🏆 WINNER: L. Louise Lucas
An unlikely hero, but no one has had a bigger impact on D.C.’s business and development this year than Senator L. Louise Lucas. By almost single-handedly stopping Monumental Sports’ move to Virginia, Lucas secured her spot as the winner of the City Cast 6 business & development award for 2024.
Lucas represents Virginia’s 18th District, which includes Greensville and Sussex County. At 80-years-old, she has held the seat since 1992 and chairs the finance and appropriations committee.
Last spring, when Gov. Glenn Youngkin tried to lure Monumental Sports to Virginia with a $2 billion stadium deal, Lucas stonewalled it. She said the proposal would not only be a disaster to the state’s finances, but it would also set Virginia’s newly ascendant Black lawmakers up for failure.
“Had she backed down, Democrats looking to compromise with Youngkin might have pushed through, but she stood her ground. We have her to thank for the teams staying in D.C.,” said Washingtonian reporter Anna Spiegel, part of the City Cast 6 panel.
After Youngkin and Leonsis unveiled their plans, Lucas posted on X, “Anyone who thinks I’m going to approve an arena in Northern Virginia using state tax dollars before we deliver on toll relief and for public schools in Hampton Roads must think I have dumbass written on my forehead.”
Lucas’s actions made her an instant D.C. celebrity. It doesn’t hurt that her Twitter presence and matching suit game are absolutely iconic.
F*** around and find out 😏(@senlouiselucas/X)
Youngkin, a multimillionaire former private equity chief and Harvard MBA, and his team of high-finance advisers were left fuming. At the end of the day, the stadium deal got the smackdown by an 80-year-old legislator who has more political savvy than them all put together.
“I’ll never forget the picture of her at the end of the Capital One saga,” said Greater Greater Washington’s Dan Reed during City Cast 6 panel negotiations, “when Glenn Youngkin is in front of the state capitol saying the deal fell apart, and she's just up on a balcony behind him eyeing him like, ‘that's right.’”
We’re not used to lawmakers outside of D.C. meddling in our affairs with a positive outcome, as City Cast 6 panelist and Washington Post report Michael Brice-Saddler pointed out, and for that, Lucas has become a household name in D.C.
🥈 RUNNERS-UP:
- Ted Leonsis — CEO of Monumental Sports, which owns the Capitals, Wizards, and Mystics.
- Gambet/Intralot — D.C.’s official sports betting agencies.
- Adrian Washington — Founder and CEO of Neighborhood Development Co.
- Amtrak — The rail company that won Union Station’s eminent domain lawsuit.
Our Selection Process:
To ensure the veracity of the awards, we chatted with dozens of field experts across D.C., conducted listener and reader polls, and did our own research to come up with nominations. Finally, we had a public vote to help our panel of experts — Washington Post's Michael Brice-Saddler, Axios' Anna Spiegel, and Greater Greater Washington’s Dan Reed — select the winners.
The City Cast 6 awards, sponsored by Christopher Nace and the trial lawyers at Paulson & Nace, honor D.C.’s standout visionaries across six distinct categories. Read about the other winners.
