With polling finished and ballots counted, Bobby Dyer is again the winner of the Virginia Beach mayoral election. Dyer, the incumbent mayor, secured 41% of the vote on Tuesday, defeating Sabrina Wooten, John Moss, Chris Taylor, and Richard Kowalewitch.
Results
Before he was elected mayor for the first time in 2018, Dyer had 14 years of experience representing the Centerville (Tallwood) region on the city council. During his campaign, he said that his willingness to work with other council members has allowed for effective policy making during his past six years as mayor. In an interview with 13NewsNow, he brought up the success the city has had with businesses Amazon and STIHL during his time as mayor. Dyer raised $300,000 for his campaign this year, the most of any mayoral candidate.
Wooten came in second to Dyer in the race, earning around 32% of the vote. Throughout her campaign, she presented herself as the main challenger to an office that has stayed Republican for the past 16 years. With her two years of experience on the city council, taking Dyer’s vacant Centerville seat, she emphasized her volunteer efforts and city council voting record as the biggest reasons to vote for her. After former state representative Cheryl Turpin ended her campaign in August, Wooten was the only Democrat left in the race.
Moss came in behind Wooten, with 17% of the vote. A navy veteran of 41 years, Moss presented himself as an alternate Republican option to Dyer. Moss has stated that Dyer has “failed to provide tax relief” to Virginia Beach residents and that he is a “poor steward of your taxpayer dollars.” In addition, he questioned the need for a $15 million deal for designing three VBCPS school rebuilds, one of which was the proposed new Princess Anne High School building.
Taylor has represented District 8 in the city council since 2023, and came fourth in the running with 7.6%. Kowalewitch only garnered about 2% of the vote, coming in last place. During the campaigning season, he made local headlines through an attempt to disqualify both Dyer and Wooten, saying that neither candidate had resigned from their city council seats in time ahead of the election. He was unsuccessful in his challenge, which came as part of a campaign that mainly focused on election reform in Virginia Beach. This was his fourth bid for Virginia Beach mayor, losing in 2012, 2016, 2020, and now 2024.
History
For the first 25 years of Virginia Beach’s existence, the position of city mayor was biennially appointed by city council, as opposed being through a popular vote. This changed in 1988, when the city moved to coincide the mayoral election and terms with the quadrennial presidential election. Since then, the mayor has been elected on a four-year basis, but unlike with the office of U.S. president, Virginia Beach mayors are not limited to two terms, and can serve in the office for an unrestricted amount of time. This became evident through the 20-year term of the city’s first publicly-elected mayor, Meyera E. Oberndorf.
Oberndorf was succeeded in 2009 by Will Sesssoms, whose nine years in office were affected by scandal and controversy. Sessoms worked simultaneously as a TowneBank executive and Virginia Beach city official throughout his career, and was criminally prosecuted in 2015 for voting on decisions that benefited his business career. As part of a plea deal, Sessoms accepted a $500 fine and was allowed to keep serving as mayor. Despite winning re-election in 2016, he resigned as mayor in 2018 to “pursue private sector employment opportunities” and return to working at TowneBank. His four-year term was completed by Dyer, who won a special election to fill the position.
Electoral Process
Candidates run campaigns officially independent of mainstream political parties, but can still be affiliated with and endorsed by a party. For example, current mayor Bobby Dyer was named the official mayoral pick of the Virginia Beach Republican Party, while Sabrina Wooten has been officially endorsed by the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee. For other candidates who are members of those parties, they can build community interest nonetheless and create a divide between voters in their party. For its city council, Virginia Beach uses a 10-1 voting system, in which residents could only vote in their district’s council election, and for the at-large position of mayor. This system came into place after Holloway vs. Virginia Beach, a 2022 civil case that determined that Virginia Beach’s prior, at-large voting system violated the 1965 Civil Rights Act and denied minority groups equal voting access.
What’s to come
Under the city government of Virginia Beach, the city council is designed to have the most power, and can create local ordinances, allocate funding, and oversee city projects. Importantly, however, the mayor’s office is very connected to the decision-making of the council, as the mayor presides over it. At the Oct. 15 meeting of the city council, topics discussed included the scheduling of the Something in the Water Festival, the available hours of public libraries, and several environmental health projects. Education is a major point of interest on political agendas as well, due to the costly nature of rebuilds for schools like Bettie F. Williams Elementary School, Bayside High School, and Princess Anne.
The mayor of Virginia Beach sets the tone for what policies are enacted over the next four years, from tax reform to infrastructure for the success and growth of Virginia Beach. With several issues remaining in Virginia Beach, Dyer has been given the opportunity to continue his tenure.
