Arlington Democrats celebrated big wins at both the local and state level yesterday (Tuesday), connecting voters’ decisions to the Trump administration’s impacts on Virginia.
In speeches before a jubilant crowd at Fire Works Pizza in Courthouse, several victors in Arlington’s blue sweep lifted up the success of gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger and other Democrats in statewide races on Election Day.
They cast Spanberger’s double-digit victory over Republican Winsome Earle-Sears as a rebuke of the Republican administration and a sign of building political momentum in their own party.
“This is our first opportunity to send a message, not just here in Arlington, not just in Virginia, but throughout the entire country and the entire world,” Del. Patrick Hope (D-1) said in a victory speech. “We are taking our democracy back. We’re taking our country back.”
Huge cheers erupted from the crowd as speakers announced flipped seats in the Virginia House of Delegates and the victories of Democratic candidates like Jay Jones for attorney general, Ghazala Hashmi for lieutenant governor and Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City.
County Board Chair Takis Karantonis, celebrating his own decisive win, characterized wins in Virginia as a condemnation of Trump and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s approach to issues ranging from immigration enforcement to food aid to the federal workforce.
“Every FEMA employee — former employee — every NSF employee, every USAID employee, every single federal worker who has been handed down, who has been insulted on top of being injured recklessly: we voted for them,” the County Board member declared in a lively speech. “We showed our neighbors that this is very close to home for us, so don’t mess with Arlington.”
Hope and his fellow Dels. Adele McClure (D-2) and Alfonso Lopez (D-3) saluted not only the symbolic victory, but also the ways a Democratic governor will help them advance priorities like health care, affordability and LGBTQ+ rights.
“Hundreds of thousands of people in Virginia are going to be a little bit more secure when it comes to a social safety net and environmental protection and renewable energy and gun violence prevention,” Lopez told supporters. “Because of your work and your time and your treasure, kids will have hope.”
Hope said he is particularly eager to focus on supporting the right to gay marriage, reproductive rights and potential redistricting, as well as ways to respond to the Big Beautiful Bill as sweeping health-care cuts go into effect.
“Now we can start working on affordability, trying to mitigate the damage that the Trump administration and Congress have caused,” he told ARLnow. “We can now put those efforts together in the House and the Senate with a governor that will work for all of Virginia.”
Karantonis argued that yesterday’s results and heavy turnout speak to Virginians’ priorities and commitment to democracy.
“It tells you something about the determination and the sense of duty and the obligation that we feel to stand up in a difficult time for the entire commonwealth and also for the entire nation,” he told ARLnow. “Here, we are defining what [a] new America feels like. This is a new chapter of patriotism.”
Republicans and independents respond
Elsewhere in Arlington, Republicans and supporters of local independent candidates gathered at other restaurants and bars to watch the results roll in.
While none captured a local victory, they sought to focus on the energy drummed up in their various campaigns.
About 60 Republicans turned up at Mister Days in Clarendon for the Arlington GOP’s watch party. But for party leaders, the day had begun well before dawn.
Arlington County Republican Committee’s Election Day operations were up and running at 4 a.m., and still before dawn, party chair Matthew Hurtt was speaking on conservative talk-radio station WMAL.
Hurtt said that, among local Republicans, he was seeing more energy and enthusiasm this year than last. The local GOP sent out 62,000 mailers and 75,000 text messages as part of its get-out-the-vote effort this year.
“It’s time for us to push back,” the party chair. “Our volunteers are the best.”
Independent County Board candidates Jeramy Olmack and Carlos De Castro “DC” Pretelt teamed up for an Election Night watch party at Nighthawk Brewery & Pizza in Pentagon City. It drew several dozen people.
While neither candidate was expecting victory, each was pleased with the reception they received from voters.
“I had quite a few people who sought me out,” said Olmack, who spent Election Day greeting voters at six of Arlington’s 54 precincts. “They were interested in what my platform was — that I’m talking about governance.”
Pretelt said voters talked to him about issues ranging from Missing Middle to arts funding, while he had a chance to push his case for expanding ranked-choice voting.
Of the voters, “a lot of them were super-friendly, they were happy to see independents running,” said Pretelt, who picked up the endorsement of the Forward Party in the race.
Asked if independents or third-party candidates could break the dominance of the two major parties in American politics, Pretelt said that the undertaking must begin at the local level and expand outward.
“My dream is for this to become the case in Arlington first, then expand,” he said of overcoming Democratic and Republican dominance.
Olmack told ARLnow he was already thinking of potentially running for office again in 2026. Whether that would be for County Board or another office, he hadn’t decided.
Audrey Clement, who runs each year as an independent protest candidate, said Democrats were propelled to the polls in Arlington by views on the current national political situation.
“My feedback from the voters is that this election was a referendum on Trump,” she told ARLnow. “That’s fine with me, insofar as federal firings and furloughs — many of which were done without due process — disproportionately impact Arlington County residents.”
“What I don’t like,” Clement said, “is the straight-ticket voting that caused voters to focus exclusively on national issues, ignoring local issues like Missing Middle upzoning that will have equally negative impacts on our quality of life.”
