With the field of candidates now set, Arlington election officials are gearing up for the Feb. 10 special election in the 39th Senate District.
Democrats this week chose Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-5) as their candidate for the race, while Republicans have selected Julie Robben Lineberry, an Alexandria real-estate professional.
Officials in Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County are hustling to prepare for the special election, called when State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-39) announced plans to resign in mid-February to take a post in the Spanberger administration.
“There are special rules when a special election like this one is called,” said Gretchen Reinemeyer, the county’s elections director, at the Wednesday (Jan. 13) meeting of the Arlington Electoral Board.
In order to seat a senator before the end of the session, election season is truncated. Early voting begins Jan. 31, and Feb. 3 is the last day to register to vote.
Only six of Arlington’s 54 precincts are part of Ebbin’s district: Precincts 103, 106, 108, 121, 150 and 153. Areas represented include Pentagon City, Crystal City, Aurora Highlands and portions of the Arlington Ridge community.
“On to the special election on Feb. 10!” the Alexandria City Democratic Committee said on Facebook in announcing results of the four-way race in which Bennett-Parker rose as victor.
Building enthusiasm for the special election will be one of the first duties of newly elected Arlington County Democratic Committee chair Paul Ruiz. In a statement after the vote was counted, Ruiz said Democratic leaders did the best they could based on the need to get a nominee in place by Jan. 14.
“This firehouse primary was organized under an extraordinarily accelerated timeline,” he said. “I’m grateful to our partners in Alexandria and Fairfax and to the volunteers across SD-39 who came together to ensure Arlington voters had an accessible way to select our nominee.”
The district skews heavily Democratic. However, Arlington County Republican Committee chairman Matthew Hurtt said Lineberry, the GOP candidate, is one the party “can rally behind.”
“Julie is exactly the kind of candidate Republicans must recruit in Northern Virginia,” Hurtt said. “She has deep ties to the community, an expansive understanding of the local economy through her experience in real estate, and a heart for civic and community service.”
At the Electoral Board meeting, it was decided to hold early voting for several days at Walter Reed Community Center as well as for the full early-voting period (Jan. 31-Feb. 7) at the Ellen M. Bozman Government Center.
Voting on Election Day itself — Tuesday, Feb. 10 — will take place at each of Arlington’s precincts from 6 a.m to 7 p.m.
Only three of the county’s nine voting dropboxes will be used for the election: the ones at the Bozman Center and Walter Reed, and one at Aurora Hills Library — the only dropbox located in the 39th District.
Ballots cannot be mailed out to voters until the Virginia Department of Elections certifies their design, which is expected to happen next week.
State officials have asked the three localities to certify their election results the afternoon of Feb. 13. State certification will follow, allowing the newest state senator to take her seat for the last half of the 60-day legislative session.
In the unlikely event Republicans win, the Senate’s political composition would move from the current 21 Democrats and 19 Republicans to a 20-20 tie, with incoming Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi (D) casting deciding votes when the two parties deadlock.
A Bennett-Parker victory would trigger a special election to fill her seat in the House of Delegates, but that would not involve Arlington as her 5th House District has no precincts in the county.
In other election news:
Newest member joins Electoral Board: Democrat Dave Leichtman on Jan. 13 formally joined the Arlington Electoral Board, having been appointed to succeed Republican Richard Samp.
“I’m an elections nerd,” said Leichtman, who has lived in Arlington for 23 years and was appointed by Circuit Court Chief Judge Judith Wheat from a list of three nominees submitted by the Arlington County Democratic Committee.
In his professional life, Leichtman is senior director for global elections at Microsoft. The job involves “meeting with election officials all over the place — it’s the thing I love to do,” he said.
At the local level, “Arlington runs impeccable elections — I’m happy to be a part,” Leichtman said.
The election of Democrat Abigail Spanberger as governor means that every local electoral board in the commonwealth will switch from two Republicans and one Democrat to two Democrats and one Republican.
At the Jan. 13 meeting, Leichtman was elected vice chair — the traditional starting point for newcomers to the body.
The two incumbent members — Republican Dominick Schirripa and Democrat Kim Phillip — switched posts for 2026. Phillip will serve as chair, Schirripa as secretary.
A record-setting 2025 election: Arlington voters set a milestone in the Nov. 4 election.
For the first time ever in a gubernatorial election, more than 100,000 county voters cast ballots, according to an election recap presented at the Jan. 13 Electoral Board meeting.
The total was 100,190, a turnout of 60%. The percentage is down from the 62% turnout recorded in 2021, but the raw number was up about 4,500 due to a population increase.
County elections director Gretchen Reinemeyer said she believed the 2025 turnout was also the highest for any non-presidential year in the county.
The 2025 post-election report is now available online. It contains 12 pages of data related to the general election.
“We want these reports to be meaningful for the public,” Reinemeyer said.
