Albemarle County school board candidates Chuck Pace (left) and Jim Dillenbeck (right). Supplied photos.
It’s election season, and presidential candidates aren’t the only ones vying for your vote. From the federal to the local level, here are some of the other candidates Charlottesville-area voters will see on their ballots.
Federal
In addition to selecting a U.S. senator (see pg. 10), Virginians will elect their next batch of congressional representatives.
Following redistricting in 2022, area residents will vote in either the 5th (Charlottesville, Nelson, Fluvanna, and most of Albemarle) or 7th (Greene, Orange, a portion of northern Albemarle) district races. In the 5th, John McGuire (R) and Gloria Witt (D) are running to replace incumbent Bob Good, who was knocked out of the race in the June Republican primary. With Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s decision to run in the 2025 gubernatorial election, either Derrick Anderson (R) or Eugene Vindman (D) will be elected the next representative of VA-7.
State
Across the commonwealth, voters will also weigh in on an amendment to Virginia’s property tax exemption for veterans and surviving spouses. The proposed amendment would change language in the state constitution from “killed in action” to “died in the line of duty.” Changing the wording would extend the current tax exemption to all surviving spouses of soldiers who died in the line of duty, including those killed in action who are already eligible.
Local
Albemarle County
In Albemarle County’s Rio Magisterial District, ballots will be cast in a special election for either Jim Dillenbeck or Chuck Pace to serve the remaining year of now-Del. Katrina Callsen’s term on the board. Pace was appointed to the position by the school board last year, and is seeking formal election to the body.
Scottsville
Albemarle and Fluvanna residents in the Town of Scottsville will cast their ballots in mayoral and Town Council elections. Current Scottsville Mayor Ronald Smith is seeking reelection, with Vice Mayor Edward Payne also tossing his hat in the ring. This year’s election is abnormal as there are three seats open on the Scottsville Town Council, but only one candidate on the ballot—current council member Alex Bessette.
Outside of Scottsville, Fluvanna County has no local races on the ballot this year.
Nelson
In Nelson County, Neely Hull is the sole candidate in the special election for treasurer.
Greene
A special election for treasurer is also on the ballot in Greene County, with Dawn Marshall the lone candidate.
In the Stanardsville District, voters will elect a Board of Supervisors member, with Stephen Catalano the only non-write-in candidate. In Stanardsville proper, there is a special election for a Town Council term expiring at the end of 2026.
Orange
In Gordonsville, residents are voting in several local races, with the mayorship and two seats on Town Council up for grabs. Town Councilor Ron Brooks III is the only candidate for mayor, with current Vice Mayor Emily Winkey, planning commission member Stevean Irving II, and Mary “Cyd” Black running for council.
The Town of Orange also has two Town Council seats on the ballot. Four newcomers are running for the positions: James Cluff, JL “Jeff” Crane, Delmer Seal Jr., and Rita Carroll.
For more information on local elections or to view sample ballots, visit elections.virginia.gov or your respective city or county website.
Candidates Tim Kaine (left) and Hung Cao (right). Supplied photos.
Virginia is one of 33 states with a U.S. Senate seat up for grabs this November. Two-term incumbent Tim Kaine (D) faces a challenge from former navy Captain Hung Cao (R). In the lead-up to Election Day, C-VILLE reached out to both candidates via email.
C-VILLE: What are your top priorities if elected to the Senate?
Tim Kaine: The economy, affordable housing, and health care are issues I hear about all across Virginia.
I’ve proudly helped pass legislation to create good-paying manufacturing jobs, supercharge the green energy sector, and rebuild our infrastructure, but we must do more. Our American Rescue Plan ushered the strongest jobs recovery on record and expanded the child tax credit. … I’m working to bring that tax cut back and make it permanent. To grow our economy, we must also pass a comprehensive immigration reform package to both secure our border and enable companies to hire more skilled workers.
In 2017, I cast a deciding vote to preserve the Affordable Care Act, protecting the health care coverage of 1.3 million Virginians with pre-existing conditions. In 2022, I helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act to slash prescription drug costs. In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, I have introduced the only bipartisan bill in Congress that would guarantee all women the freedom to make their own reproductive choices.
I have spent my entire career, including 17 years as a fair housing attorney, fighting for fair housing and working to lower housing costs in Virginia. My LIFT [Low-Income First-Time Homebuyers] Act would help first-time, first-generation homebuyers accelerate wealth-building through homeownership. We need to get this passed and signed into law.
Hung Cao: Securing our open border. In fact, everything that’s going wrong in our country right now stems from our wide-open southern border, and Virginians across the commonwealth know it. … Our wide-open southern border is a huge national security threat.
How does your platform align with and support the best interests of Virginians?
TK: My campaign motto is “Standing Up for Virginia” because my entire campaign is entirely about Virginia. … If I continue to have the great honor of serving my commonwealth, I’ll keep building on my work and keep listening to Virginians and what’s on their minds.
I want to continue lowering costs for Virginia families by cutting the cost of child care and slashing taxes for working families.
Communities across the country, but especially northern Virginia, are facing rising housing costs. I introduced the Fair Housing Improvement Act, which would protect veterans and low-income families from housing discrimination, the Low-Income First-Time Homebuyers Act, and am one of the lead sponsors of the bipartisan Housing Supply and Affordability Act. I support an expansion of the low-income housing tax credit, responsible for increasing the supply of affordable rental housing.
HC: We have to make the cost of living, goods, gas, and groceries more affordable. Under Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Tim Kaine’s radical agenda, Americans and Virginians are hurting from the increased cost of goods and prices, making the American dream no longer what it was when my family and I immigrated to this country. But we have to start with securing the border. That’s step one. … We need to put the American people and Virginians first and that begins with closing our border.
How do your policy positions differ from your opponent? How, if at all, do they overlap or intersect?
TK: Unlike my opponent, I trust Virginia women to make their own health care decisions. After the Supreme Court’s disastrous Dobbs decision, I got to work and introduced the only bipartisan bill in Congress that would codify the core holdings of Roe v. Wade and related Supreme Court cases to protect access to abortion and birth control.
I proudly helped pass legislation that is expanding high-speed internet, rebuilding roads and bridges, rail and public transit, ports and airports all over Virginia. I also worked to pass legislation that is bringing manufacturing back to America and easing supply chain issues. My opponent opposed all of these investments and the good-paying jobs they are bringing, and would vote against the reauthorization of our bipartisan infrastructure law in 2026.
… I believe health care is a right, which is why I’ve introduced a Medicare-X plan that which would give all Virginians access to a plan similar to Medicare. Furthermore, I will always fight to defend Social Security and Medicare and ensure that these programs are sustainable for generations to come.
HC: I am running for U.S. Senate to save the country that saved my life. I spent 25 years in Navy Special Operations with combat in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia, while Tim Kaine spent 30 years in elected office. … In the U.S. Senate, I will always put Virginia first and protect the commonwealth.
If elected to the Senate, will you certify election results regardless of party outcome if the election is deemed free and fair?
TK: Of course!
HC: Yes.
What, if any, concerns do you have with your opponent, his campaign, or his platform?
TK: My opponent has insulted and talked down to the Virginians that he hopes to represent in the U.S. Senate. … He has also continued to insult Virginians by failing to show up for them, when he skipped 12 of 13 candidate forums in his Republican primary election. My favorite part of my job is traveling and meeting Virginians in every corner of the commonwealth. If someone won’t show up for you, they won’t stand up for you.
HC: After 25 years serving our country in the Navy, I’ve been all over the world. I’ve seen communism first-hand and know what it’s like to lose your country. We’re losing ours today and trust me, there’s nowhere else to go. I’ve spent my life trying to repay my debt to America, and I’m not done fighting for us. Tim Kaine is a weak man in a dangerous world and along with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, he is destroying Virginia’s way of life.
Democratic candidate Gloria Witt grew up in Amherst County, which is located in Virginia’s 5th District. Supplied photo.
Voters in Virginia’s 5th District will choose a new congressional representative come November 5, with Democrat Gloria Witt and Republican John McGuire vying for the seat. Ahead of Election Day, C-VILLE reached out to both candidates to learn more about their local and national priorities.
C-VILLE: What are your top priorities if elected to Congress?
Gloria Witt: My top priorities are rooted in making sure that the people of the 5th District have opportunities to thrive. This includes ensuring access to quality health care, protecting Social Security and Medicare, addressing the affordable housing crisis, and expanding economic opportunities through job creation and workforce development. I also prioritize preserving democracy by protecting voting rights and accepting the outcomes of our elections.
On the national level, I am focused on safeguarding democracy, addressing income inequality, and expanding access to health care and affordable child care. I want to restore reproductive rights, strengthen mental health care, and ensure our veterans get the support they deserve.
Locally, I want to focus on revitalizing our small towns and rural communities by addressing the housing shortage, supporting farmers, and increasing infrastructure investments, especially in broadband access. Public education is a top priority. I will push for vastly expanded career and technical education programs.
How does your platform align with and support the best interests of constituents in the 5th District?
GW: My platform is based on the everyday needs of families, workers, and small-business owners in the 5th District. We need practical solutions for affordable health care, better-paying jobs, and ensuring our children receive the education and skills they need. We are failing our youth; they have to leave or they are stuck making a starvation wage. My goal is to lead the charge to make sure that our career and technical programs are producing enough workers for existing business and attracting new businesses with a skilled workforce.
How do your policy positions differ from your opponent?
GW: My opponent and I have very different visions for the future of this district. I believe in expanding access to health care, investing in public education, and making sure working families have the support they need. In contrast, my opponent supports policies that roll back social programs like Medicare and Social Security. I also support a woman’s right to choose, while my opponent wants to restrict reproductive rights. Fundamentally, I believe in building a fairer, more free, inclusive future, while my opponent is focused on policies that benefit the wealthy and big corporations and restrict individual freedoms. I also accept that Trump lost the 2020 election.
How, if at all, do they overlap or intersect?
GW: We may overlap in wanting to create more jobs and spur economic growth, but we differ in how to achieve that.
Party control of the House of Representatives is anticipated to be decided by a narrow margin this year. How would Democratic control of the House benefit 5th District constituents?
GW: Democratic control of the House will ensure we continue to make progress on critical issues like health care affordability, protecting Social Security, and addressing income inequality. It also means ensuring that democracy and voting rights are protected from those who want to undermine them. A Democratic House will work toward policies that lift up all Americans, not just the wealthy few.
If elected to Congress, will you certify election results regardless of party outcome if the election is deemed free and fair?
GW: Absolutely. Our democracy is built on the foundation of free and fair elections. It’s critical that all elected officials respect the will of the voters. … Refusing to do so threatens the very fabric of our democracy.
What, if any, concerns do you have with your opponent, his campaign, or his platform?
GW: My main concern with my opponent is his alignment with far-right extremists who undermine our democratic values. He has shown a willingness to support dangerous conspiracy theories, and that worries me greatly. He has also supported policies that strip people of their health care and phases out Social Security. … His opposition to common-sense gun reform and his stance on reproductive rights are extreme.
Why should Virginians choose you to represent the 5th District?
GW: Virginians should choose me because I’m focused on real solutions that put people first. I grew up on a small farm carrying water and canning food, I know this district, and I’ve lived the challenges many of us face. I’m committed to creating a future where every family has access to health care, where seniors don’t have to worry about their Social Security, and where our children receive the education and skills they need to succeed. I’ll fight for everyone, not just the wealthy or well-connected, and I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work.
As of press time, John McGuire had not responded to any of C-VILLE’s requests for comment. This interview has been edited for length.
Working with both parents and students, Price Thomas aims to end generational poverty. Photo by Eze Amos.
As the executive director of City of Promise, Price Thomas is working to improve education access in Charlottesville. But for the born-and-raised local, this job is more than a profession—it’s personal.
“This is Charlottesville, a part of my story,” he says, “and I want the next chapter to be marked by something better than the one previous.”
Located in the heart of the 10th and Page neighborhood, City of Promise has been working toward interrupting local cycles of generational poverty through education for more than a decade.
“A lot of what we’re experiencing are reverberations of issues that are going on around the state, around the country,” Thomas says. “But those aren’t sidewalks I’ve walked, those aren’t people I know, those aren’t schools that I went to.”
“There is a piece of this that is objectively personal for me … I can’t do this and go home, because this is home for me.”
The son of two local educators, Thomas attended Charlottesville City and Albemarle County schools. After graduating from William & Mary, where he was a four-year starter on the soccer team, Thomas played professional soccer in Europe before returning stateside to work as a copy editor. Over the last several years, he’s set down roots in Charlottesville, where he is raising two children with his wife, Caitlin.
Thomas’ work with City of Promise is only his latest position in nonprofits. Prior to joining COP in May 2023, he worked with The Montpelier Foundation and United Way of Greater Charlottesville.
City of Promise takes a “whole family” approach to education, and believes that one of the first steps to improve education access (and disrupt generational poverty) is to meet families’ needs by providing resources or connecting people with the appropriate nonprofit. Supplied photo.
“Charlottesville is a small town, and the nonprofit world of Charlottesville is even smaller,” he says. Through his work with The Montpelier Foundation and United Way, he met and learned from other nonprofit leaders, including previous directors of City of Promise. In his 18 months on the job at COP, he’s been figuring out what unique “flavor” he brings to the organization.
City of Promise “started way before me, will live on and succeed far past me,” he says. “But in this moment of time, what is my flavor? … I want us to be both taken very seriously and also very approachable.” Transparency and authenticity between City of Promise and the community are all priorities for the executive director, but not at the expense of agency. “We’ll walk alongside [community members], but we’ll also hold them accountable.”
In the beginning
Inspired by a work group of the Charlottesville Dialogue on Race in 2010, City of Promise developed through a Department of Education Promise Neighborhood planning grant of $470,000 that was awarded to Children Youth and Family Services in 2011. The national, place-based initiative bolsters communities experiencing barriers to education success, including economic hardship and disparity, through funding and recommending strategies and solutions.
City of Promise did not receive implementation funding through the DOE Promise Neighborhood program, but the initial grant was enough to get the nonprofit off the ground. Over the last decade, COP’s focus on improving education access and outcomes has remained at the core of its mission—especially in the area of literacy.
Despite district reading scores hovering near the state average, Charlottesville City Schools have one of the highest literacy gaps in Virginia. As a district, 65 percent of its students achieved proficiency in reading for the 2023-2024 school year, compared to a state average of 73 percent. The data breakdown shows a more striking achievement gap: During the 2023-2024 school year, 40 percent of Black CCS students passed English reading testing, compared to 89 percent of their white peers.
Supplied photo.
Coming into City of Promise, Thomas took the opportunity to refocus the nonprofit’s offerings, taking a “whole family” approach to education access.
“It’s a mindset of helping our community members—parents and students—to feel both supported and challenged to that level of excellence,” says Thomas. “I don’t care where you came from, or how much money you have, or the car you drive, or the clothes you wear, the color of your skin—your job’s to be great. My job’s to help you be great. But ultimately, you’re going to leave the school reading the same books as that kid from Rugby Road, full stop. Period. The way you get there might be a little different, and that’s okay.”
City of Promise cornerstone programs include the Pathway Coaching, Dreambuilders, and LaunchPad Initiative, a pilot program in partnership with CCS and the University of Virginia education school that deploys the Virginia Community School Framework. The LaunchPad Initiative addresses non-academic barriers to support under-resourced students and families, thus improving outcomes. While currently only at Trailblazer (formerly Venable) Elementary, COP hopes to expand the initiative to the remaining CCS elementary schools.
The LaunchPad Initiative is the earliest direct (that is, not accessed through a parent already receiving coaching) program offered by City of Promise.
“It’s about quality at every developmental level. … Starting earlier is critically important,” Thomas says. “Often our theory of intervention is a little too late. We’re starting a little too late, and we’re working uphill. As we start to shape ourselves as an organization, as we start to partner with other nonprofits and for profits, there’s always that little bell that goes off that’s like, we’ve got to do this quicker.”
Similar to the LaunchPad Initiative, COP also offers support through Pathway Coaching. Both offerings aim to bolster students’ academic and socioemotional growth. Coaches employed by the nonprofit mentor students between fifth and 12th grade, helping with access to academic and extracurricular opportunities.
Dreambuilders, City of Promise’s only program that requires an application, fosters family and student success by providing parents and their children with tools for self-sufficiency, including tailored instruction and microfinancing of $5,000. The program utilizes evidence-based resources like the National Center for Families Learning frameworks, but takes an individualized approach tailored to participant needs.
“Everything should feel like it fits together; these are not intended to be three distinct programs. They are really intended to be kind of three self-reinforcing pieces of the same whole,” says Thomas. “If our adults are more efficacious and more confident, that’s great for our kids, who are receiving a whole host of high-quality services.”
Beyond programming, students and families involved in the LaunchPad Initiative, Pathway Coaching, or Dreambuilders can access resources through City of Promise’s Gateway Services. While the application-based financial support service is a critical component of COP’s network, the nonprofit is also helping community members by acting as a convener of resources.
Getting resourceful
Meeting participants’ basic needs, whether through directly providing resources or connecting people with the appropriate nonprofit, is a key first step in improving education access and disrupting generational poverty.
Navigating Charlottesville’s expansive network of nonprofits can be confusing, but Thomas says City of Promise is uniquely positioned, literally and strategically, to help community members locate and access the right resources. The nonprofit’s location in the 10th and Page neighborhood allows not only more convenient access for many of the students and families it serves, but for the organization to more effectively build relationships and trust within the community.
“City of Promise remains an intimate, proximal organization that is able to be nimble and is able to have more of a finger on the pulse,” says Thomas. “That is what’s most important to us.”
Addressing barriers beyond the classroom is a key part of COP’s work to improve education access. While the nonprofit can’t fully resource every program participant alone, it can help connect people with other local organizations—including ReadyKids for teen mental health, Network2Work for jobs and job training, and Cav Futures Foundation for mentoring.
Supplied photo.
By more intentionally utilizing the large nonprofit community in the Charlottesville area, City of Promise hopes to collaboratively help families access resources in a way that is both more effective and more expansive.
“For these kids, for these families, it’s not just housing, it’s not just workforce development, it’s not just child care, health care; it’s everything altogether all the time,” he says. “We have to understand that we can’t isolate these tenants in this constellation of care. … We have to figure out how to link arms with other community organizations.”
Meeting participants’ immediate needs while simultaneously building a more proactive support network is a difficult balancing act for any organization, including City of Promise.
“We’re fighting this battle between people with immediate needs that we need to react to, but also not doing that at the expense of being thoughtful about what happens tomorrow,” he says.
At the end of the day, the quantitative, simple answer for how the nonprofit can most effectively help community members is money. Whether through funding for programs or resources, everything boils down to cash flow. But to make a meaningful dent in disrupting cycles of generational poverty, Thomas says City of Promise needs community buy-in and feedback.
“It’s not cheap, and I don’t think it should be. I don’t think we should pretend the folks who live in public housing and these kids and these families should have access to anything less than the rest of us, than your kids, my kids, and all these other little knuckleheads. … That’s [why] I’m here: to kick and scream for [it],” he says. “I think it’s my job now to be the loudest person in the room, but I don’t expect that to be the case for a long time. I don’t want it to be the case for a long time.”
An agentic community and participants not only boosts individual success, but helps City of Promise learn what is and isn’t working directly from the people it hopes to help.
“I think sometimes [nonprofits] say we’re the helpers, we know what the help is. … Feedback has to be incorporated and I want [people] to feel like that’s available,” says Thomas. “The demonstration of success is not how I feel about it or whether people liked that I did it. It’s, does it work for the people for whom it is intended to work for? And at the end of the day, if we can’t say yes to that, we gotta find a way to make that happen.”
Thomas is under no illusions that City of Promise will end generational poverty in his time as executive director, but he is fighting to leave the nonprofit—and Charlottesville—better through his work.
“I want to make sure that we leave this in a way that we furthered the mission, that we’ve moved it forward, that we’ve gotten closer to whatever that huge goal is, that first pie in the sky—we’re going to end generational poverty,” he says. “We have to be very clear that it’s not going to happen today, tomorrow or next week. It’s going to happen by a mosaic of 1,000 little things every single day.”
About 180,000 honey bees live at Black Bear Solar, which is part of Dominion Energy’s venture into agrivoltaics (using land for both agriculture and solar energy production). Supplied photo.
As part of its effort to go green, Dominion Energy is exploring the potential for honey-bee hives on solar farms through a pilot program at Black Bear Solar in Buckingham County.
In operation since 2023, Black Bear Solar covers roughly 13 acres, producing enough energy to power nearly 400 homes. The site is a small part of Dominion Energy’s expansion of solar farms, prompted by the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act. In line with the legislation, the power company will move to completely renewable energy sources by 2045.
“About a decade ago, we didn’t have a single Dominion-owned solar farm in operation,” says Tim Eberly, senior communications specialist. “Now, we have more than 60 solar farms around the state and they generate enough power to power more than 650,000 homes.”
For farmers, the rapid expansion of solar farms in Virginia presents potential challenges due to competition for ideal land.
Dominion started its venture into agrivoltaics—the joint use of land for agriculture and solar farms—with sheep, which are still used to help maintain grass at some solar sites in the commonwealth. By bringing in honey bees, the power company hopes to bolster the local pollinator population, and, as a result, agriculture.
Not every solar farm is a good fit for honey bees, though. Before moving forward with the pilot program, beekeeper Chuck Burden examined the area of Black Bear Solar to make sure the site could support new hives.
“These honey bees have a three-mile foraging radius, so they’re seeking out pollinator plants and crops … looking for nectar and pollen from flowers and crops they can then bring back to their beehives,” says Eberly of Burden’s work to check nearby farms for pesticides and any other harmful chemicals.
“We didn’t want to bring in these beehives and have them competing with any existing bees in that area, or existing pollinators.”
Approximately 180,000 honey bees now live on the solar farm. If all goes well, Dominion anticipates adding more hives to Black Bear Solar this spring, potentially expanding the program and other new agrivoltaics initiatives to additional sites as appropriate.
“It’s very much in the research phase right now, but … we’re looking at the prospect of pairing actual farming with solar,” says Eberly. Details of the potential program are limited as it is still early in development, but may include “a very small pilot project where we might have a row of crops or vegetables … on a solar site.”
Closer to Charlottesville, Dominion is working to establish a new solar farm at the former site of the Ivy Solid Waste & Recycling Center. No feasibility studies for any agrivoltaics programs at the site have been conducted yet, but there are plans to evaluate the location for appropriate initiatives.
Tania Israel (left) and Miles Coleman (right) acknowledge the expansion of political polarization. Supplied photos.
With Election Day less than a month away, political tension and stress abound both locally and nationally. Polarization is definitely a contributing factor to the anxiety, but two experts with Charlottesville ties say we may not be as divided as we think.
Now a faculty member at the University of California Santa Barbara, Tania Israel credits growing up in Charlottesville for shaping her work to bridge the political divide.
“I got into this work in Charlottesville,” she says. After organizing a discussion of pro-choice and pro-life locals in the ’90s, Israel was inspired to continue exploring ideological divides. “It didn’t change anything about how I felt about reproductive rights, but it changed so much about how I felt about people who disagreed with me.”
Rather than taking the political science approach, Israel’s examination of polarization draws on her expertise as a doctor of counseling psychology. Her last two books, Beyond Your Bubble and Facing the Fracture (published this August), have focused on understanding and approaching political polarization.
In her work, Israel has found that “we are not nearly as divided as we think we are, our views are not as far apart as we imagine them to be,” but affective polarization remains a critical issue for American democracy and interpersonal relationships.
Diversity of opinion is an important element in maintaining a healthy democracy, but increasing affective polarization—a positive association with one’s own political party and negative feelings toward the opposing party—diminishes the ability for productive dialogue and solution-making.
In a 2022 study, the PEW Research Center found “increasingly, Republicans and Democrats view not just the opposing party but also the people in that party in a negative light. Growing shares in each party now describe those in the other party as more closed-minded, dishonest, immoral and unintelligent than other Americans.” Further, the amount of respondents holding a negative opinion of both major parties has sharply risen, sitting at 27 percent at the time of the survey.
Miles Coleman, an associate editor for Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, has also noted an increase in both partisan and affective polarization.
“There used to be … more people willing to entertain either side, give their votes to either side. That is not as much a thing anymore,” he says. “Coalitions are more firm now, there are fewer moderate to conservative Democrats or liberal Republicans, so you tend to have more people being … locked into either side.”
Split-ticket, swing, and undecided voters still exist, but misunderstandings around these voters and their positionality is rampant, according to Coleman.
“You do have some voters in the middle who are still willing to vote for either side, but that segment, I feel, is increasingly a smaller and smaller segment of the electorate,” he says. Rather than a moderate portion of the constituency evenly positioned between Democratic and Republican political platforms, numerous swing voters have varying policy positions that contrastingly align with either party.
Conversely, the key undecided group to watch this election cycle is the “double haters,” says Coleman. “These are voters who have unfavorable views of both Harris and Trump. … Those voters who maybe don’t like the high prices, the inflation that we see under Biden, but might not want to go back to the days of Donald Trump.”
Coleman attributes some of the current political climate to media ecosystems. “I blame a lot of this on asocial social media,” he says. “It’s increasingly easy for one side to get kind of their own media ecosystem, their own facts. Both sides, really, to some extent, aren’t even on the same page.”
In her work to bridge this political chasm, Israel has also argued that media and tribal politics have exaggerated and exacerbated polarization.
By design, media are created to attract and maintain engagement, frequently employing tactics to amp up consumer emotions to increase and keep interest. Social media in particular relies and thrives on algorithms, which feed users curated content based on prior activity. Consumers receive and interact with content that incites either strong positive or negative feelings, resulting in ideological “bubbles” of media echoing existing beliefs and combative presentations of opposing viewpoints.
“It’s really hard for us to even think about or want to approach people who have different views, if we have skewed perceptions about who they are,” Israel says. “Study after study for decades has shown that we exaggerate the other side’s views, thinking that they are more extreme than they are, thinking that they are hostile.”
For many Americans, having a political conversation with family and friends across the aisle can be a daunting inevitability, but there are ways to have a civil and meaningful dialogue, according to Israel.
“One of the main reasons people tell me they’re interested in having a conversation with someone who is on the other side of the political divide is because they have somebody who they’re close to, a family member or a friend who they want to stay connected with or repair a relationship with, but it’s really challenging because of the different views,” she says. “Approach with the intention to create a warm and caring connection, where your goal is to understand the other person.”
Through her work, Israel has found listening and trying to understand someone’s perspective to be a key step in holding a productive conversation.
“We think that what we should do is lay out all of the facts and figures and arguments to show the other person that we are right and that they are wrong. It turns out people don’t respond very well to that,” she says. “If we’re listening with the intention to understand, rather than the intention to respond … if we can share our stories … how we came to care about an issue, or if there was somebody or something that shifted our view about it, that’s a much more effective way to share our perspective.”
André Hakes and Catherine Gillespie, holding their son, received the first same-sex marriage license in Charlottesville, and maybe the state of Virginia, at 1:03pm on October 6, 2014. Photo by Breanna Larocca.
Same-sex couples have had the legal right to marry in Virginia since October 6, 2014. Several couples who wed in Charlottesville on that day came together a decade later to commemorate the anniversary where they celebrated all those years ago: Charlottesville Circuit Court.
“Ten years ago today, we unexpectedly found ourselves with the opportunity to get married after thinking about it for years,” said Catherine Gillespie at the gathering. She and her longtime partner, André Hakes, were together for 19 years before they could get married in Virginia and were at the courthouse that morning, ready to go the minute they got the go-ahead.
For each of the couples married in Charlottesville on October 6, 2014, finally being allowed to get legally married came as a surprise after the Supreme Court unexpectedly declined to hear an appeal challenging a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
Gillespie and Hakes were the first same-sex couple legally married in Charlottesville, and some claim in the entire state, having their ceremony minutes after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a mandate at 1pm. The ability to be married was not only a celebration of their love, but provided legal protections for their family.
“We had people come after our family and want to take [our son] away because of who we were,” said Gillespie. “To get a sense of security from a marriage license, which then allowed André to become an official parent, I mean, it was incredible.”
Reminiscing on the anniversary, four of the five same-sex couples who wed at the Circuit Court on that day in 2014, spoke about the important legal protection afforded by marriage.
Debra Guy and Meredith Wolnick also got married that afternoon, a bit later since their then-4-year-old daughter was taking a nap. For them, the ability to marry brought not only legal stability, but some appreciated simplicity.
“We still have the book of wills and medical directives that we had drawn up in 2010. Just the simple things that some folks who are married take for granted—signing a permission slip or taking [our daughter] to the doctor … that’s how at the practical level it changed our lives,” said Guy.
For longtime Clerk of Court Llezelle Dugger, the day brought not only the opportunity to fulfill her campaign promise of signing marriage licenses for same-sex couples as soon as legally possible, but an opportunity to celebrate friends’ relationships and legal protections. The only downside? She was too busy signing marriage certificates to be in any of her friends’ wedding photos taken in front of the courthouse.
Dugger recalls the clear blue skies on that day, as well as the celebrations around town. “Now, 10 years later, we celebrated. But you know what? It’s normal,” she says. “We don’t have the hoopla of October 6, 2014, but that’s excellent in and of itself.”
While same-sex couples are celebrating their right to marriage, Gillespie pointed out the need to continuously advocate for other members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“We use humor a lot in managing fears and frustrations, and one of the pieces of humor that we’ve used recently is that we’re old news. Gay couples, we got the right to marry 10 years ago,” said Gillespie. “I think the battle for the trans community right now is a battle for understanding, because if we can get to a place of understanding, then we can move away from fear. And if we can move away from fear, then maybe 20 years from now, politicians won’t be using them as a punching bag.”
After speaking with UVA law students, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff
attended a fundraiser hosted by John
and Renee Grisham.
File photo.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff made a campaign stop in Charlottesville on September 25, speaking to a crowd of more than 200 University of Virginia law school students at the Kimpton Forum Hotel.
“It’s good to be talking to law students again,” said Emhoff, who is a practicing attorney and instructor at Georgetown Law. “I’m not teaching this semester because I’m spending full time campaigning so my wife can be the next president of the United States.”
Emhoff was met with raucous applause from attendees who’d gathered for a voter protection training organized by the UVA Law Democrats. Voter disenfranchisement is a chief focus for the Harris-Walz campaign amid increasing barriers instituted by Republican leaders under the guise of election integrity.
“As a practicing lawyer for over 30 years, I cannot tell you how important it is for what our profession does to protect democracy,” said Emhoff. “We are literally on the front lines protecting the rest of our fellow citizens from what could happen when the rule of law is ignored, abused, and taken advantage of, and that’s why lawyers have to be vigilant and prepared and ready for anything during this election season.”
Beyond preparing for the legal challenges anticipated post-election, UVA Law Democrats are also rallying behind voter protection and efforts to get out the vote.
The Virginia Democratic and Republican parties are both running major poll-watching campaigns for the November General Election. While similar in theory, the impetus and rhetoric around the volunteer drives diverges.
On the Republican side, state and national leaders are calling for poll watchers to protect election integrity and continue to peddle the claim that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from former president Donald Trump. The Virginia Democratic Party has also committed to election integrity, but does not deny the outcome of the last presidential election. The VDP Voter Protection Team, which includes poll watchers and phonebankers, emphasizes the importance of ensuring that voters are able to exercise their legal right to vote and combat misinformation and disinformation around the election.
“We’re going to continue to have these voter protection and election events through November 4 … and we’re going to be getting out the vote,” says Kirk Wolff, a second-year law student and vice president of UVA Law Democrats.
The student organization—which relaunched five weeks prior to the event with Emhoff—has rapidly rallied support on Grounds. According to Wolff and Law Democrats President Miles Cooper, more than 230 students have joined the group and there was a lengthy waitlist for the September 25 event.
“We [Cooper and Wolff] have a lot of close friends who are Republicans, and we saw that they were organizing Law Republicans, and we just couldn’t believe that there was nothing happening on Grounds for Democrats,” says Cooper.
While Cooper is excited by the energy around Law Democrats and the Harris-Walz campaign, he also hopes to rally more energy for 5th District congressional candidate Gloria Witt in the weeks leading up to the election.
“I think there’s a really, really great chance to send Witt to the House,” he says. “You can make a huge difference here. … If [Harris and Walz] don’t have the House and the Senate, it will impede their ability to execute the New Way Forward agenda. … It’s a team effort. That’s the way our founders envisioned it, and so we have to make sure that we send a really good team.”
Candidates Chuck Pace and Jim Dillenbeck. Supplied photos.
It’s election season, but the presidential and congressional races aren’t the only contests on the ballot November 5. Albemarle County is holding a special election for now-Delegate Katrina Callsen’s remaining year as the Rio District’s school board representative.
The district, which spans from just north of the city into Earlysville, includes Agnor, Broadus Wood, and Woodbrook elementaries, Lakeside Middle, and Albemarle High School.
The candidates—Chuck Pace and Jim Dillenbeck—are both longtime Charlottesville-area residents with backgrounds in local education, having previously coached football together at Albemarle High School in the ’90s. Pace and Dillenbeck find common ground in their desire to increase support for teachers and improve student outcomes, but differ on other issues.
Appointed to the seat last December, Pace says he has “a pretty positive outlook on the schools right now. When I go into them, I do see pretty cool stuff going on, really, and that doesn’t matter if it’s elementary school or middle school or high school.”
“No question that we have things that we’re struggling with,” he adds. “That’s always true.”
Academic achievement, attendance, and behavior have emerged as challenges—locally and nationwide—since returning to in-person instruction following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve seen deficits, kids who are just coming to the next grade level, but not knowing what they would expect them to at that grade level,” says Pace. “They have created pacing guides for our teachers … tests that are given quarterly to help track progress of students—and that’s making a difference. … We have to figure out where the deficits are so we can address them.”
In addition to pacing guides, ACPS is currently working to implement a new reading curriculum. Pace is excited about the materials, but concerned that the rapid implementation required by Gov. Glenn Youngkin is contributing to teacher burnout.
“Once teachers get through the stressful period of mastering the tools … their lives will probably get easier over the long haul,” he says. “I know it’s really stressing some of our teachers out.”
Teacher and staff support is top of mind for Pace, who has worked as an educator and science coordinator for almost three decades. The school board is Pace’s primary job as he was in the midst of a health-related career pause at the time of his appointment.
Dillenbeck is less optimistic about the current state of education in Albemarle County.
“As a former teacher and having raised four kids and seeing them through school … my concern is for the kids in the neighborhood and the kids in our community who don’t have some of the opportunities that we had,” says Dillenbeck, who was inspired to run after a conversation with former school board candidate Meg Bryce last year.
While he’s been out of the education system for more than 25 years, Dillenbeck believes his two-plus decades in business could benefit the board. “In the business world, we talk a lot about measuring success and addressing areas of weakness in business,” he says. “I’m afraid that if we apply the same standard of success or failure to the schools, what we would see is that the schools are failing.”
Dillenbeck, who works as a financial advisor for Northwestern Mutual in Charlottesville, is concerned about low test scores and achievement gaps at several of the elementary schools in the Rio District. Scores at Woodbrook Elementary are consistently below both district and state averages, with significant achievement gaps for Black students, economically disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities.
Katrina Callsen resigned from the Albemarle County School Board last fall to focus on her campaign for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. Supplied photo.
According to data from the Virginia Department of Education, only 46 percent of Woodbrook students passed state English assessments last school year, compared to a pass rate of 75 percent in Albemarle County and 73 percent statewide. The pass rate for state English assessments at Woodbrook has also declined over the last three years, decreasing from 53 percent in the 2021-22 school year to 48 percent in 2022-23.
Beyond academic achievement, Dillenbeck also wants to improve teacher and staff support, school safety, career preparation, and communication between teachers, families, administrators, and the school board. In each of these areas, he supports increasing resources, with particular emphasis on retaining teachers through salary increases and additional support and safety personnel.
“I believe that the teachers … they’re the front line workers, and if they feel supported by the administration and empowered to enforce the rules on behavior, rules on cell phone use, then the school system is going to be operating at a good level,” says Dillenbeck. “We need to have a school resource officer, in my opinion, in every high school and in every middle school in the county.”
Regardless of which candidate wins, the Rio District school board seat will be up for grabs again next fall. More information about the Rio District candidates can be found on their campaign websites.
Criminal and disciplinary charges have been dropped against protesters arrested
at UVA on May 4. Photo by Eze Amos.
Charges against student protesters arrested May 4 have been dropped, but the University of Virginia continues to grapple with protections for and restrictions on freedom of speech. While celebrating its status as the No.1 campus for free speech in the nation, UVA is cracking down on students’ ability to demonstrate on Grounds.
Prior to the start of fall semester, the university updated its rules governing “demonstrations and access to shared spaces” on Grounds. Through these changes, UVA has not only deemed any form of encampment against university policy, but outlined a willingness to escalate to trespass warnings and arrest for noncompliance.
Key changes to demonstration policy include: expanding the definition of the Academical Village, which is subject to additional demonstration restrictions; banning outdoor events on Grounds, including demonstrations, between 2 and 6am; prohibiting camping, with or without a tent, in outdoor spaces; prohibiting sleeping outside between midnight and 6am; and requiring any person wearing a face covering to provide identification if requested by a UVA official.
Students who fail to comply with UVA policy after being informed of a violation can face disciplinary action including “the issuance of an interim suspension by Student Affairs and a trespass warning by law enforcement. Failure to abide by the trespass warning will result in arrest. Every reasonable effort will be made to resolve the matter at the lowest possible level without the involvement of law enforcement.”
UVA’s policies on protests, demonstrations, and gatherings on university property, which include potential consequences for policy violations, can be found at freespeech.virginia.edu/policies-regulations.
Earlier this month, UVA officials demonstrated a willingness to both enforce these new policies and call university police for peaceful noncompliance. According to The Daily Progress, on September 12, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Marsh Pattie informed students on the Lawn making signs calling for divestment that their use of a folding table violated policy, and asked a student wearing a mask to provide ID.
When the student did not identify themself, Pattie threatened to contact university police. The situation deescalated when the student left the area and the table was taken down. The table was briefly set up again in front of a Lawn room with the permission of its resident, but was deconstructed again when Pattie returned with another official.
In the midst of the implementation of new rules and a crackdown on peaceful organizing, UVA was named the top college for free speech in the nation on September 5 by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
“FIRE considered several factors, including students’ perceived ability to have difficult conversations, their comfort expressing views on controversial topics and perceptions of their administration’s support for free speech,” wrote University News Senior Associate Jane Kelly in a UVAToday article highlighting the announcement. “The top-ranked colleges have the highest average score among all students surveyed and have the most open environments for free speech.”
For student and faculty organizers, the announcement, and UVA’s public celebration of free speech on Grounds, was deeply ironic.
“If they’re so proud of [the FIRE ranking], then I think [UVA] should roll back the new protest guidelines and start to really listen to faculty and students,” said Laura Goldblatt, assistant professor and faculty liaison for pro-Palestine student protesters, in an interview with C-VILLE. “If they’re so proud of their rankings, then they should follow through on the actions that those rankings might require of them. Instead of using them as a publicity tool, they should use them as a way to guide their decisions about policy.”
Calculated through more than 58,000 surveys, FIRE’s 2025 College Free Speech Rankings considered data collected from students between January 25 and June 17 this year. Beyond surveys, schools were not further penalized for actions related to encampment protests, according to Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens.
“This decision was made because many schools were likely dealing with a complicated mix of protected and unprotected speech, so accurately adjudicating each individual incident that may or may not have made one of our databases would’ve been impossible,” said Stevens in an email. He further highlighted a footnote from the report, noting that, “The impact of the encampment protests on the campus speech climate is captured by responses to survey questions that ask students about their confidence that their college administration protects speech rights on campus, their comfort expressing controversial political views, and how frequently they self-censor. Deplatformings that occurred during the encampment protests were also still included in the calculation of the 2025 College Free Speech Rankings.”
Laura Beltz, director of policy reform for FIRE, said UVA’s updated demonstration policies will be reviewed as part of the nonprofit’s annual speech code report in January.
