2024 Election Guide: Richmond Mayor

"My name is Andreas Addison. I am a current city councilman representing the 1st District for the last 8 years. Before that, I worked in City Hall for 8 years, so 16 years of combined public service to the city - working to try to fight to find ways to make it work for everybody.

One of the things that I think is interesting about my candidacy is no one really knows a lot about who I am.

I'm born and raised in Virginia. I grew up with a single mother. She remarried when I was 4. I grew up in a little farm tract in the middle of Shenandoah County, where I grew up on free lunch. I grew up on Social Security checks, because my real father was handicapped from an alcoholic brain injury before I was 5, and so throughout my entire childhood, I saw a lot of things that helped me get to where I was.

But the other thing I had was a big, strong community around me. The things my parents might not have been able to support me with, my friends parents did, and so I was really benefited (in developing) because of the network around my school. I had after school programs - I had after school sports, I had after school arts and culture and music.

And that's really what helped develop me to then attend college on a Pell Grant, because the only way I could really get there was through government assistance again. When I graduated from Virginia Tech, I graduated with a degree in political science, and I moved to Richmond, and yes, I'm actually using my political science degree. And I'm proud of the fact that I'm able to apply that here in the capital of the Commonwealth.

That's what shaped my career. I am here because of government help and assistance, but also because of the help of community. And so now, as I'm running for mayor, I want to take that experience and really drive that change across all corners of our city, investing where people live, helping people stay in their homes, but more importantly, the homes that they've invested in, they want to raise their family in, is also where they can enjoy a park, enjoy the neighborhood, go to a sporting event, go to see music, arts and culture as well, in a safe environment.

So for me, that's why I'm running for mayor."

"My name is Danny Avula. Pronouns are he/him. I am a pediatrician. I am a 20-plus year resident of the East End of Richmond, North Church Hill. I am a former public health director for the city, the former DSS Commissioner for the state. I helped lead the regional response to COVID in 2020 and the state vaccine response in 2021.

I am the spouse to an RPS teacher. My wife, Mary Kay, has been teaching in public schools for most of the last 20 years at Chimborazo Elementary. I am the dad to five kids who have all gone to Richmond public schools.

We love Richmond. We are deeply invested in the city. We care about where we are as a city now and where we're heading in the future.

The things that brought me to the East End. After I came to go to medical school, originally in 2000, I was compelled by two ideas. One, the idea of the beloved community - Martin Luther King's idea that people could choose to live in places and spaces and build relationships across race, class and difference. And the idea of proximity, that when you are proximate to people who are different than you, you are shaped and formed, and you find your wholeness in those relationships.

And so we did that. We moved to the East End of Richmond in 2004 and for the better part of 10-12 years had this incredible experience of community building, of building relationships across differences.

And then what happened as the city began to develop, as Church Hill begin to develop, is that we lost that. Many of my neighbors, particularly my Black neighbors, were pushed out of the neighborhood because of rising rents and and property taxes.

And so I'm running for mayor to make sure that our community can preserve the richness and the diversity that so many of us yearn for and that all of us need."

"I am a Richmond native, born on the North Side of Richmond. My parents bought their first home in what we know as the 6th District. My grandmother lived around the corner - babysitters have to be close.

And from there, it was watching my parents be parents. It was watching them, determined that they were going to give me the chance to do all things. They put me in piano. They put me in the Brownies. I've been in everything that my mother could think of to put me in.

And so, I think that that was a part of what was shaping me. I am a business owner of 23 years. I'm the first in my family to start a business. I went to my dad, and my dad said, 'What's the plan?' And from there, he began to help me with business.

I am a Realtor of 18-plus years, helping those who would sometimes believe that being a homeowner wouldn't be an option, but helping them become homeowners.

I am an executive director of a nonprofit called Help Me Help You, which helps those who have been incarcerated get reacclimated back into society.

And I've been on City Council, and we'll talk about that a little later, but it's that very thing, working with the incarcerated, that drove me to run for office. Because it's about helping people to have equality and equity, when they're being told that they're less than. And so I'm running for mayor because I want to make sure that Richmond is a city that works for all of us.

I have been successful in helping those who have been discriminated against, mistreated. And so I'm looking forward to being Richmond's next mayor, and moving Richmond forward for every single Richmonder."

"Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having us today. I'm excited for being here today to communicate with you about who I am and the candidacy that I push. So since the beginning of the election, we've been pushing transparency, accountability. And with that is financial accountability, public safety, and education, right?

It's very important to make sure that we have the fabrics of Richmond intertwined so that we can continue and thrive and have a new way forward to a better Richmond.

So, I'm Maurice Neblett. I grew up in Richmond. I'm homegrown. There's no place like home, and that's why I'm running for Richmond. I'm running for Richmond mayor because I love Richmond. I love the people in Richmond. I love the new ideas that I have, and I believe that it will be effective for Richmond.

So, I came through foster care. My mother passed when I was a child. I grew up in dysfunction, right? But I didn't allow that to make the determination on what route my life goes.

Now, granted, I lived all over the city of Richmond. I lived north, east, south and west. I lived in the Big Six, you know, so those pretty much are all of RRHA's properties. So I had to beat the odds. I mean, I beat odds after odds. I've faced, I've seen and I've overcame.

So when I saw, you know, the issues in our community, I moved out because I was in social services and I saw, you know, being exposed to different areas and communities, I saw that what I lived and what I saw wasn't normal. I saw the discriminatory. I saw the violence. I saw issues in the community, and I had to do something about it, so I became a community organizer.

Along with that, I reached back and helped all populations with issues that that we live with every day, we walk by every day.

But also, I'm a first generation graduate. Though I was in my circumstance, I was the first to graduate college from Virginia Union University. But also, I'm a business owner, a serial entrepreneur.

I'm also on the board of directors of a federal credit union as well. And you know, with me coming into, you know, this aspect of running for mayor, it's about giving everyone a fair shot. I'm running for mayor to give everyone an opportunity to thrive. Give everyone and opportunity to live with peace, harmony and respect."

"It's great to see the level of interest that we have here. It gives you a lot of inspiration as a candidate, to see so many people interested in the mayor's race. So, thank you for being here.

I grew up in Henrico County, and my first job, after spending some time at William & Mary was right here in Richmond, working for Senator Kaine. I talk about Senator Kaine a lot, not just because he's a role model for me, but because I think him and Secretary Holton do such a good job of showing what public service is all about.

They show that public service is about listening to people, because you can't advocate for people unless you listen to them and really represent their needs and fight for people. After working for Senator Kaine, I spent many years working around industrial manufacturing.

Some people find industrial manufacturing boring. I think it's one of the coolest and most exciting things around. People come from all over an area, together under one roof, to get things done. One common mission, one common purpose, no matter what your background is. It actually sounds a lot like what we need to get done in the city, whether it's in City Hall or managing our budget.

I've helped run businesses that are the size of our city and larger than our city. And after spending time doing that, I started a nonprofit here in our community called Bridging Virginia.

Bridging Virginia makes loans to women and Black-owned businesses that are being denied access to credit from banks. So when I talk about things like leveling the playing field, those are things that I've been working on firsthand for years to support our community.

I'm really excited to talk about all the critical issues we'll cover tonight facing the city. Thank you for the opportunity to be here with you. I'm going to continue to run a campaign focused on a positive change for the city of Richmond."