Hopewell City Council: Ward 1 incumbent loses, son of civil-rights icon wins Ward 2 seat
HOPEWELL — It's all unofficial still, but barring the certification of the results and the outcome of a lawsuit against the state electoral board, there will be three new faces behind the dais — and one familiar last name — when the new Hopewell City Council is seated.
In one fashion, Tuesday's election in which four of the seven seats were up was eerily similar to four years ago, when the same four seats were up and three new councilors were selected. Fast forward to Tuesday night, and one of those new councilors, Ward 1's Debbie Randolph, lost her bid for a second term to former Downtown Hopewell Partnership president Rita Joyner.
The other new faces elected Tuesday were Michael Harris in Ward 2 and Dominic Holloway in Ward 7. Harris is the son of the late Dr. Curtis Harris, the Hopewell-based Civil Rights Movement leader who led the effort to establish the ward system in Hopewell and later not only became a member of council but also mayor.
Unofficial results Tuesday showed Harris with 56% of the vote in Ward 2 defeating former city general registrar Yolanda Stokes. Holloway, who got 419 votes, was the only printed name on the Ward 7 ballot, but there were 198 write-in votes cast in that race because current Mayor Patience Bennett, and local resident and Santa Claus character Dewey Bentley launched 11th-hour write-in campaigns.
However, a legal challenge filed by Stokes over the legitimacy of Harris and Holloway's candidacies is still pending in a Richmond court, and is scheduled to be heard Nov. 22. Stokes is suing the Virginia Board of Elections claiming that Holloway, a former member of the Hopewell Electoral Board, had not stepped down from the board when he filed his candidacy to run, and that Harris did not file his candidacy or first campaign finance reports until six days after the June 21, 2022 deadline to file.
A hearing is set for Nov. 22 in Richmond Circuit Court for a judge to rule on the state board's request to rule the Stokes suit invalid.
Incumbent defeated in Ward 1
Ward 1, which covers downtown, City Point and other areas in north Hopewell, featured the only race where an incumbent was being contested.
Four years after ousting veteran councilor and former Mayor Christina Luman-Bailey, Randolph came out on the short end of a re-election bid. Joyner won the seat with 54% of the vote and a 51-ballot margin.
Wednesday, Randolph took to Facebook to thank her supporters. She said she had been going to council meetings for the past 15 years "and have watched the city continue to decline."
During her time on council, Randolph was often at odds with council leadership. Randolph often and unapologetically voiced her displeasure on Facebook with how the meetings were run and how council business was transacted, and was criticized in return by some of her colleagues. The focus of her 2018 campaign was the city's lack of completion of its required audits over the past seven years.
"However, we have the state coming in to help with the audits and I want to thank [Del.] Carrie Coyner for caring enough for Hopewell to get this accomplished," Randolph wrote.
She also said she would not be fading into the background.
"[K]now I'm not gone and can still support the positive and damn the negatives, so watch out!!" she wrote.
In a message to The Progress-Index, Joyner said she was "excited, humbled, and gratified" with the victory.
"I will strive to maintain the confidence and trust of those who voted for me and to earn the same for the remainder of the Ward 1 electorate," she added.
The other incumbent on Tuesday's ballot was Vice Mayor Johnny Partin Jr. in Ward 3. He ran unopposed, and is in line to become mayor when the new council is seated Jan. 1, 2023.
Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Hopewell voters elect three new city councilors Tuesday
