Levar Stoney is a candidate for Virginia Lieutenant Governor and is running as a Democrat. His name will appear on the June 17, 2025 ballot. Stoney, a former Richmond City mayor, is running against five other candidates in the primary for Lieutenant Governor.
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10 On Your Side reached out to all of the candidates running in this race, with a request for a bio and a list of questions to answer. If you do not see the candidate listed with a profile, we did not receive one.
Candidate Name: Levar Marcus Stoney
Age: 44
Candidate Website: levarstoney.com
Biography
I was raised in York County by my father and grandmother, Marvin and Mary, and was the first in my family to graduate high school, and then first to graduate college. As the first Black Secretary of the Commonwealth, I helped restore voting rights for almost 200,000 people.
As the youngest elected Mayor in Richmond, I oversaw the transformation of a city that had neglected schools, a broken budget, and crumbling infrastructure and turned it around, from building up schools, to reducing the poverty rate by 33%, to making headway on infrastructure projects, and creating a budget surplus. Richmond is now rated the best place to live in Virginia. I am proud to call Richmond my home, and I live here with my wife Brandy, and my 15-month-old daughter Sunday.
Why are you running for this office?
I’m running for Lieutenant Governor because I see the challenges facing Virginians. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are threatening our ability to function effectively as a country with their indiscriminate cuts to our federal workforce. They are only adding to the challenges with their tariff regime that is simultaneously increasing costs for consumers. In this moment, we need leaders who can stand up for working Virginians and fight back against Donald Trump and his MAGA regime. I am no stranger to tough fights. I stood up to Donald Trump as Mayor during his first administration, and have the scars to prove it from the fight to finally remove every last confederate monument from the Capital of the Confederacy. I won’t back down from standing up for Virginians. And I promise to always fight for you, your family, your livelihood, and your fair shot at success.
Why are you qualified to hold this office?
Mayors are expected to say what they mean and mean what they say. As chief executives, we are not just responsible for today, but for shaping the future. During my eight years as Mayor of Richmond, we reduced poverty by 33%, cut violent crime by 25%, increased school funding by nearly 60%, built three new schools, and removed Richmond’s Confederate monuments – a powerful step toward Richmond becoming a more inclusive and welcoming city. Under my leadership, Richmond was rated the #1 place to live in Virginia by Travel + Leisure Magazine and the best place to visit in the United States by CNN.
Beyond my local executive experience, I served in the Virginia Executive Branch as Secretary of the Commonwealth under Governor Terry McAuliffe, where I helped restore voting rights to over 200,000 disenfranchised Virginians, giving them a voice in their democracy once again.
With this track record, I’m the most experienced candidate in the race for Lieutenant Governor, ready to work alongside Governor Spanberger and the legislature to boldly lead Virginia forward, ensuring every Virginian has a fair shot at success.
What do you believe you can accomplish given you are only given a vote in the result of a tie?
I view the role of Lieutenant Governor as an advocacy role – a voice for all Virginians. I will use this platform to stand up to leaders like Donald Trump, whose efforts to dismantle our government pose a direct threat to Virginia’s economy and way of life. Sadly, the current GOP leadership in our state is complicit in these plans, choosing silence over action while the stakes for Virginia’s working families have never been higher.
As an experienced local executive, I understand the policy and fiscal gaps between state and local government, and I will be a strong voice for local governments, ensuring they have the resources and support needed to deliver for their communities. I will continue to be a strong and loud advocate for children and families, just as I was as Mayor – pushing for better schools, safer communities, and economic policies that make it easier for families to thrive.
And when there are ties in the Senate, I will make voting decisions with those goals in mind, always putting the interests of Virginia’s children, families, and working people first.
How would you vote on a proposal to repeal Virginia’s Right to Work law?
My record is clear when it comes to standing with working people. I believe that everyone deserves a fair shot at success, and the ability to bargain collectively is a critical part of that. Right to Work – or more accurately, Right to Work for Less – is a vestige of the Jim Crow era, designed to weaken the bargaining power of working people and limit their access to the wages and benefits they deserve. It’s been on the books in Virginia since 1947, and it’s time to replace it with something that reflects the needs of a more dynamic, modern economy.
However, I also believe we can be both pro-worker and pro-business. As Mayor of Richmond, I worked closely with businesses and workers to design opportunities that benefited everyone, resulting in rising wages and continued job growth in the city. That’s the kind of balanced, forward-looking leadership we need in our Commonwealth, and that’s what I’ll bring as Lieutenant Governor.
