TOWN CENTER — Justin Burns was an 18-year-old Bayside High School student when in 2018 he announced his first run for public office, seeking a seat on the Virginia Beach School Board. He did not make the ballot, but he did not give up on politics.
Two years later, as a college student, he ran again for the School Board. During both campaigns, he received local media attention for his unusually young age for a candidate — and his youth spent working with a number of campaigns and developing a keen interest in government.
The second time he ran for School Board, restrictions related to novel coronavirus challenged his ability to reach voters, and he dropped out of the race because he did not feel he could not mount a successful campaign.
The circumstances Burns faced that year as a candidate also had been complicated by issues with the nominating petitions the campaign turned in to secure a spot on the ballot. Initially, it appeared his campaign did not have enough signatures. Burns appealed that determination, and the Virginia Beach Electoral Board in June allowed him to run.
But that same month, Burns said he was visited by two investigators. A grand jury indicted Burns in September 2020, accusing him of two charges related to petitions he had signed off on but which contained signatures of people who said they never signed them or authorized their names to be used.
When The Independent News visited or called people listed in petitions following the indictment, some of the people named on forms said they had not signed them. Some said they had not been visited, though one noted they had been contacted by an investigator.
In March, Burns pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of neglect of duty as part of a plea deal reached with a special prosecutor. A judge in Circuit Court sentenced him to 12 months in jail on each count, but suspended all of the time as long he remains on good behavior and completes community service.
Initially, Burns declined to comment about that outcome, but he reached out to The Independent News to talk about what happened. He sat down with the newspaper at a coffee house at Town Center on Sunday, April 3, to discuss the petitions and his responsibility for signing off on documents he did not witness — as well as his desire to continue participating in public life in Virginia Beach.
He might even seek office again.
Burns, now 22, has since transferred to University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he is pursuing an undergraduate and graduate degree simultaneously.
He remains a Virginia Beach resident, and he said he hopes to stay here. He had served as a member of the Virginia Beach Clean Community Commission until Thursday, March 31, but his term expired and he was not reappointed, according to the city.
Burns said his love of politics developed when he was a young child. When he was about eight, he often watched television with his grandmother, who cared for him while his mother worked, and asked about issues on the news or in the newspaper. Gloria Burns, who died in 2006, had been involved in the 1960s in one of President Kennedy’s campaigns, Justin Burns said.
“Why do you have two sides arguing with each other instead of arguing for the good of solving whatever the issue is?” he would ask her. He recalled that she would tell him you have to experience the process to have a seat at the table.
“That was my motivator in wanting to get involved,” he said.
He said his first campaign at a very young age was for Molly Ward, then a candidate for mayor in Hampton. She won. But did he really understand what politics was when he was so young?
“I was interested and learning a little of the volunteer part,” he said.
His main interest, he said, was in issues.
Throughout his youth, Burns volunteered with a number of campaigns, including with GOP candidates in his teenage years. He became an aide to former state Sen. Frank Wagner, a Virginia Beach Republican, who was among the early supporters of Burns the first time he sought office.
Burns faced a special prosecutor during his recent legal matters because he had volunteered for a campaign for a relative of Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Colin Stolle.
Burns said his ideology has been center-right, but he left the party in 2017 during the Trump years. He is a Democrat now.
“Over time, my views have evolved as I’ve had more life experience,” he said. “I wouldn’t say a drastic change had taken place.” He said it seemed the GOP changed more than his views did.
Burns said he did not know there were issues with the nominating petitions in 2020 until investigators asked him about signatures. He said he had thought the signatures were fine, though he acknowledged signing petitions he had not circulated when speaking with investigators.
He said the petitions in question were circulated by someone else, though he declined to name them during an interview, and he signed the petitions believing the signatures to be valid though he did not witness them being collected, as required. This is consistent with a summary of evidence the special prosecutor discussed in court last month.
“And that was my mistake,” Burns told The Independent News. “You could say it was naive of me, but I unknowingly signed the affidavit on the petition without witnessing all of the signatures. That was, for me, something I admitted was wrong at the outset of this once I knew that was illegal.”
Burns said he takes responsibility for what happened and he has remorse for the people whose names were on petitions without their knowledge. The case had been delayed by the pandemic and changes in attornies, and, at one point, Burns had Covid.
“I felt that it was necessary to not drag it out any longer, to not try to make something out of it when clearly the facts are presented and they don’t lie,” Burns said.
“All of the leaders I’ve worked for understand the buck stops with them,” he added.
Burns said he has not given up on working with the city. He plans to remain here after college. He may even seek office again.
“It is something I have considered and am thinking about,” he said.
In the months following his indictment, Burns transferred funds from his School Board campaign organization into a new political account and filed a statement of organization with the registrar here.
“It’s something that I have considered and am thinking about, but not actively,” he said during the interview at Town Center this month. “My passion for service and really just trying to improve what I see that is wrong or unfair is something I can’t really ignore.”
He said he thinks he could get elected to office despite the legal issues he faced.
“If I do decide to run, a decision will probably come next year,” Burns added. “When I have actively though about it. I have been speaking with a couple of people I’m close to about it.”
The campaign account name created this past year suggests which local office he might pursue:
Burns for Mayor.
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