Leigh Henderson

Leigh Henderson

Republican Party

Candidate, Virginia Beach Treasurer

Virginia Beach Treasurer

Tenure

2018 - Present

Term ends

2026

Years in position

6

Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 2, 2021

Next election

November 4, 2025

Education

Bachelor's

Old Dominion University, 2000

Personal

Birthplace

Virginia Beach, Va.

Contact

Official website

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Leigh Henderson (Republican Party) is the Virginia Beach Treasurer. She assumed office on December 28, 2018. Her current term ends on January 1, 2026.

Henderson (Republican Party) is running for re-election for Virginia Beach Treasurer. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025. The Republican primary for this office on June 17, 2025, was canceled.

Biography

Henderson earned her bachelor's degree from Old Dominion University in 2000. Henderson’s career experience includes working in the following positions at the city of Virginia Beach Treasurer's office: accountant, accounting and investment administrator, chief deputy treasurer, and treasurer.

Elections

2025

See also: City elections in Virginia Beach, Virginia (2025)

General election

General election for Virginia Beach Treasurer

Incumbent Leigh Henderson is running in the general election for Virginia Beach Treasurer on November 4, 2025.

		Candidate
		Leigh Henderson (R)

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Leigh Henderson advanced from the Republican primary for Virginia Beach Treasurer.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

2021

See also: City elections in Virginia Beach, Virginia (2021)

General election

General election for Virginia Beach Treasurer

Incumbent Leigh Henderson defeated Laura Habr in the general election for Virginia Beach Treasurer on November 2, 2021.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Leigh Henderson (R)	62.4	94,398
		Laura Habr (D)	37.3	56,377
		Other/Write-in votes	0.4	541

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 151,316
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Laura Habr advanced from the Democratic primary for Virginia Beach Treasurer.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Leigh Henderson advanced from the Republican primary for Virginia Beach Treasurer.

2019

See also: City elections in Virginia Beach, Virginia (2019)

General election

Special general election for Virginia Beach Treasurer

Incumbent Leigh Henderson defeated Laura Habr and Ralph Parham II in the special general election for Virginia Beach Treasurer on November 5, 2019.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Leigh Henderson (R)	48.9	56,010
		Laura Habr (D)	37.0	42,382
	Submit photo	Ralph Parham II (Independent)	13.7	15,716
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	360

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 114,468
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Special Democratic primary for Virginia Beach Treasurer

Laura Habr advanced from the special Democratic primary for Virginia Beach Treasurer on June 11, 2019.

		Candidate
✔		Laura Habr

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Special Republican primary for Virginia Beach Treasurer

Incumbent Leigh Henderson defeated Clay Atkinson in the special Republican primary for Virginia Beach Treasurer on June 11, 2019.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Leigh Henderson	62.4	9,180
	Submit photo	Clay Atkinson	37.6	5,543

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 14,723
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Leigh Henderson has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Leigh Henderson asking her to fill out the survey. If you are Leigh Henderson, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection survey.

Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?

Any candidate running for elected office, at any level, can complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Survey. Completing the survey will update the candidate's Ballotpedia profile, letting voters know who they are and what they stand for.  More than 22,000 candidates have taken Ballotpedia's candidate survey since we launched it in 2015. Learn more about the survey here.

You can ask Leigh Henderson to fill out this survey by using the button below or emailing voteleighhenderson@gmail.com.

2021

Leigh Henderson did not complete Ballotpedia's 2021 Candidate Connection survey.

2019

Leigh Henderson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Henderson's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Leigh Henderson became the Treasurer of Virginia Beach on January 1, 2019 when her predecessor retired. As of 2019, she has 19 years of experience in the office, to include 8 years as the Accounting and Investments Administrator, 2 years as the Chief Deputy Treasurer, and now as Treasurer.

Leigh was born and raised in Virginia Beach, graduating from Kellam High School. She was taught early the meaning of public service by her father who spent 27 years as a Virginia Beach firefighter, her mother who is a retired social worker, and her grandmother who worked for the City of Virginia Beach and Virginia Beach Public Schools for over 50 years. Leigh graduated from Old Dominion University in 2000 with two degrees - a Bachelor's of Science in Accounting and a Bachelor's of Science in Finance. Leigh serves on the Board of Trustees for the VML/VACo Virginia Investment Pool (VIP) and is a member of the Treasurer's Association of Virginia. She is a previous Chairperson for the Beach Municipal Federal Credit Union Supervisory Committee. Leigh is a member of the Hampton Roads Association for Financial Professionals, Virginia Government Finance Officers' Association, and Association for Financial Professionals. In 2004, she earned the Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) Certification from the Association for Financial Professionals. Also in 2004, she obtained the title of Certified Master Governmental Deputy Treasurer from the University of Virginia Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, and most recently she earned her Master Governmental Treasurer certificate.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Experience, education, and proven leadership are key for a successful Treasurer.
• Great customer service through quality management, constant technology updates, transparency, and accountability.
• Effective yet compassionate collection practices along with excellent investment strategies are vital to the financial footing of the City of Virginia Beach.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I come from a family full of public servants. I have been a public servant myself for over 19 years. I am most passionate about making sure that my city maintains a firm financial footing, yet while doing so I serve the citizens fairly and with compassion. It is my goal to make conducting business with my office as easy & efficient as possible. I have initiated a payment plan process for those citizens who may have encountered financial hardships and equitably enforce collections.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

My grandmother was my role model. As a mother of four and in an era where women did not always hold leadership roles in their career, she worked very hard to earn the respect of her co-workers. She worked for the Virginia Beach School Board and City of Virginia Beach for 52 years before retiring. She was very proud of her public service and all four of her children followed in her footsteps - one as a Virginia Beach school teacher, one as a Virginia Beach City Attorney, my dad as a Virginia Beach firefighter, and the last worked for the Virginia Beach Schools bus garage. Her motto was 'busy hands are happy hands' and her heirs have also adopted this philosophy. I am proud to also have a career with the City of Virginia Beach and I thank her for all of the encouragement and support she provided to me.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

An elected official must have integrity, must be accountable to the people that elected them, and must be approachable. An elected official works for the people that they serve, and they should reflect the highest standards of their office. I believe that a Treasurer specifically should also be compassionate and fair, yet sometimes firm.

Are there any little-known powers or responsibilities held by this office that you believe more people should be aware of?

The Virginia Beach City Treasurer's Office, as of 2019, is responsible for a ~$700MM investment portfolio and over $2.4B in revenue in addition to the obvious duties of billing & collection of taxes. The Virginia Code section 58.1 outlines many of the powers and responsibilities of this office. This section also outlines the extensive collection authority allowed to an elected Treasurer.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for holders of this office to have previous experience in government or politics?

I believe it is absolutely critical that the City Treasurer possess previous experience in local government and have a familiarity with the code sections, local ordinances, banking regulations, investment management, existing technology of the office, and collection processes.

What kind of skills or expertise do you believe would be the most helpful for the holders of this office to possess?

An educational background in Accounting, Finance and collection procedures would be most helpful for a City Treasurer to possess. The responsibilities of this position and the amount of money handled by the office make this foundational knowledge a necessity. Without this background and understanding, the financial foundation of the City could be compromised, causing overall budgetary issues throughout the City.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2025 Elections

What's on the ballot? U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. Congress State executives State legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards

Newsletters

The Daily Brew The Weekly Brew The Ballot Bulletin Checks and Balances Economy and Society Hall Pass Number of the Day Robe & Gavel Union Station

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Candidate

Virginia Beach Treasurer

Website

Facebook

Officeholder

Virginia Beach Treasurer

Website