After the Floyd controversy, everyone's watching the 6th District. Here's what the candidates are offering.

Less than one week out from the election, all eyes are on Richmond’s 6th District.

The race, a three-way battle between Councilwoman Ellen Robertson, lawyer Tavares Floyd and barber and community organizer Willie Hilliard, grabbed attention early in election season. Not only did it become surprisingly expensive surprisingly fast — Floyd reported having raised nearly $80,000 by early June — but Floyd was the former aide of Robertson, who with 21 years in office is City Council’s longest-running member. 

Over the summer and into the fall, the three ramped up their efforts to represent the long skinny district that stretches from the city’s northeastern boundary with Henrico all the way south to Bellemeade Road, an area that is home to not only the state Capitol and Manchester, but also three of the city’s public housing communities. 

Floyd launched an aggressive attack campaign on Robertson, planting yellow signs that read “21 years is enough” around the district and sending out email newsletters that told supporters, “She’s failed you miserably. You’re in trouble.”

It appeared to be the classic case of David and Goliath, enlivened even further by Hilliard, a scrappy third option backed by progressive groups like New Virginia Majority and Richmond for All who echoed many of Floyd’s criticisms that Robertson was in the pocket of developers, but took a more tempered tone. 

And then it all blew up. 

On Saturday, Oct. 19, the Richmond Times-Dispatch published an article reporting that five of Floyd’s donors had denied making any contributions to him. Those donors included Willie Wilson, a colorful Chicago businessman and political candidate who in 2019 ran for U.S. Senate under the banner of the “Willie Wilson Party.” Wilson told The Times-Dispatch he didn’t know Floyd; others said they did but hadn’t given him the thousands of dollars he had reported. 

That was just the beginning. Further reporting found that Floyd was not licensed to practice law in any state, did not hold a stake he claimed to have in a local funeral home, and had not paid a specific Atlanta marketing firm the $36,000 he told elections officials he had. His sister denied his claims that he is a cousin of George Floyd, a connection he has publicly touted since the murder of the Minneapolis man in 2020. His treasurer said she had actually stepped down months ago, despite Floyd not having registered the change in personnel with elections officials. 

The allegations sent shockwaves through local political circles. Hilliard called for his opponent to step down and for investigations into possible violations of elections law as well as into his time working as Robertson’s aide. Mayor Levar Stoney said Floyd’s “inability to make sense of it all is a disqualifier.” Robertson, bucking the trend, has not called for him to withdraw; in an email, she said, “The decision on Mr Floyd being allowed to run is the duty of the registrar.”  

Meanwhile, Floyd has continued to deny the accusations, sending out a newsletter on Oct. 22 that accused his opponents of “spreading lies.” He also alleged Robertson was under investigation by the FBI (she denies the claim). 

Floyd has not responded to multiple inquiries from The Richmonder about specific claims in his paperwork or to requests for an interview for this story. On his Facebook page, he has sought to rebut some of the allegations against him. One post reads simply “Fake news.” On another he writes that he is “the best hearse driver in the world if you need one.” 

In response to one supporter, he commented: “I’m not shying away from exposing the truth in this City. We will be a changed district when I’m elected. And we will be the example to the rest of the city.” 

Hilliard said while the scale of the allegations against his opponent was surprising, not everything caught him off guard. 

“My team, we never believed that the money was real, because, according to his reports, he raised more money than everybody in City Council races, doubling and tripling folks,” Hilliard said. “But he's not doing anything that signifies that he has that type of money, like no billboards, no commercials.” 

“I will say I was shocked by the level of deceit that actually took place in his reporting,” he continued. “We still don't know what he actually really has raised or what he actually has. We don't know that.” 

What it all means for Nov. 5 is anyone’s guess. Since the revelations, the Richmond Crusade for Voters and the PAC for the Richmond Education Association, the teachers union, have dropped their endorsements of Floyd. Hilliard alleges Robertson wants Floyd to stay in the race “because she hopes he steals votes away from me.” Robertson did not respond to the charge.

Ellen Robertson 

First elected to City Council in 2003, Robertson is seeking an eighth term on the body and is running on a platform that emphasizes affordable housing, community policing and school accreditation.  

Affordable housing has long been a signature issue for her: Prior to her first election, Robertson founded the Highland Park Restoration and Preservation Program, which sought to increase home ownership and reduce blight in a neighborhood that the General Assembly once described as “plagued with a high crime rate, decaying homes and open drug markets.” 

During her time on council, Robertson pushed for the creation of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, whose advisory and supervisory committees she continues to sit on. She’s also praised the city’s recent use of performance grants for affordable housing; under that approach, developers agree to produce a set number of units that can be rented to people who make less than various percentages of the area median income (AMI) in exchange for the city covering the cost of the increases in their real estate taxes over a fixed number of years. 

Robertson said the grant approach should be taken even further, with developers who plan projects in areas that have no affordable housing getting even bigger incentives. 

That, in combination with other ideas like having the city “bank” land that can later be developed as affordable housing, are intended to produce what she calls a “30-30-30” housing mix throughout the city: a third for people making up to 60% of AMI, a third for people making between 60 and 120% of AMI and a third for people making above 120%. 

The AMI for the Richmond metropolitan area is calculated by the federal government and varies according to the number of people in a family. For 2024, the AMI for a family in the area was $110,300; the income limits for a household making 80% of AMI would be $61,800 for one person, $70,600 for two people and $88,250 for four people. 

“I do not believe that we should develop another Creighton Court,” said Robertson. “I do not believe we should develop another Whitcomb Court or Hillside. I do not believe we should put 500 units of public housing in a neighborhood and leave it with people that are very low in income.” 

Robertson’s affordable housing record has also left her open to attacks from both Floyd and Hilliard that she is in the pocket of developers, giving them sweetheart deals in exchange for their campaign support and causing housing prices to skyrocket in the 6th District. 

“Housing in the city has gotten out of hand in the 20 years she’s been on City Council,” said Hilliard. “I think the issue is that, truth be told, she has allowed these developers to run rampant in this city without any parameters put on them.” 

Robertson acknowledged housing developers have been “a strong, strong supporter” over the years, but she insisted, “I don’t do pockets.” 

“The reason why they have been supporters of mine is because they know what I’m doing in the housing arena to increase the inventory of affordable housing in the city of Richmond, and they are grateful to have a person like myself who is willing to fight for the policies, the legislation, the budget opportunities with land use to make it possible for them to be able to be a partner in building and developing that affordable housing,” she said. 

Willie Hilliard

While Robertson maintains Richmond has seen significant improvements in recent years, Hilliard has taken an opposite view.

“I’ve been dealing with a lot of these folks for many years, and you know, things haven’t gotten any better for them in this area,” he said. “There’s still a lot of poverty in this district, and folks are being left behind.” 

Hilliard’s campaign this year isn’t his first. In 2020, he ran to represent the 3rd District — where he continues to work at Trent’s Barber Shop on Brookland Park Boulevard — but lost to Ann-Frances Lambert. Subsequently he moved into the 6th District and decided to run after he said he read up on Robertson’s record and found it “very alarming.” In particular, he said the Meadowbridge Road corridor has been neglected, while a lack of infrastructure work to accompany residential and commercial development in Manchester has left the area “a mess.” 

Affordable housing is also one of his top priorities, but he’s skeptical of the AMI, which he said is “too high” and is being used by developers to game the system. Instead, he’s emphasizing the need for “community-driven development,” which he said would require developers to meet with community members to shape their plans. 

“You let us know what it is you want to do, we let you know what it is that we require for you to build,” he said. 

He’s also proposing two tax changes: adopting a land value tax — a proposal he put forward in 2020 but said was mostly overlooked — and reducing the real estate tax rate. 

“I’ve always said that the real estate tax is too high in this area, that we pay the most taxes in this region with the poorest services,” he said. “I understanding cutting the rate would have some negative ramifications to it as well. … But I think we really need to make a good-faith effort to try to bring it down.” 

Moving to a land value tax, which bases assessments on the value of land rather than the buildings on it, is also a reform being pushed this election season by Councilor Andreas Addison in his run for mayor. Hilliard has called it a “fairer way” of property taxation and said he would only support the shift if it resulted in property taxes for working- and middle-class Richmonders holding steady or declining. 

Land value tax, he wrote on his website, “would ask the wealthiest residents of the city to pay their fair share” and while reducing “the economic distortion caused by the current property tax system, wherein the taxpayers effectively subsidize inefficient land use.”

Other priorities include strengthening the city’s Office of Community Wealth Building, auditing Richmond Public Schools and bringing a grocery store to the Northside, where many neighborhoods have limited or no access to fresh food. Hilliard, who helped form the Northside Food Access Coalition, said smaller grocery stores could be incorporated into plans for new mixed-use developments, or the city could offer grants to help offset higher mom-and-pop grocery prices in areas that are food deserts. 

Tavares Floyd

While Floyd did not respond to requests for an interview for this story, he describes himself on his website as “a lawyer, small business owner, lecturer, public servant and community advocate” who is involved in numerous civic and political organizations around Richmond.  

The Shreveport (Louisiana) Times reported in 2016 that Floyd was one of 155 graduates from the Southern University Law Center. VPM has reported he is not licensed to practice law in any U.S. state. Floyd told the news outlet that he “certainly was a legal consultant and advisor in Virginia, as a lawyer.” 

Prior to coming to Richmond, Floyd was in Alexandria, where he founded a company called the BeWell Project that appears to have been active in 2019. 

He later became an aide to Robertson, a role he held for four and a half years. Floyd told South Richmond News earlier this year that Robertson had promised to “pass the baton” of the 6th District seat onto him but had then walked back her promise. 

Robertson denied that account. She said she prays at length about every reelection and does not make a decision until she receives a feeling of “unconditional surrendered peace” from God that seeking the seat again is the correct step. 

“Until I do that walk around the park and get that absolute assurance that this is what the Lord still wants me to do, I don't make up my mind on it,” she said. “And the same thing happened this year with this election.” 

On his website, Floyd identified his platform as ensuring clean and livable neighborhoods, improving public safety through an “inclusion, not exclusion” approach, providing greater support for entrepreneurs and small businesses and building community and quality of life through steps such as addressing homelessness. He also filled out a questionnaire on his stances for VPM and this August did an interview with South Richmond News on issues like gun violence and gentrification. 

In an October email to supporters, Floyd offered a list of goals he pledged to meet if elected this November.

“We can fix this,” he wrote. “I can help the struggling residents, the senior citizens that need help with taxes and social services, I can lower everyone’s taxes, help our homeless, get the drugs off the street and fix the mental health crisis in the 6th District, help our businesses with meals tax issues, I can fix the poverty issue in the City with a third of our overall population in poverty and half of our children in poverty, fully fund our schools and get people jobs.”