Election Guide 2025: Spotsylvania County
FXBG Advance is launching our election guides. From candidates to issues to registration to Election Day, these election guides will deliver what you need to know from candidates to final results.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Updated January 10, 2025
Editor’s Note: The slate of elections in 2025 is large, with both local seats and House of Delegate seats on the ballot. This is in addition to state-level races for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. Today, the Advance is launching the region’s first look at the races to come with an examination of the local races in Spotsylvania. We will release previews for Stafford on Friday and Fredericksburg on Monday. These pages will be updated regularly as new information becomes available or is produced. The previews are divided into the following sections:
Overview | Demographics | Key Dates | Office of Elections Updates | Board of Supervisors Race | School Board Race | Local Committees | Voter Information
In the event of errors or omissions, please send a note to the editor.
Overview
Three seats are up on both the Board of Supervisors, currently in the hands of Republicans, and the School Board. The odds that either body will undergo a major ideological shift in this election is low.
Elections in Spotsylvania County this coming November are likely to be less about major power shifts and more about whether current majorities can cement their grips.
There are three House of Delegate races in Spotsylvania. HD 66, HD 65, and HD 63. The Advance will take a closer look at these races next week
Demographics
Spotsylvania’s demographics continue to change rapidly. The Cooper Weldon Center for Public Service rates the county the 10th fastest growing in Virginia since 2020.
Though still a predominantly white county, Spotsylvania’s growth is being driven by its minority groups. From 2010-2022, the Black population has grown 23%, while the Hispanic population has grown 97%.
With this change in population has also come a rise in income inequality. As recorded by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, this inequality surged between 2020 and 2022. Though it has eased some, the 2023 inequality ratio still sits at a level that rates second highest since 2010.
The impact of these shifts is felt particularly in the public school system, where English Learners and a growing number of special education students are straining the system.
It’s also felt in households, where according to United for Alice, the percentage of households living in poverty in Spotsylvania County was 43% in 2022, the last year for which data is available. Before then, the number had been consistently in the mid- to upper-30s.
Key Dates
Primary
June 17, 2025
Election Day
November 4, 2025
Certificate of Candidate Qualifications
Deadline to file is 5 p.m. April 3, 2025, for Primary Candidates for Local Offices
Deadline to file is 7 p.m. June 17, 2025, for nonprimary party and independent candidates
For more detailed information
Virginia Department of Elections Publication How to Run for a Local Office
Office of Elections
The Advance contacted the Spotsylvania Office of Elections to see if any individuals have taken steps toward running for office. In an emailed response received on December 27, 2024, the Office of Elections reported that the following have filed a Statement of Organization:
Todd Rump, Lee Hill School Board
Paul Dotto, Lee Hill School Board
David Goosman, Berkeley Board of Supervisors
Nicole Cole, 66th House of Delegates
In addition, Lawrence DiBella has picked up paperwork to run for the Berkeley School Board.
Board of Supervisors Race
The following seats are not up for election this cycle:
Chancellor - Gerald Childress (R)
Courtland - Andrew Jackson Mullins (R)
Livingston - Jake Lane (R)
Salem - Deborah Hamilton Frazier (I)
The following seats will be contested in November. The Advance has reached out to each candidate to see if they have made a decision about running. Responses, if received, are noted.
Battlefield - Currently held by Chris Yakabouski - R. In a call with the Advance on January 4, 2025, Yakabouski said that he will seek re-election in November.
Berkeley - Currently held by Kevin Marshall - I. Per an email received on January 10, 2025, Marshall will seek re-election in November.
Lee Hill - Currently held by Lori Hayes - I. Per an email received on December 29, Hayes is running for re-election.
School Board Race
The following seats are not up for election this cycle — all School Board members run as independents:
Chancellor - Belen Rodas
Courtland - Carol Medawar
Livingston - Megan Jackson
Salem - Lorita Daniels
The following seats will be contested in November. The Advance has reached out to each candidate to see if they have made a decision about running. Responses, if received, are noted.
Battlefield - Currently held by Nicole Cole. Cole is running for the House of Delegates and will not seek reelection to the School Board.
Berkeley District - Currently held by April Gillespie
Lee Hill - Currently held by Lisa Phelps.
Rich Lieberman has announced his intention to run in the Lee Hill District.
Local Committees
The Advance emailed both the Spotsylvania Democratic and Republican committee chairs for their thoughts on the upcoming elections.
Jeff Kent, chair of the Democratic Committee, spoke with the Advance by phone. Asked why there has been little movement in Spotsylvania among candidates and potential candidates at this early moment in the 2025 elections, while there has been more maneuvering in nearby Fredericksburg and Stafford, Kent pointed both to the affects of last-year’s election and the fact that it’s early in the game.
“This last election cycle was taxing on everyone involved on both sides,” he said. “I don’t know that coming out of the gate in January is going to buy anyone anything at this point.”
As of publication, the Advance had not heard from Republican chair Jordan Lynch.
Voter Information
The go-to guide for any questions related to elections and voting in Spotsylvania County is the Spotsylvania Office of Elections.
To register to vote, update your current Virginia voter registration, apply to vote absentee by mail, or view your polling place, election district, absentee ballot status, and voting history, visit the Virginia Department of Elections.
Related Election Stories — Spotsylvania
ANALYSIS: A Different Vibe for the Coles - January 4, 2024
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
