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Prince William County School Board Chair Babur Lateef has filed to run as a Democrat for lieutenant governor of Virginia next year, according to documents from the Virginia Department of Elections.
Lateef declined to comment on his campaign, but a spokesperson said a formal announcement is forthcoming after the holidays. As of Tuesday, Lateef was the only candidate who had filed to run for the office, according to the elections department.
Lateef, an ophthalmologist who lives in Manassas, was first elected chair of the board in a special election in the fall of 2018 and was reelected in 2019 and 2023. Although School Board members don’t run with party affiliations, he has been supported by Democrats to help oversee Virginia’s second largest school division.
The School Board chair flirted with the idea to run for lieutenant governor in 2020 but decided against it to instead focus on reopening Prince William schools amid the pandemic.
Lateef is a member of the board of directors of SPARK, the education foundation for Prince William County Public Schools. He is also a member of the Board of Visitors for the University of Virginia and chair of the University of Virginia Health System Board.
