This article has been updated since it first appeared in print.
Mayor-elect Danny Avula (left) and current Mayor Levar Stoney speak Nov. 6 about the transition of power.
Dr. Danny Avula will be Richmond’s 81st mayor.
According to the official results, Avula received 45,725 votes (46%) of the total cast; to become mayor, a candidate must win five of Richmond’s nine City Council districts. Avula won the vote in six districts, with former City Council President Michelle Mosby taking the other three.
Avula, 46, joined city government as its deputy public health director in 2009, but many Virginians first met him when he was tapped by Gov. Ralph Northam in 2021 to lead the commonwealth’s COVID-19 vaccination effort. Under Gov. Glenn Youngkin, he has been commissioner of social services.
He rode to his Election Night watch party at The Broadberry on a fire engine owned by local members of the International Association of Fire Fighters, who were among his labor union endorsers. “I’ve been so proud and encouraged to just see so many people with so many different talents and experiences sharing and supporting our vision for a healthy and thriving Richmond,” he said.
He also thanked his fellow mayoral candidates — Mosby, Andreas Addison, Harrison Roday and Maurice Neblett — for what they brought to the race. “I absolutely, at a very minimum, want them to be a part of a conversation helping identify priorities for the next year,” he said in a later interview.
Avula will become Richmond’s first mayor of Indian descent. He was joined at the celebration by his wife, Mary Kay, and his five children, two of whom were able to vote for him. His father, Raj, did, too, and said it was “exciting” but “very unusual to vote for your son.” Avula said “being the first immigrant mayor of this city, I think, is reflective of a changing population. ... We’re having immigrants from all over the world come into the city.”
Danny Avula smiles as his father, Raj, shakes hands with Zulfi Khan (left) as Councilmember Reva Trammell looks on.
Avula will be part of the new face of local government come Jan. 1. The new City Council will be made up of Andrew “Gumby” Breton (1st), Katherine L. Jordan (2nd), Kenya Gibson (3rd), Sarah Abubaker (4th), Stephanie Lynch (5th), Ellen Robertson (6th), Cynthia Newbille (7th), Reva Trammell (8th) and Nicole Jones (9th). Recent Richmond City School Board electees include Matthew Percival, Katie Ricard, Ali Faruk, Wesley Hedgepeth, Stephanie Rizzi, Shonda Harris-Muhammed, Cheryl Burke, E.J. Jafari and Shavonda Dixon.
In other election news, Petersburg residents overwhelmingly voted to allow a casino, twice rejected by Richmonders, to be built in their city, and Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine won reelection. At Kaine’s watch party at the Hippodrome, current Mayor Levar Stoney said being Richmond’s mayor “is the toughest job in Virginia politics. ... I voted for someone who I thought could handle this being a pressure cooker.” He was mum on who that was, saying that their identity “is a secret between me and the commonwealth of Virginia.”
The next day, Avula joined Stoney at a joint press conference, the men hugging and thanking each other for their longtime support. "After I talked to my wife and kids this morning,” Avula said, “my first conversation of the day was with Mayor Stoney” about the transition of power.
“There’s a lot of concerns about what the shifts at the national level mean for us,” he continued, “but I think [what] Mayor Stoney has so steadfastly been committed to during his time in office, and what I will absolutely be committed to, is protecting the people of Richmond and fighting for justice and equity in everything that we do as a city moving forward.”
