David Sisson has become the second independent to qualify for the County Board election in November.
Sisson — a member of the county’s Transit Advisory Committee and executive vice chair at the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance (NVAHA) — joins perennial protest candidate Audrey Clement in having filed paperwork and the requisite 125 petition signatures.
“I will focus on local issues,” Sisson says on his campaign website, adding:
“National issues are out of the county’s control … the best we can do is build a diverse economy that does not depend too much on any one funding source and secures the future of our community. We need to become the stewards of our own destiny through policies that make us more independent, prosperous and resilient.”
The website promotes three issues Sisson says he will focus on:
- “Make Arlington a place where children, parents and grandparents can afford to be neighbors”
- “Rent, groceries and essentials have become too expensive”
- “I will work tirelessly to make Arlington affordable”
Sisson has worked for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and for the Craddock Group, a real-estate consulting firm, according to NVAHA’s website.
The lone County Board seat on the Nov. 3 ballot is occupied by Matt de Ferranti, who is facing James DeVita and Julie Farnam in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary.
The filing deadline for independent candidates is June 16.
School Board race could be a repeat of 2022: The 2026 race for School Board could resemble the 2022 campaign.
Election officials have confirmed to ARLnow that James “Vell” Rives IV has qualified for the Nov. 3 School Board ballot. He joins current School Board Chair Bethany Zecher-Sutton, who was unopposed for the Democratic School Board endorsement.
In the 2022 race, Zecher Sutton won 68.2% of the vote, with Rives taking 29.9%. It was the first of what is now five consecutive School Board runs for Rives, a board-certified psychiatrist who treats adults and adolescents (ages 16+).
Last year, Rives finished second in the three-way School Board race, winning 19.2% of the vote. Democratic endorsee Monique “Moe” Bryant won the race with 67%.
In Virginia, school board races are nonpartisan, with no party labels appearing on the ballot. Political parties can endorse candidacies, however.
The last candidate to win an Arlington School Board race without the Democratic endorsement was Republican-leaning independent David Foster, who scored dual victories in 1999 and 2003. Since then, all winners of the general election have first secured the Democratic nomination.
Other candidates have until June 16 to file paperwork for ballot access.
GOP sees bright spots in referendum vote: Arlington Republicans saw some glimmers of hope coming out of the April 21 congressional redistricting referendum.
Only one in five county voters supported the local GOP’s “no” position on the referendum, but party leaders say that represents an improvement from recent races.
The Arlington County Democratic Committee had supported a “yes” vote on the referendum, which passed narrowly statewide but in May was rejected by the Virginia Supreme Court.
The 20.06% “no” vote compared to 15.96% of the county vote for Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears in 2025 and 19.47% for Donald Trump in 2024.
“There were 16,866 ‘no’ votes in Arlington. Winsome Sears got 15,929 votes, so we outperformed a regular-cycle November election by about 6%,” said Eric Turner, who led Arlington Republicans’ turnout efforts for the referendum.
One effort made by the local GOP in advance of the referendum was a postcard-writing effort. Based on the party’s analysis of voting trends, 84% of those who received the postcards cast ballots, a much higher rate than the general population.
“Even though we targeted high propensity voters, this percentage is very high,” Turner said as part of an email to GOP rank-and-file. “It was an off-cycle election and overall voter participation was 50%.”
The result was part of a slow-but-steady attempt at rebuilding the GOP brand in Arlington, despite the Trump presidency’s impacts on the region.
“We cannot turn Arlington red in a single election cycle, but we can build momentum every cycle,” Turner said.
According to party chair Matthew Hurtt:
“It can sometimes feel like we’re spinning our wheels here, but your volunteer efforts, investment and support makes a measurable impact in our community and across the commonwealth. You can’t build a winning operation in a place like Arlington overnight, but by engaging in manageable, measurable activities, you can move the needle in the right direction.”
The biggest challenge facing Arlington Republicans in coming days is securing a candidate for the lone County Board seat on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Last year, Republican nominee Bob Cambridge finished third in the five-way County Board race, garnering 12% of the vote to 65% for Democratic incumbent Takis Karantonis and 15% for perennial protest candidate Audrey Clement.
