EXCLUSIVE: Ian Lovejoy to run for Manassas delegate seat; Lee Carter confident he will defend office

MANASSAS — Delegate Lee Carter’s seat is up for election next year, and Manassas City Councilman Ian Lovejoy plans to run for it.

Lovejoy will announce his campaign on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at a small gathering in his house in Manassas.

“I’m certainly honored to have the endorsement and support of Jackson (Miller). I think that he certainly left some big shoes to fill,” Lovejoy said.

Miller, a Republican who represented Manassas in the House of Delegates for 12 years before losing to Carter in 2017, will see his name is on a long list of elected officials and business owners in Manassas and Prince William County who have endorsed Lovejoy.

A move to Richmond for Lovejoy would come after he’s spent nearly seven years on the Manassas City Council.

“My main goal is to extend on the type of service that I’ve provided as a councilman in Manassas and that’s citizen-driven focus, citizen engagement, and certainly a focus on jobs and making sure our economy continues to grow. That’s been my focus while on the council and its perspective that I think needs to be taken forward into the House of Delegates,” said Lovejoy.

Carter said it’s not a surprise that Lovejoy is running for Delegate. Lovejoy hasn’t exactly kept his plans to run for higher office hidden, he adds, He plans to challenge him.

“I’m definitely seeking re-election,” Carter said. “Frankly, I feel very confident.”

Carter a, Democratic-Socialist, was a political outsider who rode a blue wave into office in 2017, one year after President Trump was elected to office. He’s the first and only member of his party elected to Virginia’s General Assembly.

Before him, Manassas-area residents had unchanging leadership with seniority in Richmond. The late State Senator Charles Colgan, a blue dog Democrat, retired in 2015 after serving 40 years in the State Senate. He was the body’s longest-serving member when he retired and had also served as the Senate’s President Pro Tempore for four of them.

In the House, Miller served for 12 years before his loss to Carter. He succeeded Harry J. Parrish, who once was Manassas Mayor and the father of current Manassas Mayor Harry J. Parrish II.

“I also think that we’ve lost our voice in the 50th a bit as it pertains to our representation in Richmond, and the 50th is an important district in the Commonwealth, and I think that we need to make sure that we have a strong voice that can work across all parties to make sure that we get good work done for the citizens of the 50th,” Lovejoy said.

It’s possible that Carter, who hasn’t been universally accepted by members of his own party in Richmond, won’t be the Democratic nominee. For that reason, Lovejoy says he won’t focus his campaign solely on him.

“He is probably going to face a primary challenge from establishment Democrats,” said Lovejoy. “I honestly don’t know who the Democratic nominee will be…”

Lovejoy has made no secret of his disdain for socialism, a term Carter has bandied about. Carter defends his positions and said the “first misused word” in government is ‘socialism,’ and the second most misused word is capitalism.

“[Lovejoy] can’t even accurately define what socialism is,” said Carter. “He just says ‘freedom and markets.”

Carter said he looks forward to talking about socialism with Lovejoy. But it’s not a subject on which his Republican opponent wants to focus.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a debate about socialism specifically. I think it’s going to be a conversation about specific policies,” said Lovejoy. “Socialism was adjudicated decades ago. I’m not interested in re-adjudicating socialism.”

Lovejoy labels Carter an activist first and public servant second. He asserts the Democratic-Socialist dislikes business and doesn’t differentiate between the concerns of large corporations or mom and pop shops.

“I think that is too extreme for the 50th and certainly too extreme for Virginia,” said Lovejoy.

Being the only person in the General Assembly who identifies as a socialist is “a bit isolating,” said Carter.

“I found that my name is a party-line issue,” he adds.

With him in Richmond, Carter said it’s the first time the people of Manassas and Bristow have someone “fiercely advocating” for them and that there’s “no place I’d rather be.”

The freshman delegate did not name any legislation on which he’s working to hang his hat. Instead, he cited the 51-49 Republican seat majority in the House, and that he’s working to make sure Virginia flips both chambers for Democrats next year so they can “improve the lives of everyone” not just in his district, but also throughout the state.

Lovejoy plans to focus on continuing the positive trajectory of job growth for the area and campaigning on lowering healthcare costs by “working across state lines to create regional pools for insurance so that we can work to bring the price of insurance down for everybody,” and focus on transportation.

“We continue to send more than our fair share of money to Richmond, and we need to make sure that it’s coming back and properly being used to address our transportation concerns,” Lovejoy said.

Lovejoy is betting that his experience as a city council member, will serve him well in state government, as it did Jackson Miller and Harry Parrish I who were also both elected to the Manassas City Council before they were elected to the House of Delegates.

“Being an elected official from a locality also gives me a unique perspective of how Richmond relates to localities.”

Northern Virginia voters continue to elect Democrats to public office. Earlier this month, Manassas voters chose two new Democrats to City Council, sent their Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock packing voting instead for Democrat Jennifer Wexton, and re-hired Democrat Tim Kaine to the Senate.

Manassas Councilwoman-elect Theresa Coates-Ellis was the only Republican in the region who mounted a successful campaign.

“I’ve managed to win in bad circumstances for Republicans every time my name’s been on the ballot because I bring a unique sense of engagement and follow through to my constituents,” he said.

Lovejoy has been a Manassas resident since 2008 and is the owner and founder of Reliant Hiring Solutions.