Virginia’s new “convention ban” outlaws the ability of political parties to choose their candidates through their own conventions and instead virtually requires them to use taxpayer-funded primary elections where voters from the opposing party can interfere in the candidate selection process. Now, a local Republican Party is challenging the law as an unconstitutional violation of its First Amendment right to free association.
The Republican Party in Lynchburg has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Virginia Department of Elections, the State Board of Elections, and the commissioner of the Department of Elections, challenging the ban.
Veronica Bratton, chair of the Lynchburg Republican City Committee, the official name of the Republican Party in Lynchburg, stated in a news release: “With the convention ban law taking effect, the state of Virginia requires the Lynchburg Republican Party to allow Democrats, or even people who ran against our nominees, to choose our nominees, or even be our nominees. The convention ban law is a direct affront to our freedom of association as a party.”
Rick Boyer of Integrity Law PLLC, who is representing the Republican Party, told The Daily Signal that this all began during the COVID-19 lockdowns ordered by Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam, when the commonwealth, like other states, came up with ways to vote other than in person.
In 2021, the General Assembly passed what is referred to as the “convention ban law” (Code of Virginia § 24.2-509(A)) that states that a political party can’t use a nominating method for candidates for office if it would exclude participation “by qualified voters who are otherwise eligible to participate in the nominating process under that political party’s rules but are unable to attend meetings because they are” active-duty military, living outside the U.S., away at college, have a disability, or have “a communicable disease of public health threat … or who may have come in contact with a person with such disease.”
That essentially leaves nominating methods to government-run primaries, where voters have options besides voting in person.
The Republican plaintiffs claim that their right to exclude someone who has committed a violation of their party bylaws from voting to decide the party’s official candidates is impossible under this law. Boyer says this stems from the case of Peter Alexander, who has announced an exploratory committee to challenge Republican Lynchburg City Councilwoman Stephanie Reed in the Republican primary in 2026.
The plaintiffs claim that Alexander is disqualified because he violated the Party Plan of the Republican Party of Virginia, the state party’s governing document, which states: “When an individual signs their statement of intent to support all Republican candidates in the ensuing general election then makes a public statement in support of a candidate running against a Republican in that election, he or she is ineligible to participate in Republican nomination contests for four years.”
The suit says that violation occurred in 2024 when Alexander, after losing a June primary election for the Republican nomination for Lynchburg City Council to incumbent Chris Faraldi, mounted a write-in campaign against Faraldi.
Boyer says the suit is asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional and to allow the Lynchburg Republican City Committee to return to traditional nomination methods in time for the 2026 election cycle.
Del. Dan Helmer, the Fairfax Democrat who crafted the change in the law, defended the law by stating that he wrote it to “protect the voting rights of Virginians who have faced barriers to participating in the past.”
Boyer concedes that it seems to be an uphill battle for the Lynchburg GOP when even the Republican attorney general issued a legal opinion about the law stating, “A political party may not select a nomination method that de facto requires covered voters to be physically present to participate or that otherwise has the practical effect of excluding their participation.”
When asked about the law’s language that seems to leave open the possibility of conventions or mass meetings if there is the ability for voters to not show up in person, Boyer pointed out: “Del. Dan Helmer, who sponsored the law, keeps telling the media that people can hold nonprimary methods as long as they make provision for absentee voting. But the Lynchburg GOP committee last year and the 31st House District GOP committee this year tried to do party-run processes. They had elaborate plans for absentee and early voting. The attorney general shot down Lynchburg, and the commissioner of the Department of Elections shot down the 31st district [plan].”
Is the fix for this issue to have voters register by their party affiliation, something that Virginia doesn’t currently do? Or is the fix repealing the COVID-19-era convention ban? We will let you know what the judge’s ruling is as this case moves forward.
