ELECTION 2025: House District 58 race focuses on issues of education, healthcare, and housing in Henrico

Democratic incumbent Rodney Willett and his Republican challenger Milad Mikhail are bringing local issues such as the rising cost of living – and statewide concerns about Trump administration policies – to the forefront of the race for Virginia’s 58th District seat. 

The 58th District, which covers the Three Chopt and Tuckahoe areas of Western Henrico, is one of Henrico’s only contested House of Delegates races. Willett, a Virginia native, has served as a delegate since 2020, winning between 52% to 54% of the vote in the past three elections.

In 2023, Willett defeated Republican candidate Riley Shaia with 54% of votes, receiving his strongest support from Three Chopt neighborhoods. The 58th District leans more democratic, with 57% voting for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

Mikhail, an Egyptian-born Henrico businessman, has only raised about $27,000 for his campaign, compared to Willett’s $500,000. But unlike Willett, Mikhail has invested thousands in political ads, specifically on Facebook and Instagram. 

Willett, who chairs Virginia’s Joint Commission on Health Care, said that his “highest priority” for the upcoming legislative session would be to support Virginia’s free clinics and hospital emergency departments. With the passage of the Trump administration’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” Willett said he anticipates tens of thousands of Virginians resorting to free clinics and emergency rooms due to Medicaid cuts.

“I’m just worried about people’s lives, and if we don’t have basic healthcare for hundreds of thousands of Virginians, it is a life or death matter,” he said. “I did get some amendments through last year to help the free clinics, but we’ve got to do more. They’re already full, and now they’re going to be getting potentially tens of thousands of more Virginians needing their services.”

Mikhail did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this article. However, the first-time candidate, who has marketed himself as the opposite of a “career politician,” said that access to affordable healthcare is also one of his top priorities, according to his campaign website.

“Too often, politicians in Washington think more government is the answer to every healthcare challenge,” Mikhail wrote in a campaign Facebook post. “Healthcare should be affordable, transparent, and accessible. That happens when we cut red tape, encourage competition, and put doctors and patients back in charge…not bureaucrats making choices for them.”

Affordability on the minds of voters

Issues of affordability are also front and center in the 58th District election. Henrico’s average home price has increased to $400,000 – but in Western Henrico, the average house costs even more, said Willett. Supporting first-time homebuyers is a must, said Willett, but also finding suitable areas for redevelopment in the county that can increase the area’s housing supply.

“We’re running out of land here in Western Henrico,” he said. “And I hear from homebuilders that we are one of the easier counties to do business with, but that’s not the case statewide. And so we do, as the state, need to say, ‘you’re making it too difficult to build homes.’ I’m deferential to local governments, but we’re really facing some issues there.”

For many Henrico and Virginia parents, one of the biggest worries is also the rising cost and inaccessibility of childcare, Willett said, which is another one of the incumbent’s main priorities. 

“We’ve made a lot of progress with childcare subsidies, but there’s still tens of thousands of Virginia families now who need that help,” he said. “I’ve talked to multiple families and they said, ‘look, we’re two parents here, and we basically have to flip a coin so that one of us is staying home, because childcare costs more than our mortgage.’ That’s wrong.”

When it comes to education, Mikhail has said his biggest focuses are promoting equitable school funding, increasing parents’ control over their children’s education, and fighting against the inclusion of transgender student athletes in girls’ sports and athletic spaces.

“Schools should focus on giving children a strong education. Outside agendas have no place in the classroom, and parents should have a primary say in how their children are raised and educated,” Mikhail wrote on his campaign website. “Children belong to their parents, not to the Commonwealth.”

Along with fixing Virginia’s “antiquated” school funding formula, Willett said that he wants to increase pay and supports for teachers and school staff, and criticized Gov. Glenn Youngkin and his administration for education policies that he said undermines teachers and forces them out of the profession.

“There’s been an administration that just doesn’t respect teachers, and we saw that from the get-go with this governor just questioning the integrity of our classrooms,” he said. “Come to Henrico. I’ll show you integrity. I’ll show you amazing teachers. I just want to have teachers’ backs. I think we really lost that focus for several years and I’m hoping we can bring that back.”

Compared to his past three races, Willett has spent significantly less this election cycle. Between 2019 and 2023, Willett raised between $1 million and $2 million for each election, and his opponents raised similarly high figures.

Willett’s top donations come from Virginia and Henrico-area hospitals and healthcare associations, as well as tobacco company Altria and political organization Clean Virginia Fund. Mikhail has only received donations of $5,000 or less, with the top donor being tobacco supply KO Import Inc.

Learn more

Rodney Willet’s campaign website
Milad Mikhail’s campaign website

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.