WAVY.com

Duman leads Jenkins, but Suffolk mayor too close to call

  • Brian Reese

    • SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The race for Suffolk mayor is still too close to call.

    With early voting, Election Day and mail in absentee votes counted, incumbent Mayor Mike Duman leads with 34.79% of the vote to former Del. Clint Jenkins’ 34.65%. Duman (17,524 votes) leading the overall vote count by just 68 votes over Jenkins (17,456). David Bosselman has 30.56% of the vote.


    Prior to mailed absentee votes being counted, Duman had 35.82% of the vote to David Bosselman’s 33.18% and Clinton Jenkins’ 31.00%.

    For City Council in the Sleepy Hole Borough, longtime civil servant Ebony Wright won with 53.01% of the vote over incumbent Roger Fawcett, who had 46.53%. In the race for a schoolboard seat in the borough, Heather Howell won with 56%. Lue Ward ran unopposed in the Nansemond Borough and was reelected.

    For City Council in the Whaleyville Borough, incumbent LeOtis Williams won his reelection for the role with 60.54% of the vote. Sean McGee led the votes in the race for a schoolboard seat in the borough with 52.19%.

    In Suffolk’s School Board races, Valerie Fields took the Nansemond Borough’s seat over James Shores with 65.98% of the vote, while Heather Howell defeated Carly Bosco with 54.75% of the vote for the Sleepy Hole Borough seat. In the Whaleyville Borough, Sean McGee leads by less than 1%, with 43.52% of the vote to Thelma Hinton’s 42.69%, with the two separated by just 51 votes.

    Every ballot in Suffolk in the Nov. 5 election included the big race for president, one of Virginia’s U.S. Senate seats (Kaine vs. Cao) and the competitive race for Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District between incumbent Jen Kiggans and Democrat Missy Cotter Smasal.

    When it comes to local races, if you live in the Chuckatuck, Cypress, Suffolk or Holy Neck boroughs, you didn’t vote on city council and school board this time around. But you got to vote for mayor and sheriff like the rest of the city.

    Meanwhile voters in the Sleepy Hole, Whaleyville and Nansemond boroughs voted for city council and school board candidates.

    Results in Suffolk can be found below:

    Here’s a breakdown of the races in Suffolk:

    Suffolk Mayor

    Incumbent Mayor Mike Duman is running for a second term as mayor, after being first elected in November 2020. He’s running against former Virginia Delegate Clint Jenkins and fourth-generation farmer David Bosselman.

    WAVY News 10’s Brett Hall reached out to the mayoral candidates for an in-depth interview ahead of Election Day. He caught up with Duman and Jenkins. Click on their names above to view the full interviews with the candidates.

    Suffolk Sheriff

    Incumbent Sheriff David Miles is running unopposed.

    Sleepy Hole candidates

    City council: Incumbent Roger Fawcett is running against Navy veteran and longtime civil servant Ebony Wright.

    School board: Incumbent Heather Howell is running against Carly A. Bosco.

    Whaleyville candidates

    City council: Incumbent LeOtis “Turkey Man” Williams is running against Navy veteran and engineer Jason Woolridge.

    School board: Sean McGee, Jonathan Rankin and Thelma Hinton are running for this seat. You can read their profiles by clicking on their names above.

    Nansemond candidates

    City council: Vice Mayor Lue Ward is running unopposed.

    School board: James Shores is running against Valerie Fields.

    Constitutional Amendment

    A proposed constitutional amendment will also be voted on statewide in this election. The ballot question is:

    Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended so that the tax exemption that is currently available to the surviving spouses of soldiers killed in action is also available to the surviving spouses of soldiers who died in the line of duty?

    Sample ballots

    Here are the sample ballots for your particular district

    Voting on Election Day

    Polls are open in Virginia from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Election Day.

    Anyone in line by 7 p.m. on Election Day will be able to vote. Accessible and curbside voting is available by request.

    Be sure to bring an eligible ID with you when you show up at your assigned polling place. You can look up your polling location at this link.

    Voter Resources

    Virginia is an open primary state, meaning voters don’t have to be registered with a party ahead of time to participate in that party’s primary. Though they will have to pick one party’s ballot when they do go to vote. Those will also include races for any nonpartisan local positions.

    Who can vote?

    To register to vote in Virginia, you must meet these criteria, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.

    Those without a valid Virginia Driver’s license or state ID can still vote by signing an ID statement affirming their identity or vote via provisional ballot.

    For instructions to register to vote and to register, click here.

    CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the race had been called.