Nygaard Ends Congressional Campaign, Announces VB City Council Bid

Less than 24 hours after learning he would not have a place on the Second Congressional District Democratic primary ballot, local businessman David Nygaard today announced his candidacy for the Virginia Beach City Council.

Late yesterday, Nygaard’s campaign was notified that he did not have enough petition  signatures to be included on the June primary ballot.

According to Nygaard, his campaign submitted 1,312 signatures to the Democratic party prior to the March 29 deadline. Yesterday, Nygaard stated he received a phone call from Sandra Brandt, chairperson of the Second District Democratic Party, informing him he did not have the 1,000 qualified signatures.

The only primary candidates with enough signatures to be included on the ballot are Elaine Luria and Karen Mallard. 

According to Nygaard, Ms. Brandt did not give him a specific number of signatures that were disqualified or the basis of their disqualification.  

“She told me that all she knew was I had around 300 signatures disqualified,” he said. “I responded that I submitted over 1,300. I was shocked she still did not have answers, and I requested a formal meeting to appeal the decision.”  

Nygaard told OutWire757 that he met with party officials on Tuesday evening where he was given a paper indicating that 596 signatures were disqualified. 

“How they went from 300 to almost 600 in just a couple of hours is beyond my understanding,” he said. 

“Further, we collected signatures alongside the other candidates at the same events, yet more than half of my signatures were disqualified.”

Nygaard also noted that  “Ms. Brandt made a point to bring up my sexuality saying that she is very pro-LGBT and that my sexual orientation had nothing to do with the situation.” 

OutWire757 reached out to Ms. Brandt for comment on Tuesday evening. As of the time of this post, she had not responded.

David Nygaard posted this video earlier this afternoon.