The 14th House District Nominating Committee announced Thursday that Seward Anderson will be the Democratic Party’s nominee. No one filed to challenge Anderson, a former Danville mayor and city council member, before the deadline.
Anderson is running this year against Danny Marshall, a Republican who represents Danville and parts of southern Pittsylvania County and eastern Henry County in the Virginia House of Delegates. Marshall was first elected to the House in 2001.
The Democratic caucus scheduled for May 16 to nominate a party candidate was cancelled when Wednesday’s filing deadline passed without any challengers. Sheila Baynes, chair of the nominating committee and the Danville City Democratic Committee, announced Anderson as the party nominee.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to have him as our candidate,” Baynes said in a statement. “His years of service to Danville as a mayor and the momentum built from the recent successes of other results-oriented Democrats like Sen. Mark Warner are going to make him a formidable candidate.”
Anderson stressed effective leadership, the economy and education as his main objectives should he win the race against Marshall.
“It’s certainly an honor,” Anderson said of his nomination. “I was on city council here 14 years, the final 10 of those as mayor. We were pretty successful because there was no partisan bickering. It was that type of leadership that allowed us to build two industrial parks and provide jobs for the community.”
If elected, Anderson said he planned to fully fund the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, something which he felt was lacking from the current leadership. The fund is a discretionary pool of money to benefit rural and economically depressed areas.
“That certainly describes this area here,” he said. “(The fund) is the lifeblood of local development. It’s a great tool and if it is not fully funded, it cannot be fully utilized.”
As far as campaign plans, Anderson held a fundraising event Thursday night in Martinsville and plans to schedule another in Danville in the coming weeks.
“A large part of my campaign is going to be done face-to-face, door-to-door,” he said. “If you look people in the eye, they get a better opportunity to know who you are.”
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