State Sen. Rosalyn R. Dance of Petersburg is facing a fight to keep her legislative seat for a second four-year term.

Former Delegate Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey of Richmond announced Wednesday that he is challenging Sen. Dance in the June 11 Democratic primary for the 16th Senate District seat.

The rooster-shaped district of about 220,000 people runs from Richmond’s East End to Dinwiddie County and includes Petersburg and Hopewell.

Mr. Morrissey, who twice has been stripped of his license to practice law, announced his candidacy at a gathering in South Side.

Ahead of the announcement, he told the Free Press he is running to serve as an advocate for the state to come up with funding to address “the deplorable condition” of school buildings in Richmond and Petersburg.

He said he also would campaign on decriminalizing marijuana, raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour and ending the suspension of driver’s licenses of people who owe court costs and fines. Mr. Morrissey also pledged not to accept any campaign money from Dominion Energy, which he said would contrast with Sen. Dance’s acceptance of such support.

Mr. Morrissey, 61, has spent time and money preparing for his second run against Sen. Dance. Earlier this year, he bought a home in Church Hill to become a resident of the district, and he has been knocking on doors and collecting signatures to get on the ballot for several months. He filed his candidate paperwork on March 11.

He first challenged Sen. Dance four years ago, but dropped out of the race before the November 2015 election because of health reasons.

Sen. Dance, 71, was elected to the Senate in 2014, after former state Sen. Henry L. Marsh III resigned to become a state Alcoholic Beverage Control commissioner.

A registered nurse and health care administrator who retired from Southside Virginia Training Center, Sen. Dance has served in the General Assembly since 2005, after winning a special election for the House of Delegates’ 63rd District seat that includes Petersburg. She previously served 12 years as the mayor of Petersburg.

A former Richmond commonwealth’s attorney, Mr. Morrissey was disbarred by a federal court in 2001 and his law license was revoked by the State Bar for the first time in 2003, when he allegedly failed to notify his clients and the courts of an earlier suspension of his law license.

A divided Virginia Supreme Court overruled the State Bar and reinstated his license to practice law in 2012.

During his seven years representing the 74th District in the House of Delegates, Mr. Morrissey was indicted on felony charges stemming from his alleged sexual relationship in 2013 with an underage receptionist working in his law office. Under a plea deal, he was convicted in December 2014 of a misdemeanor of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and served three months of a six-month sentence in the Henrico County Jail. He became the first legislator to commute from jail to the General Assembly.

His law license was revoked a second time in April 2018 by a three-judge panel that heard issues related to his law practice and his relationship with the 17-year-old. He is appealing the panel’s disbarment decision, with the state Supreme Court scheduled to hear the appeal later his month.

The young woman in question is now Mr. Morrissey’s wife; they have three children together.

Mr. Morrissey, a former Henrico County resident, gave up his House seat in 2015 after moving into a Shockoe Bottom apartment in Sen. Dance’s district to challenge her during her first run for a full, four-year term.

After dropping out of that race, he bought a home in North Side to run for Richmond’s mayor in 2016. He came in third in that election, which was won by Mayor Levar M. Stoney.