Falls Church voters reaffirmed their political allegiance to Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Don Beyer, helping the two secure easy victories last night (Tuesday).
Warner (D-Va.) garnered 6,828 votes, or 84.8%, in the city, based on unofficial Virginia Department of Elections results. He far outpaced Republican Bert Mizusawa, who received 1,199 votes or just under 15%.
“I’m incredibly grateful to the people of Virginia for putting their faith in me one more time,” Warner said in election night remarks at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center, where many Virginia Democratic political leaders gathered to watch results roll in during what proved a very good night for the party.
In the House of Representatives race, Beyer (D-8th) received 6,692 Falls Church votes, or 83.2%, according to unofficial results.
Republican Tony Sabio garnered 1,141 votes (14.2%), Libertarian Shelly Arnoldi 106 (1.3%) and independent Tim Sharman 94 (1.2%).
During campaign season, Sabio has said he planned to seek office again in 2028, no matter the outcome of the 2026 race.
Beyer’s win in Falls Church outperformed the district as a whole, where he won 79.3% of the vote, according to preliminary figures. The 8th District includes all of Arlington and the cities of Falls Church and Alexandria, plus the eastern portion of Fairfax County.
Under a mid-decade redistricting plan approved by state voters earlier this year, Falls Church — and much of North Arlington — would have been shifted into a redrawn 7th District, losing Beyer in the process. When the Virginia Supreme Court invalidated the referendum, the old lines returned.
Margo Horner, who chairs the 8th District Congressional Committee, told ARLnow that the local area benefits from Beyer in office.
“I’m thrilled to have Don as our congressman — he’s a winner,” she said.
Falls Church had no local races on the ballot this year. City voters said “yes” to state constitutional amendments on abortion access and marriage equality with more than 83% in favor; the constitutional amendment on restoration of voting rights for felons received just under 80% of the city vote.
Turnout through Nov. 3 was 64% of the city’s 12,582 registered voters, with more than two-thirds of ballots cast before Election Day in person or by mail. City Electoral Board members will conduct a final count in coming days, and will meet Monday, Nov. 9 to certify results.
On Election Day, city election officials were able to extract voting data from a machine that malfunctioned during early voting at City Hall. Had the data not been accessible, election officials were prepared to re-scan those ballots on different equipment.
Next year’s election could be more eventful at the local level in Falls Church, as quite a few seats will be on the ballot in November 2027:
- City Council: Three of seven seats, currently occupied by Letty Hardi, Justine Underhill and Erin Flynn
- School Board: Three of seven seats, currently filled by Bethany Henderson, Jerrod Anderson and Amie Murphy
- Commonwealth’s Attorney: A position shared with Arlington and occupied by Parisa Dehghani-Tafti
- General Assembly: The 37th Senate District held by Saddam Azlan Salim and the 13th House District occupied by Marcus Simon
City Council and School Board are nonpartisan races in Falls Church, with the legislative and commonwealth’s attorney posts contested on a partisan basis and currently held by Democrats. All posts are for four years except the two-year delegate position.
There has been some discussion of Falls Church considering a move to ranked-choice voting for City Council, similar to that of Arlington County Board races, but it seems a decision on that could wait for new voting equipment and probably wouldn’t be implemented next year.
