Dr. Danny Avula, former director of the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts and 2024 mayoral candidate. (Photo courtesy Dr. Danny Avula for Richmond Mayor)
City of Richmond residents appear to have selected Dr. Danny Avula as their new mayor, according to unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections.
Avula, the former director for the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts, is now poised to be the city’s first ever mayor of Indian descent.
All the precincts were fully reported just after midnight by VDOE, where Avula came in with 44,832 votes, which was 46% of the votes overall. His closest rival was Michelle Mosby, who had 24,798 or just over 25% of the votes. When current Mayor Levar Stoney was elected in 2020, he carried enough of the majority in the districts to win outright, having 37.7% or 41,145 votes, according to results from VPAP.
Per Virginia law, Avula had to win five out of the nine city districts. By 12:45 a.m. Wednesday, he had won the 1st, 2nd and 4th districts; and won the majority in the 3rd and 5th districts – which is not a full five district win.
One of Avula’s biggest priorities for his term include expanding the number of affordable housing for low-income residents, with a target goal of helping those who earn $50,000 or less a year. He pledged on his website to demand transparent decision making from the leaders of City Hall.
Candidate Michelle Mosby came in a close second, winning both the 8th and 9th Districts, while sliding in just behind Avula in many of the other districts.
Other goals Avula wants to achieve include installing more tree coverage to help combat heat islands, which are areas where heat indexes are higher due to a lack of trees; build more sidewalks in majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods and collaborate with the school board and school superintendent to help support students.
In this year’s Richmond mayoral election, the five candidates knocked on doors, held fundraisers and gave their views during a fistful of debates and forums — including one at Armstrong High School, in which Armstrong students moderated the event.
All the candidates expressed strong views on housing, after the city council passed a resolution in 2023 declaring a housing crisis in the region, but approached the topic of how to secure more affordable housing differently.
Addison rallied for the city to put the state’s 2020 land tax law to use, which allows property to be taxed by the land and not the structure built on it. Mosby called for the creation of an Affordable Housing Strike Team composed of department leaders who sign off on housing developments who would report directly to the mayor’s office in an effort to “cut through the red tape and get affordable housing projects completed as quickly as possible,” Mosby said.
Roday had also signaled a desire to expedite the building permit process, while he and Avula pitched creating boards to advise the city on housing policy. Avula also suggested strengthening the Office of Community Wealth Building with an aim to help low-income Richmonders be empowered to secure higher incomes. Most of the candidates outlined plans to support public housing residents, and many supported the idea of continuing the locality’s existing partnerships with housing-focused nonprofits that help Virginians achieve homeownership and find affordable places to live.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.