At least it sure seems that way. When a well known Democratic political activist found out there was not a Democrat running for Sheriff in Virginia Beach, the largest city in Virginia, he set out to find a candidate. 24 hours later he had one, Amber Phelps.
10 days before the deadline for filing, Amber Phelps met 2 of the VA Beach Democratic party vice chairs at a political event. The paperwork has been filed; all Phelps needs now is for the committee to approve so she can run as a Democrat.
At this time that seems like it’s not going to happen though, and I can’t figure out why. There are a lot of rules about running, filing, etc. and the party isn’t following their own rules.
Since the Republican Sheriff of Virginia Beach, Rocky Holcomb, is cooperating with ICE, I would think they would want to elect a sheriff that won’t cooperate with Trumps politically motivated, xenophobic game plan. And yet, the Democratic committee of Virgnia Beach is choosing not to compete. WTF!? Apparently, they can’t get it together in time?
It was suggested to Phelps by the Va. Beach chair that she could run as an Independent. The problem with that is that Amber Phelps is not an independent, she's a Democrat.
There are dozens of sheriff’s races in 2025, including 28 in Virginia, with hundreds more nationwide next year. But before immigrant rights activists can organize around these races, they need actual candidates to be running for office—and that’s been a challenge.
In Virginia Beach, the state’s most populous city, which also voted for Harris in November, the Republican sheriff is running unopposed.
Local Democrats could technically still hold a special caucus vote to nominate a candidate until June 17. boltsmag.org/...
So, we have until Tuesday June 17th at 5pm. Let’s light a fire under these guys and urge them to run the Democrat who is ready and waiting.
Contact these folks
At the state level vademocrats.org/...:
Chair — Lamont Bagby — chair@vademocrats.org
Political Director — Emily Hamm hamm@vademocrats.org
DPVA Communications Director-Kelsey Carolan-kelsey@vademocrats.org
At the local level vbdemocrats.org/...
Chair — Sean Monteiro
Vice Chair of Operations Jamal Gunn
Vice Chair of Precincts & Elections
Susan Loesberg
ViceChairPrecincts@VBDemocrats.org
We really just want to help these folks in Virginia do the right this and I think this Virginia musician would agree.
