Eighty-two, déjà vu: GOP incumbent Taylor announces re-election bid in repeat of 2023 race

Republican incumbent Kim Taylor said Tuesday she will seek a third term for the seat that stretches from Dinwiddie County to Surry County, and includes Petersburg and Prince George County. Her announcement sets the stage for a repeat of the 2022 contest with Democratic challenger Kimberly Pope Adams, a race that went all the way down to the wire with a recount.

Buoyed by the closeness of that race, Adams announced last November she would make a second run at Taylor.

Taylor, a central Virginia business owner, called her service in Richmond “a privilege” in her re-election announcement. It comes just as she and the other 139 state legislators headed to Richmond Wednesday for the opening of the 2025 General Assembly session – a session that will be in recess until Jan. 13 while Richmond looks for a way out of its water-service crisis.

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Infrastructure improvements, ferry service reinstatement noted

She cited her support over the past three years of measures enhancing law enforcement, infrastructure and education. Taylor said that in Richmond this year, she will back similar efforts as well as ones that toughen laws on sex-trafficking, and promote economic stability and healthcare expansion.

Taylor lauds her efforts to secure millions of dollars in state funding for expansion of the Poor Creek wastewater treatment station in southern Petersburg to cover the anticipated spike in needs considering the growth of the pharmaceutical industry and the pending casino. In an op-ed last year, she also called for continuing the growth of rural-area broadband service that would increase not only business but residency opportunities.

“During her time in Virginia’s General Assembly, Delegate Kim Taylor has secured critical funding for infrastructure projects from Petersburg City to the Surry Ferry, expanded resources for first responders, and ensured teachers have access to the tools and opportunities to provide students with quality education,” her re-election announcement read.

In closing her announcement, Taylor wrote, “I am proud of my record standing up for hardworking Virginians concerned about the rising costs facing their families, and I remain committed to being the leader the 82nd District deserves.”

What about the Petersburg casino?

Notably absent from the announcement was any mention of the Petersburg casino or Taylor’s co-sponsorship of previous legislation that led to last year’s overwhelming ratification of a referendum to bring legalized gambling to the city.

In 2022 and 2023, she worked closely with then-Sen. Joe Morrissey to get Petersburg considered as one of five Virginia cities to host casino. The efforts in 2022 were carried over to the 2023 session, and in 2023, a Senate committee killed them – in part because of Morrissey’s unpopularity among Senate Democrats for his fiery rhetoric and opposition to the party’s pro-choice agenda.

After Morrissey was defeated in the 2023 Democratic primary by former Del. Lashrecse Aird, whom Taylor had defeated two years earlier to claim the seat, Aird became the chief sponsor of the casino legislation in 2024. Taylor, who had said prior to the session that she expected to carry the House version of the casino package, was frozen out of that co-sponsorship, although she ultimately voted for Aird’s bill when it moved over to the House.

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First re-election went into overtime

In 2023, Democrats targeted Taylor in their efforts to regain party control of the House of Delegates. Adams, a Dinwiddie County resident and accountant at Virginia State University, won the Democratic primary to square off with Taylor, who ran for her party nod unopposed.

Almost $5.8 million, most of it from Democratic sponsors and leaners, was spent on the 2023 election, making it the third most expensive state House campaign in 26 years. Even though most of the 82^nd District appeared to be GOP territory, the strong blue base in Petersburg made sure the contest would be competitive.

And competitive it was. Election Night ended with Taylor ahead of Adams by only 78 votes, a whisker-thin lead that fell within the state’s margin of error for a recount.

That December recount shrunk Taylor’s lead from 78 to 53 ballots but was still enough for her to win re-election.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Incumbent Del. Kim Taylor announces bid for third term in state House

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