire, a fitness instructor and former Navy SEAL, is a familiar face to many Louisa voters, representing the county in the House of Delegates since 2018. In early May, he beat three other contenders in a hard-fought Republican convention to claim his party’s nomination in a district that was left without an incumbent following the 2021 redistricting process.
With only a write-in candidate challenging him in this ruby red district, McGuire has spent much of his campaign stumping for other state legislative candidates and, in some instances, Republicans running for down ballot offices. He skipped the Louisa County Chamber of Commerce’s candidates’ forum in early October but made a brief appearance at a forum hosted by the Blue Ridge Shores community in late September.
At that event, McGuire touted his work with Delegate Buddy Fowler, whose running to represent the 59th House of Delegates District, to secure $1 million in the state budget to fight Harmful Algal Blooms at Lake Anna. The blooms have prompted the Virginia Department of Health to issue no swim advisories for parts of the lake in each of the last six summers. Marshaling state resources to address the issue is one of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors’ top legislative priorities.
During his tenure in the legislature, McGuire has focused heavily on veterans’ issues and often highlights his own military service. In 2022, he helped pass legislation that exempts veterans over 55 from paying taxes on a portion of their retirement benefits. The law was amended this year to remove the age restriction.
A popular figure on his party’s hard right, McGuire has also amplified issues that play well with the Republican base. He’s questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election and attended a rally-turned-riot in Washington on January 6, 2021, where protesters stormed the Capitol as Congress prepared to certify the election results. McGuire has said he didn’t enter the building.
As a member of the House Privileges and Elections committee, McGuire carried legislation last session to ban the use of absentee ballot drop boxes, arguing that they make elections less secure. The bill passed the Republican-controlled House but died in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Dan Tomlinson (D): Tomlinson, also a military veteran, claimed the Democratic nomination in May after another candidate dropped out. But he missed a deadline to file key paperwork to get his name on the ballot and the State Board of Elections declined at act on his request for an extension. Tomlinson opted to continue his campaign as a write-in candidate.
Born and raised in California, Tomlinson enlisted in the Army after high school and served in Vietnam. After that, he spent much of his career handling federal government contracts before retiring to Lake Anna three years ago. The race marks his first bid for elected office.
Tomlinson has run a relatively low-key campaign, occasionally appearing at community events including a forum hosted by the Chamber of Commerce in early October. At that event, he expressed staunch opposition to school voucher programs, which McGuire has supported, arguing that they siphon critical funding from public schools and mainly benefit affluent families. The programs typically allow parents to use taxpayer dollars to send their children to private schools.
Tomlinson has challenged McGuire on other issues, namely abortion rights. Since announcing his candidacy, he’s focused heavily on Virginia Republicans’ efforts to roll back access to abortion in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade, a 50-year court precedent that federally protected the right to an abortion. McGuire is a strong opponent of abortion, frequently touting his 100 percent rating from the anti-abortion Family Foundation.
“I cannot imagine a more difficult decision that a woman or young girl must face than the decision on whether or not to have an abortion. I believe that this decision should be between her and her doctor and NOBODY ELSE,” Tomlinson said in an email to Engage Louisa just after launching his candidacy (emphasis his).
Read more:
McGuire wins Republican nomination in SD10, May 7, 2023
Louisa resident to run against McGuire in SD10, May 21, 2023
Missed filing deadline leaves Democrat off ballot in SD10, July 9, 2023
Virginia state Senate, District 11
Voters in the western end of Louisa have two candidates to choose from in the Democrat-friendly 11th state Senate District: Democrat Creigh Deeds and Republican Philip Hamilton. Besides a slice of Louisa, the district includes the City of Charlottesville, and Albemarle, Nelson and Amherst counties.
Democrat Terry McAuliffe won the 11th by about 18 points in his failed bid for governor in 2021 while Democrat Josh Throneburg won support from more than 62 percent of the district’s voters in his loss to Republican Bob Good in last year’s 5th District congressional race.
Creigh Deeds (D): An attorney and 22-year veteran of the Senate, Deeds edged out Del. Sally Hudson in a hotly contested Democratic primary to earn the right to represent his party this fall. He’s a heavy favorite to win the solid blue 11th and return to the Senate where he’ll wield significant power as one of chamber’s most senior members if Democrats retain their majority.
At the Chamber of Commerce forum, Deeds touted his experience and seniority as reasons voters should back him. He noted that he’s a member of the Senate Finance and Appropriation committee, which plays a key role in writing the state budget, and gave a nod to the late Del. V. Earl Dickinson, a powerful Democrat from Louisa County who rose to chair the House Appropriations committee in the mid-1990s. Deeds, who was elected to the House in 1993 as a rural Democrat, called Dickinson “one of (his) mentors.”
During the forum, Deeds expressed strong support for public schools, calling public education “the backbone of a civil society.” He praised Louisa County Public Schools and said that the General Assembly needs to do its part to support local school divisions, mainly by increasing state funding.
“There was a (Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission) study that was released about four weeks ago that said that the General Assembly has underfunded public education to the tune of about $1,900 a student statewide. What that means is you pay the difference, you pay the difference in your property taxes…(the state has) to do a better job of carrying our share,” Deeds said.
In other campaign outreach, Deeds has highlighted his commitment to protecting abortion rights, enacting gun safety laws—he touts his F-rating from the National Rifle Association—and reforming what he terms “our broken mental health system.”
On the latter issue, Deeds, who lost his son to mental illness, emphasizes his role in successful efforts to implement and expand the use of mobile crisis services and ramp up investments in the mental health care system to attract new mental health professionals and increase hospital bed capacity for those in need of care.
Philip Hamilton (R): Hamilton is a paralegal who runs a legal services business. The Albemarle County resident ran for House of Delegates two years ago, losing to Democrat Sally Hudson in a solid blue district.
At the Chamber forum, Hamilton said that, as a Republican, he believes in parents’ “fundamental right to rear their child” and “school choice.” He pointed to Florida’s school voucher program as something he’d like to see in Virginia, contending that voucher programs open doors to educational opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach. The programs typically allow parents to use public money to send their children to private schools by offering taxpayer-funded vouchers that cover a portion of tuition.
“I think school choice is fundamental to increase competition between private schools and public schools,” Hamilton said. “The reason why I bring this up is because, in Albemarle County, we have a bus driver shortage and it’s so bad that Matthew Haas, the superintendent, is driving students to school. Now, if we already had school choice, I think parents would have pulled their kids out of public school and put them in private school until they fixed this problem.”
On his campaign website, Hamilton says that he’s concerned about “indoctrination” in public schools, particularly the teaching of critical race theory, a graduate-level framework that focuses on systemic racism and isn’t included in Virginia’s K-12 curriculum. Opposition to CRT has become a rallying cry among grassroots activists on the right, gaining some traction during Governor Glenn Youngkin’s successful gubernatorial bid in 2021.
Also on his website, Hamilton touts his support for both law enforcement and local militias, term limits and campaign finance reform. On campaign finance reform, he says he supports a constitutional amendment barring for-profit companies from donating more than $25,000 to a candidate. Under current law, Virginia sets no limits on campaign contributions. On terms limits, Hamilton supports capping the amount of time local, state and federal officials can serve in elected office.
Read more:
Deeds, Laufer prevail in SD11, HD55, June 25, 2023
Virginia House of Delegates, District 55
Two candidates are squaring off for the right to represent the Democrat-friendly 55th House District, which includes most of Albemarle County and a slice of western Louisa and northern Nelson. McAuliffe won the district by almost 12 points in 2021 while Throneburg beat Good by more than 18 points last year.
Amy Laufer (D): Laufer is a former teacher who was twice elected to the Charlottesville School Board. The race marks her second run for state office. In 2019, she narrowly lost a bid for Senate to incumbent Republican Bryce Reeves in a red-leaning district that included most of Louisa County.
At the Chamber forum, Laufer said that as a mother of three and a former teacher and school board member, she’s committed to ensuring that all students have access to a quality public education. She said that it’s important to prepare students for jobs after graduation through robust workforce development and, in the case of students with disabilities and those who face other challenges, she suggested that schools provide opportunities for extra help and connect parents to available resources. To meet all students’ needs, Laufer said that the General Assembly must properly fund public schools, but it’s currently falling short.
In other campaign outreach, Laufer has focused on traditional Democratic priorities like protecting abortion rights, enacting gun safety laws, safeguarding access to the ballot box and addressing climate change.
On the latter issue, Laufer frequently references her childhood on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and a previous job as a water chemist, linking those experiences to the need to address a warming planet and protect natural resources.
“We need to preserve land for clean air and water. We need to invest in green infrastructure and renewable energy, while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. That includes our continued opposition to oil and gas pipelines that harm our land and direct resources away from green energy,” Laufer says on her website.
Steve Harvey (R): Harvey jumped in the 55th District race in mid-June after another Republican dropped out. The former Army pilot lost a bid for the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors in 2019.
Harvey skipped the Chamber forum but participated in a a forum hosted by the Spring Creek community in late September.
On his campaign website, Harvey focuses on several prominent Republican concerns. He advocates for defending Second Amendment rights and questions the prudence of gun-free zones. And he claims that “cheating in Virginia’s elections has never been easier,” criticizing a law that removed the state’s photo ID requirement and legislation that allows people to register to vote on Election Day. There haven’t been any substantiated reports of widespread voter fraud in Virginia since either law took effect.
On energy issues, Harvey agrees with Laufer on the importance of building a clean power grid. He hails nuclear power as a key part of efforts to lower carbon emissions, echoing other Republicans who are betting on technological advances in nuclear energy—like the development of small modular nuclear reactors—to meet the state’s burgeoning demand for power.
“The lifeblood of any economy is power. The cleaner and more cost efficient the better! Nuclear power has been overlooked for decades due to bad publicity and poor salesmanship,” Harvey’s website states.
Read more:
Deeds, Laufer prevail in SD11, HD55, June 25, 2023
Virginia House of Delegates, District 59
Two Hanover County residents—Republican Buddy Fowler and Democrat Rachel Levy—are vying for the right to represent the Republican-friendly 59th House District. The district includes most of Louisa, western Hanover and a chunk of northwestern Henrico. Youngkin won the district by more than 33 points in 2021 while Republican congressional candidates outpaced Democrats by 17 points in last year’s midterm elections.
Fowler and Levy are meeting in a rematch of sorts. The pair faced off in the old 55th House District two years ago with Fowler winning with more than 63 percent of the vote in a strong Republican district that included parts of Hanover, Caroline and Spotsylvania counties.
Buddy Fowler (R): Fowler, who won a three-man Republican primary in June, is vying for his sixth term in the legislature’s lower chamber. Prior to becoming a delegate, the Hanover resident worked as a legislative aide in Richmond.
Fowler skipped both the Chamber and Blue Ridge Shores forums. When he visits Louisa, he frequently campaigns alongside McGuire, his political ally who endorsed him in the primary.
At a forum hosted by the Louisa County Tea Party during his primary campaign, Fowler touted his seniority in the legislature and his position as vice chair of the House Finance Committee. He pointed to the $4 billion in tax cuts included in the 2022-24 state budget as evidence that he’s working to cut costs for Virginia families.
Fowler has also highlighted his work to secure funding to fight Harmful Algal Blooms at Lake Anna—an amendment to the biennial state budget provides $1 million to the Department of Conservation and Recreation for immediate mitigation efforts—and legislation he passed to improve transparency in the pricing of prescription drugs.
In other campaign outreach, Fowler has championed bedrock conservative positions. He’s pledged to “always stand for life” and expressed ardent support for the Second Amendment, pushing to enact “constitutional carry” in Virginia—legislation that would allow residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit—and to repeal the state’s “red flag” law. Enacted when Democrats had full control in Capitol Square, the law allows courts to temporarily take firearms away from individuals who are deemed a threat to themselves or others.
Rachel Levy (D): Levy is a community activist and former teacher who holds a doctorate in educational leadership and policy from Virginia Commonwealth University. She and her family live in Ashland.
Throughout her campaign, Levy has said that, though she’s a Democrat, she’s running to represent everyone regardless of how or if they vote.
“Every citizen, even if they are not eligible to vote, deserves competent, hardworking, responsive representation. Every citizen deserves to be treated with dignity and respect no matter who they are or how they vote,” Levy said at the Blue Ridge Shores forum.
As a former public school teacher, Levy has made fully funding public schools a central message in her campaign. She has also expressed support for protecting abortion rights, enacting laws that, as she puts it on her website, “support responsible gun owners while keeping our communities and children safe from gun violence” and balancing the need for affordable housing with land conservation and responsible development.
Levy has criticized Fowler for what she characterizes as his friendly relationship with developers and corporate interests. In a Facebook ad, her campaign warns that Fowler would “Short Pump our rural communities,” a reference to the sprawling development in far western Henrico. The ad also accuses Fowler of being “bought and sold by Big Business, Developers and Dominion.”
The latter accusation echoes criticism leveled against Fowler during the Republican primary when Louisa Attorney Graven Craig, one of his two opponents, highlighted the thousands of dollars in campaign contributions Fowler has received from Dominion Energy and industry lobbyists.
In response to a question at the Chamber forum about Amazon Web Services planned $11 billion investment in Louisa County to build two data center campuses, Levy encouraged residents to get involved to ensure that local officials are “getting the best deal possible for Louisa.”
“Don’t focus on getting the best deal possible for Amazon. Focus on getting the best deal possible for Louisa for what you are going to be giving up,” she said. “I’m not saying it’s not worth it, but be very mindful because once it goes up, once it’s there and once you’ve signed on the dotted line, you can’t go back and change that.”
Read more:
Fowler wins Republican nomination in HD59, June 25, 2023
Local offices
Louisa County’s redistricting process reshaped local voting districts, meaning some residents will vote in new Board of Supervisor/School Board districts this fall. Here’s a look at this year’s local races.
Read more about how redistricting impacted local voting districts and precincts:
Supes approve new voting districts, April 10, 2022
Supervisors adopt new voting precincts, April 24, 2022
Louisa County Board of Supervisors, Louisa District
In one of only two contested local races, three men are running for the Louisa District seat on the Board of Supervisors: Republican Chris Colsey and Independents Greg Jones and Manning Woodward. Eric Purcell (I), who currently represents the district, announced in March that he wouldn’t seek re-election.
Chris Colsey (R): Colsey, a public school teacher and adjunct college professor, is a relative newcomer to Louisa County—he’s lived in Blue Ridge Shores full-time for about three years—but has extensive experience in local government. He briefly worked as a legislative aide to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors and served in both elected and appointed positions in municipal government in New York.
Colsey has made opposition to utility-scale solar development a key component of his campaign, calling for a moratorium on the board’s consideration of large-scale solar projects and sharply criticizing Woodward, currently the Louisa District representative on the Louisa County Planning Commission, for recommending approval of a handful of solar facilities.
Throughout his campaign, Colsey has emphasized his commitment to keeping Louisa rural by controlling residential growth. When he claimed the Republican nomination in May, he said that he’s lived in communities that have experienced unbridled residential development and he doesn’t want to see that in Louisa.
“I’ve lived in areas where one day the farmers are growing corn, and the next day they are growing condominiums. We can’t turn that around. We need to control the growth. Now, do we have room for commercial growth? Absolutely. But we want to make sure we aren’t growing condominiums here,” he said.
Colsey has said that he supports Amazon Web Services’ plan to build two data center campuses in the county. In a letter to the editor in The Central Virginian, he said that the project would “help offset the residential tax burden and contribute to much needed infrastructure improvements.”
Colsey has repeatedly emphasized the importance of reining in taxes on residents, a hot button issue during this year’s budget process as real estate tax assessments soared about 14 percent county-wide. In campaign outreach, he’s suggested that he’d focus on funding essential services and cutting wasteful spending in an effort to control the county budget.
Greg Jones (I): A Louisa County native, Jones is a small business owner and pastor who formerly served as president of the Louisa branch of the NAACP. He was a member of the Louisa County Planning Commission from 2017 to 2020 and, in 2007, lost a bid for Board of Supervisors by just 15 votes.
If elected, Jones would be the first African American to represent the Louisa District and only the fourth to serve on the Board of Supervisors. Patrick Henry District Supervisor Fitzgerald Barnes is currently the board’s only Black member.
Throughout his campaign, Jones has touted his deep ties to the community and long record of community service, noting that he’s a long-time leader in the NAACP, a member of Louisa County Public Schools’ Safe Schools Task Force and parent-community advisory committee and chair of Community Strong, a panel of local leaders that works to foster positive relationships between the community and law enforcement. After a Minneapolis police officer killed an unarmed Black man in 2020 sparking nationwide protests against police brutality, the group led a successful effort to equip all Louisa County sheriff’s deputies with body cameras.
At the Chamber and Blue Ridge Shores forums, Jones emphasized the importance of supporting law enforcement, first responders and local schools. He has cautioned against slashing the real estate tax rate, which some residents pushed for during last spring’s budget process, noting that it provides critical funding for county government.
“If you were to decrease the (real estate tax rate) by one penny, it would take away $961,000,” Jones said at the Blue Ridge Shores forum. “If you cut the rate, how are you now going to expand your EMS? How are you now going to keep your school system in the top tier in the country? How are you going to now hire the best people for your EMS, your teachers, law enforcement?”
The Board of Supervisors is tasked with approving the county’s annual budget and setting local tax rates. This fiscal year, about 75 percent of the $148 million appropriated for daily operations went to schools and public safety.
Manning Woodward (I): Woodward was born and raised in Louisa County and has represented the Louisa District on the Planning Commission since 2020. Now retired, he spent much of his career running his family business, Woodward Insurance Company. He’s also been active in Louisa Little League, the Louisa County Chamber of Commerce and other community organizations.
During two candidates’ forums, Woodward has emphasized the importance of keeping taxes low, supporting targeted economic development, and investing in local infrastructure including improving the county’s roads. He suggested at the Chamber forum that the Board of Supervisors could channel some of the revenue the county is expected to receive from planned data center development to fund a portion of large-scale road improvement projects. By offering some local funds, he said, the county could improve the projects’ chances of being selected for state funding.
Woodward is the only candidate in the race to voice support for the county rejoining FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, which provides flood insurance to property owners and renters at a lower rate than what’s typically available outside the program.
Louisa County was suspended from the program in 2016 after the Board of Supervisors declined to adopt amendments to the county’s floodplain ordinance required for participation. Supervisors cited concerns about inaccurate floodplain maps and federal government overreach. According to FEMA’s website, Louisa is the only county in Virginia that doesn’t participate in the program.
Some residents in the Tanyard subdivision where Woodward resides have urged the board to rejoin the program, citing problems with flooding in their neighborhood and their inability to afford private insurance. The county’s suspension from the program also hampered the Blue Ridge Shores community’s effort to obtain a federal grant for dam improvements. The improvements are being privately funded.
At the Blue Ridge Shores forum, Woodard said supervisors should begin the NFIP reinstatement process. Colsey said he doesn’t support rejoining the program, suggesting that it would require some residents to adhere to costly federal regulations. Jones said that county officials should gather more information before deciding.
Read more:
Purcell won't seek re-election to Louisa District BOS seat, March 19, 2023
Colsey announces bid for Louisa District BOS seat, May 7, 2023
Republicans nominate Colsey, Williams for Louisa, Jackson BOS seats, May 14, 2023
Jones, Woodward join Colsey in Louisa District BOS race, June 4, 2023
Republicans ramp up attacks in Louisa District supervisor race, Oct. 8, 2023
Louisa County Board of Supervisors, Cuckoo District
Christopher McCotter (R): McCotter is the lone candidate vying to represent the Cuckoo District on the Board of Supervisors. The district’s current representative, five-term incumbent Willie Gentry (I), announced in March that he wouldn’t seek re-election.
McCotter is a Lake Anna resident who, along with his wife Chrissie, publishes Lake Anna Life and Times newspaper and owns Lake Anna Outfitters. While he’s a newcomer to electoral politics, McCotter’s no stranger to local activism and public service. He’s a founding member of the Lake Anna Civic Association and the Lake Anna Business Partnership and chairs the Lake Anna Advisory Committee, an inter-jurisdictional panel that advises local government in Louisa, Spotsylvania and Orange counties about issues related to the lake.
Read more:
Gentry won't seek re-election to Cuckoo seat; McCotter launches bid for Cuckoo seat, February 19, 2023
Louisa County Board of Supervisors, Jackson District
R.T. “Toni” Williams (R): Williams, a two-term incumbent, is running unopposed for the Jackson District seat after easily beating challengers in his previous campaigns. A small business owner and farmer, Williams and his family have lived in Louisa since 1990.
Read more:
Louisa County School Board, Jackson District
Two men are vying for the right to represent the Jackson District on the School Board. The district’s current representative, Frances Goodman, opted not to seek re-election.
Bernie Hill (I): Hill spent much of his career working in technology for various state agencies. He and his wife, Wanda, a retired teacher, have lived in Louisa County for about 50 years. Their children attended Louisa schools and several grandchildren are currently enrolled.
The race marks Hill’s second run for local office. In 2019, he lost to incumbent Republican Toni Williams in a bid for the Jackson District Board of Supervisors seat.
When launching his candidacy in May, Hill told Engage Louisa that his top priorities are school safety and ensuring “equal opportunities for a high-quality education for all students.” He added that he wants to be a “conservative voice for students, parents, teachers, and the community,” noting that he agrees with Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s “position on parental rights and the rejection of Critical Race Theory (CRT).”
At the Chamber’s forum, Hill pointed to growing enrollment as one of the key challenges facing the school division, noting that the county is preparing to build a Career and Technical Education Center and a 550-seat addition to Louisa County Middle School. The addition, which is expected to cost about $26 million, will enable the school to accommodate about 1700 students.
The expansion plan initially met pushback from a few county officials including Patrick Henry District Supervisor Fitzgerald Barnes and Patrick Henry Planning Commissioner Ellis Quarles who voiced concerns that expanding the school—as opposed to building a new one—could limit students’ opportunity to participate in some academic programs and extracurricular activities. Hill said that he supports the division’s plan.
A.H. McClendon (I): McClendon, who has lived in Louisa County for about 17 years, is making his first run for local office. He spent 28 years in the Marine Corps before retiring and taking a civilian position at Quantico. While he doesn’t currently have any children enrolled in local schools, McClendon said that his daughter is an LCPS alumna.
In a brief interview with Engage Louisa just prior to the Chamber forum, McClendon said that he was recruiting school board candidates for the open Jackson District seat when people started asking him to run. Eventually, he decided to get in the race.
If elected, McClendon would be the board’s only Black member. Though about 30 percent of Louisa County students are nonwhite, the board hasn’t had a minority member since 2015. When asked if he thinks it’s important to increase racial diversity on the board, McClendon said that he thinks “a lot of other people think it’s important to have diversity on the school board,” but he thinks “it’s just good to have good leaders.”
During the forum, McClendon said that the biggest challenge facing the school division is “maintaining the standards that we’ve already obtained.”
“Throughout the state and the country, Louisa County has a reputation for academic excellence,” McClendon said, adding that he wants to make sure that “we do no damage, do no harm.”
Read more:
Hill to seek Jackson District School Board seat, May 21, 2023
Louisa County School Board, Cuckoo District
Stephen Harris (I): A longtime attorney, Harris is seeking his fifth term on the School Board. First elected in 2007, he’s never faced opposition for his seat.
Louisa County School Board, Louisa District
Billy Seay (I): Seay, a Louisa native who runs Seay Furniture and Antiques, was first elected to the School Board in 2007. He only faced opposition in his initial campaign.
Louisa County Sheriff
Donald Lowe (R): A 30-plus year veteran of the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office, Lowe won the job of top cop four years ago after longtime Sheriff Ashland Fortune announced his retirement. Lowe easily defeated one other candidate in the general election last time around and, this year, beat back an aggressive challenge from fellow Republican Tim Sansone to claim his party’s nomination in May.
Read more:
Lowe wins Republican nomination for sheriff, May 14, 2023
Louisa County Commonwealth’s Attorney
Rusty McGuire (R): McGuire, the brother of state Delegate and 10th District Senate candidate John McGuire, will seek his fourth term as Commonwealth’s Attorney. He’s never faced opposition for the job.
Louisa County Commissioner of the Revenue
Stacey Fletcher (I): A longtime employee of the commissioner’s office, Fletcher won a three-person race four years ago following Nancy Pleasants’ retirement. No one stepped up to challenger her this year.
Louisa County Treasurer
Henry Wash (I): Wash outpaced a six-person field to win the treasurer’s job in 2011 following the retirement of Gloria Layne. Since winning that race, he hasn’t faced opposition for the position.
Louisa County Clerk of Court
Patty Madison (I): Prompted by the retirement of longtime clerk Susan Hopkins, Madison ran unopposed for the position in a special election in 2017. A veteran employee of the clerk’s office, Madison is unopposed again this year, this time for an eight-year term. Virginia’s clerks of court are the only elected county official to serve eight-year terms instead of the standard four-year stint.
Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District board of directors
A pair of candidates are vying to fill Louisa County’s two seats on the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District’s board of directors. Both currently serve on the body.
Steve Lucas (I): Lucas, currently the board’s vice chair, was first elected in 2019. He and his wife, Margaret, operate Mountain View Farm, a cow/calf and timber operation in western Louisa County. Lucas received a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Virginia Tech and has worked in the natural resource conservation field for over 40 years.
Carolyn Daughters (I): Daughters, a retired accountant and life-long equestrian, was appointed to the board in December 2020 following the death of Pat Willis. She holds a bachelor’s degree from William and Mary and a master’s degree from George Washington University and currently serves as the board’s secretary.
Mineral Town Council
Voters in the Town of Mineral will have a special election to fill a seat on their six-member Town Council. Only one candidate has filed to run for the seat.
Michelle Covert (I): Covert was appointed to fill a council seat on an interim basis in June after the death of Anthony Wade. She lost a previous bid for council in 2019 to former Council Member Ed Kube.
Voter Information
Election Day
Tuesday, November 7, 2023. Vote at your precinct’s polling location, 6 am to 7 pm.
Find your polling location here.
Click here for Virginia’s voter ID requirements.
Early Voting
The 45-day early voting period began on Friday, Sept. 22 and runs through Saturday, November 4.
Office of Elections, 103 McDonald Street, Louisa
Monday thru Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm
Saturdays: October 28 and November 4, 9 am to 5 pm.
Late evenings: Wednesday, October 25 and November 1, 8:30 am to 7 pm.
Note: Saturday, November 4 is the last day for in-person early voting.
Vote by mail
Request an absentee ballot by Friday, October 27 at 5 pm. Contact the Louisa County Registrar for an application or click here.
Absentee ballots can be returned by mail or dropped in a secure drop box at the Louisa County Office of Elections, 103 McDonald Street, Louisa.
Note: Early and absentee voting are open to all Virginia voters.
Sample Ballots
Click here to check out a sample ballot for your precinct.
Voter Registration
The deadline to register to vote by regular ballot in the November 7 General Election was October 16. However, Virginia has same day voter registration including on Election Day. Voters who register to vote after the Oct. 16 deadline and vote the same day will cast a provisional ballot. Click here to learn more.
Questions about voting? Call the Louisa County Registrar at 540-967-3427 or click here.