President Joe Biden and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won the majority of votes in Arlington in yesterday’s Virginia presidential primary.
However, the low voter turnout in both primaries might serve as a warning sign for both Biden and the now clear Republican frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, of a lack of voter enthusiasm.
Of Arlington’s 179,095 registered voters, 31,418 participated in the Super Tuesday primary, per the Virginia Department of Elections. Biden won the majority of Democratic votes, receiving 14,637 votes (89.3%), while Haley led the Republican field with 10,957 votes (73.7%), far outpacing Trump, who received 3,538 votes (23.8%).
Haley achieved double-digit victories in almost every Arlington precinct, with the exception of the Arlington Mill neighborhood, where Trump outpaced her by nine votes. Biden comfortably won all precincts, with his nearest competitor, Marianne Williamson, seldom securing more than 15% of the vote in a precinct.
Despite making substantial gains in Northern Virginia, including victories in Fairfax County and Alexandria, Haley’s efforts fell short of a statewide win. Trump comfortably won in Virginia — and 12 other Super Tuesday states — with 434,945 votes (63.3%) as of today, compared to Haley’s 238,054 (34.6%).
Biden secured 306,845 out of 345,927 votes statewide (88.4%) with nearly all localities reporting. Comparatively, he received 705,834 votes out of the 1.3 million cast statewide (53.3%) in the 2020 presidential primary, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
National media outlets have reported that Haley plans to suspend her campaign this morning after she was severely defeated in most Republican primary elections across the country, though she did win Vermont last night and D.C. on Sunday.
Local election experts and party leaders closely watched Haley and Biden’s performance in D.C. suburbs, including Arlington, to gauge suburban dissatisfaction with the presidential front-runners.
While Haley and Biden’s comparatively more moderate politics won out in Arlington, the low turnout could be a sign voters are not satisfied with their choices.