Kathy Lawson, Julian Mei, and Rayshaun Gravely won the three open slots on the City of Martinsville Council, surpassing fellow candidates John Wilson III and LaNita Herlem in the five-way race, according to unofficial election results.
Lawson, an incumbent who won her fourth term on the council, received the most votes in the election with 2,887 votes, or 24.80 percent of all votes cast in her favor. “The citizens, the voters, of Martinsville have shown their faith in me and the job that I have done,” Lawson said. “We’re just going to move forward to further advance our city and our citizenry.”
Mei received 21,38 percent of all votes, or 2,488 votes. In a comment to Star News, Mei said he appreciated the congratulations and noted that Martinsville’s in trouble. “I’ll do my best to effect some change, but it’s going to be difficult with some of the choices Martinsville’s made,” he said.
Gravely received 2,480 votes, or 21.31 percent of the votes. Throughout the entire election, Gravely said he didn’t know what the results would be. “I didn’t feel like I was going to lose, I didn’t feel like I was winning, I was in the middle, and that showed tonight – I was in the middle. You know, second place. But it’s been great. The community showed out, came up, and did what they thought was best for us,” he said.
Wilson received 2,095, or 18 percent, of the votes while 1,613 votes, or 13.86 percent of them, were cast for Herlem; 76 votes, or 0.65 percent of all votes, were write-in ballots.
In the race for the 9th Congressional District, Morgan Griffith, incumbent, prevailed in his bid against challenger Karen Baker, a democrat from Floyd. Griffith, R-Salem, pulled ahead early on, and by 8:30 p.m., Baker conceded the race.
“I look forward to continuing to be a conservative voice in Washington for the people of the 9th Congressional District, and I really appreciate the mandate they gave me this evening,” Griffith said.
While Griffith won the overall election, Baker won Martinsville by clinching 3,167 votes, to the 2,229 votes cast for Griffith. Unofficial results indicate 12 write-in ballots also were cast.
Griffith won most votes in Henry County, with 16,647 to Baker’s 7,819; and there were 49 write-in votes cast.
In Martinsville, Vice President Kamala Harris won 3,378 votes to former President Donald Trump’s 2,117 votes, with 15 write-in ballots cast, according to unofficial results. In Henry County, Trump picked up 16,541 votes to the 8,295 cast for Harris.
Incumbent U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Richmond, defeated his challenger Hung Cao in the city with 3,458 votes compared to Cao’s 1,912. Nine write-in ballots were cast.
In Henry County, Kaine received 9,390 votes; Cao received 15,230, and 42 write-in ballots were cast.
According to unofficial election results, Martinsville had a 60 percent voter turnout. Of the 9,281 registered voters, 5,609 cast ballots during the November 5 election.
Henry County had a 67 percent voter turnout according to unofficial election results. Of the 37,203 registered voters, 25,080 cast a ballot in the Tuesday election.
To see a breakdown of votes by precincts in Henry County, visit https://enr.elections.virginia.gov/results/public/henry-county/elections/2024NovemberGeneral.
To see a breakdown of votes by precincts in Martinsville, visit https://enr.elections.virginia.gov/results/public/martinsville-city/elections/2024NovemberGeneral.
