2025 Democratic Candidates
2025 Candidates for Office in Virginia
The Democratic primary has already begun for Lt. Governor and Attorney General. Please get out and vote. Some basic candidate information is listed below for each of them.
Use the link to their websites to find out more information about each candidate.
Our goal is to inform people about politics by providing accurate and objective information about politics in our Virginia government.
Key Dates & Deadlines
- May 2 to June 16 – Early voting (Find your polling place here)
- May 27 – Deadline to complete or update your voter registration. (Request a ballot here)
- June 6 – Deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot
Before you go, check your voter registration and find your local registrar’s office for specific dates and hours for early voting.
Abigail Spanberger
Candidate for Governor
AbigailSpanberger.com
Abigail Anne Davis Spanberger is a former intelligence officer who served as the U.S. representative for Virginia’s 7th congressional district from 2019 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, she won reelection in 2020 and 2022. She is the Democratic nominee for governor in the 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election. She will face incumbent lieutenant governor and Republican nominee Winsome Earle-Sears.
In 2006, she joined the Central Intelligence Agency as an operations officer. She said she gathered intelligence about nuclear proliferation and terrorism. In 2014, she left the CIA and entered the private sector. She was hired by Royall & Company (now EAB). In 2017, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe appointed her to the Virginia Fair Housing Board.
Babur Lateef
Candidate Lt. Governor
Lateefforva.com
Babur Lateef is a parent, physician, public servant, and proud product of public schools. He has served the Commonwealth as Chairman of the Prince William County School Board and Chairman of the University of Virginia Health System Board where he has focused on improving education and healthcare across Virginia.
He currently serves as an assistant professor at George Washington University School of Medicine while also pursuing an educational doctorate degree at the University of Virginia.
Ghazala Hashmi
Candidate Lt. Governor
Ghazalaforvirginia.com
Ghazala Firdous Hashmi is an Indian-born American politician and former academic administrator and educator. A Democrat, Hashmi represents the 15th district in the Senate of Virginia. She worked as an educator and academic administrator for 25 years before running for office.
In the 2019 Virginia Senate election, Hashmi won Virginia’s 10th Senate district, defeating incumbent Republican Glen Sturtevant. She is the first woman to represent the district and the first Muslim elected to the Senate of Virginia. In November 2023, she was re-elected to the Senate of Virginia in Senate District 15.
Levar Stoney
Candidate for Lt. Governor
LevarStoney.com
Levar Marcus Stoney has served as the 80th mayor of Richmond, Virginia, from 2017 to 2025.
A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2014 through 2016, being the youngest member of Governor Terry McAuliffe’s administration.
Levar rose through the ranks from Fellow in then-Governor Mark Warner’s office to become the first African American Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the youngest member of Governor Terry McAuliffe’s cabinet. As Secretary, Levar was the driving force behind restoring the voting rights for nearly 200,000 disenfranchised Virginians.
Victor Salgado
Candidate for Lt. Governor
Victorforvirginia.com
Victor is the son of Peruvian immigrants who has dedicated his legal career to protecting our system of government by investigating and prosecuting public corruption and related misconduct at all levels.
Most recently, Victor served as Senior Litigation Counsel in the United States Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, which oversees the investigation and prosecution of all federal crimes affecting government integrity–including bribery of public officials, election crimes, and other related offenses–and prosecutes some of the most sensitive and contentious public corruption cases in the country
Alex Bastani
Candidate Lt. Governor
ProgressiveVirginiansForAlexBastani.com
Alex Bastani is the only candidate in this race fighting for universal healthcare, a $20 minimum wage, and the repeal of Virginia’s so-called “Right to Work” law.
A union leader, labor attorney, and lifelong champion for working people, Alex has spent over 30 years taking on corporate greed and standing up for fair wages, labor rights, and economic justice. Unlike others in this race, he refuses to take corporate PAC money because he believes government should work for the people, not the powerful. Virginia needs a fighter—someone who won’t back down. Alex is that fighter, and he’s running for you.
Jay Jones
Attorney General Candidate
JayJones.com
Jerrauld C. C. “Jay” Jones is an American politician and attorney serving as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the 89th district.
In July 2020, Jones announced his candidacy for attorney general of Virginia in the 2021 election. Jones lost the Democratic primary to incumbent Mark Herring, despite receiving an endorsement from Governor Ralph Northam.
In 2024, Jones announced that he would run for the attorney general position again in 2025.
Jay previously served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, where he was a member of the Office of Consumer Protection. In this role he took on the gun lobby to keep families safe from violent crime, sued corporate special interests to prevent higher grocery prices, and went after big banks and slumlords preying on consumers.
Aaron Rouse
Attorney General Candidate
RouseForVirginia.com
Aaron Roosevelt Rouse is an American politician and former professional football player. A member of the Democratic Party, Rouse represents the 22nd district in the Senate of Virginia. He previously served on the Virginia Beach City Council. Rouse played as a safety in the National Football League (NFL) and United Football League (UFL).
From 2019 to 2022, Rouse represented an at-large seat on the Virginia Beach city council, having been elected in 2018. He won a special election to fill the open seat for Virginia’s 7th Senate district in January 2023.
During his two terms in the Senate, Aaron has delivered, including writing and passing laws to cut taxes for seniors and protect them from financial abuse and exploitation, and putting more money back in people’s pockets with a refundable earned income tax credit.
Shannon Taylor
Attorney General Candidate
ShannonTaylorVA.com
Shannon Taylor, a native of Charlottesville, Virginia, graduated from the University of Virginia in 1989. Her first job after college was as a paralegal at the Richmond-based firm of Hunton & Williams (now Hunton Andrews Kurth), which inspired her to pursue a career in law.
Shannon received her law degree in 1995 from the University of Richmond Law School and began her career as a prosecutor in the Commonwealth’s Attorney Office for the City of Richmond.
Shannon was special counsel for the Richmond Multi-Jurisdictional Grand Jury from 2004 to 2008.
After three years in private practice, Shannon was elected Commonwealth’s Attorney for Henrico County in 2011, the first woman to hold that position in the County’s history. She was re-elected in 2015 and again in 2019, this time winning the entire County.