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With the support of a sizable contingent of Democratic officeholders, Onzlee Ware formally announced Tuesday his bid for re-election to the House of Delegates.

Ware has represented the 11th District, which includes portions of Roanoke and Roanoke County, since he was first elected in 2003. He was the first black delegate elected west of Lynchburg.

This year, Ware, a Roanoke lawyer, will face community activist Martin Jeffrey for the Democratic Party nomination in a June 9 primary. A Republican, Troy Bird, has also announced his candidacy for the seat.

Ware moved the announcement stage from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge, where blowing snow and a snappy breeze threatened to freeze his audience Tuesday, to the nearby Dumas Center for Artistic & Cultural Development, where his supporters crowded in for a series of tributes before his announcement.

The group included a majority of Roanoke City Council members, numerous city constitutional officers and other community leaders. Master of ceremonies for the event was Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, who served as delegate from 1980 to 2004, and the keynote speaker was House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong D-Henry County.

The event focused on Ware, but included a few digs at Jeffrey. Brenda Hale, who introduced Ware, told him to "feel free to accept campaign contributions," taken as a response to Jeffrey's pledge not to take any money unless it came from someone who lives, works or owns a business in the district.

Hale, who said she was speaking at the event as a private citizen, is president of the Roanoke branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She ran against Jeffrey for that post in 1998, apparently winning the seat but losing it on a second ballot after the national organization nullified the first election.

She later won the post after Jeffrey resigned in 2000.

And Ware himself seemed to refer to his intraparty opponent when he said, "the [Roanoke] valley needs leadership. Activism is fine, but leaders need to look for solutions."

Ware pledged that, "In this race, I'm going to give as good as I get," planning to "talk about issues ... with no games."