Levar Stoney enters race for mayor
Andrew Crider, Online News Editor
Former Secretary of the Commonwealth and close ally to Governor Terry McAuliffe, Levar Stoney announced that he would join the race for mayor Tuesday. Stoney will join nearly a dozen other candidates currently seeking to win the November election.
Stoney enters the race as another candidate leaves. The night before, Council member Chris Hilbert announced over twitter that he would be leaving the race.
In a statement Hilbert said, “I have decided that I will be seeking re-election as the City Council Representative of the Northside 3rd District.”
NBC 12 reports that in his campaign announcement, Stoney said he wanted to reform the way city hall functions to help Richmond continue to grow.
“I am running for Mayor of Richmond because our city is on the rise, but we find ourselves at a crossroads,” said Stoney. “We cannot afford to have more of the same in City Hall.”
In his announcement, Stoney promised to make education his number one issue. Education has been a controversy in richmond as at least 6 of Richmond Public Schools are set to be closed resulting from a 18 million dollar budget gap.
“Schools will be my top priority. Money in our schools is money in our pockets. But it isn’t just about economics—it is the right thing to do.”
Stoney was the first African American to be elected as president of student government at James Madison University. Stoney also worked on the Obama campaign in 2008, and as deputy campaign manager for McAuliffe in 2013. Stoney was an executive at GreenTech Automotive, an electric car company owned by McAuliffe.
Online News Editor, Andrew Crider
Andrew is a junior economics major who has written for student newspapers since he was in high school. Andrew is interested in political history, aviation, photography and running. He has a tendency to refer to his peers, coworkers and bosses as “ma’am” or “sir,” but is getting better about referring to his friends at the CT by their first names instead. // Facebook
