Republican primary loser announces write-in bid for Lynchburg City Council

Lynchburg politics became even more interesting Tuesday night.

Peter Alexander, who lost the Republican primary for the Ward IV council seat in June to incumbent Chris Faraldi, and then unsuccessfully sued to overturn the election, announced he will now run as an independent.

That will make the Ward IV race a three-way contest between Faraldi, Democrat April Watson and, now, Alexander.

Alexander made the announcement toward the end of a Lynchburg Republican City Committee meeting, whch was livestreamed by Lynchburg journalist Andre Whitehead. Alexander said he was “relinquishing” his membership in the committee and launching a write-in campaign.

Alexander said the June primary results did not reflect the will of Republican voters because “we know for a fact many Democrats crossed over to vote” for Faraldi and probably accounted for Faraldi’s 33-vote victory. Crossover voting has long been a sore point with many Republicans, particularly those in Lynchburg.

State law now essentially requires parties to nominate their candidates via primaries except in cases of special election. Lynchburg Republicans had looked into whether a party-run system could comply with the new law but Attorney General Jason Miyares ruled against them. One reason some Lynchburg Republicans wanted to avoid a primary is that Virginia does not register voters by party, so all party primaries are open to any registered voter.

Lynchburg Republican chair Veronica Bratton has previously said that by comparing lists of who voted in this year’s Republican congressional primary with those from other primaries, she has concluded that 440 Lynchburg Democrats voted in the city’s June 18 Republican primary. She said Tuesday that she estimates about 300 of those voted in the Ward IV race. Alexander said Tuesday night that without Democratic crossovers, he might have won close to 65% of the vote. “That’s what I suspect,” he said.

Alexander read a prepared statement at the meeting where he called on Faraldi to withdraw as the Republican candidate. However, since he didn’t expect Faraldi to do so, Alexander said he planned to run as a write-in. Addressing Faraldi, who was not present at the meeting, Alexander said: “You are a blight to our city, specifically the residents of Ward IV. Your behavior has brought shame and ridicule on our city. Your conduct is unbecoming of our local virtues.”

Alexander’s announcement was greeted with applause on the livestream although, because of the camera angle, it was impossible to tell how many people were present.

In a text message afterwards, Faraldi, who is working as a regional worker for the Donald Trump campaign, said: “I’m running to represent the people of Ward IV, to fight for them and all of Lynchburg in City Hall. I’m campaigning not only for myself, but for Donald Trump, Hung Cao, and John McGuire. This is all about what’s best for Lynchburg, and I’ll continue to keep that as my singular focus no matter what noise is brought to this race.”

The latest development in the Lynchburg council race follows nearly two years of tumult on city council between rival Republican factions, as well as a split among 5 ^th Congressional District Republicans during the contentious primary where John McGuire ousted Rep. Bob Good as the Republican nominee. There’s been talk among some Good supporters of launching a write-in campaign and this week the Virginia Mercury reported that at least four members of the party’s 5 ^th District committee were ousted because they wouldn’t sign a loyalty pledge to back McGuire.

The Lynchburg council fight is separate from that, but does overlap. During the primary, Faraldi backed McGuire and Alexander backed Good. That intra-party strife was one of the topics at Tuesday’s Lynchburg Republican meeting. Some party members have pushed for a resolution to boot Faraldi and Mayor Stephanie Reed out of the party. The state party has issued a statement saying the local party can’t do that. The Lynchburg party committee had been scheduled to take up that matter Oct. 15. On Tuesday, the committee voted unanimiously to defer the matter until Nov. 23 so it won’t distract from the upcoming campaign.

Lynchburg’s Ward IV is a Republican-leaning ward, so it’s unclear what effect Alexander’s write-in campaign will have. In the 2016 presidential election, those precincts voted 55.2% for Donald Trump; because of the way early votes in 2020 were reported, it’s more difficult to tell what the presidential result in Ward IV was that year. On a tactical level, if Watson took 45% of the vote — which appears to have been the standard Democratic share in that ward — then either Faraldi or Alexander would need to poll about 46% to win in a three-way race. Put another way, Alexander’s write-in campaign could tip that ward to the Democratic council candidate if he pulled about 10% of the vote.

Alexander’s announcement also comes as voting is already underway, although it’s not underway by much. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, 1,946 people have already cast early ballots in Lynchburg, although it’s unclear how many of those are in Ward IV. However, that overall figure represents just 3.34% of Lynchburg’s registered voters in a year where the eventual turnout will be much higher. In the 2020 presidential election, turnout in Lynchburg was 65.3% — so only a small fraction of the votes that will ultimately be cast in Ward IV have already been turned in.

All four of Lynchburg’s wards are on the ballot this fall. Until now, the main attention had been on Ward I, a swing ward where incumbent MaryJane Dolan is retiring and there’s a three-way race between Democrat Randy Smith, Republican Jacqueline Timmer and independent Cameron Craddock Howe to replace her. Now, Ward IV also moves into the city’s political spotlight.

To see where the candidates who are on the Lynchburg ballot stand on the issues, see the Lynchburg section of our Voter Guide.

More on Lynchburg politics

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