The seats representing Ward C and Ward D on Waynesboro City Council are up in the 2026 cycle. Based on what we just saw at the polls, things aren’t looking so good for Jim Wood, the chair of the local Republican Party, and the Ward D guy on the City Council.
Wood won his election in 2022 by a scant 17 votes, a year after Republican Glenn Youngkin got 66.8 percent of the vote in Ward D in his run for governor, and two years after Donald Trump got 71.0 percent in Ward D in 2020.
Trump’s margin in Ward D narrowed in 2024 – he got 54.1 percent.
And then, we have 2025, where Abigail Spanberger, the Dem, lost the ward by a scant three votes.
Keep in mind: Wood, the brand of Republican that uses homophobic slurs on podcasts, barely won in 2022 in a district that was 17 percent more Republican then than it is now.
No surprise, then, that word is, Wood isn’t going to run for re-election.
Ward D, incidentally, is the only one in the city that went for the MAGA candidate for governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, in the 2025 cycle.
Spanberger got 52.2 percent in Ward C, 53.3 percent in Ward A, and 54.6 percent in Ward B.
The LG nominee for the Ds, Ghazala Hashmi, also won A, B and C, and lost Ward D to John Reid by 80 votes.
In the AG race, Democrat Jay Jones won A and B, lost Ward C by 35 votes, and lost Ward D by 217 votes, or 8.5 points.
Makayla Venable, the Democratic nominee for the local House of Delegates seat, won A, B and C, and lost Ward D by 85 votes, so, similar to Hashmi.
Let the candidate recruiting begin.
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Chris Graham
