In the face of growing election doubts within the Democratic Party, Arlington progressives are planning a push for voter turnout in what is historically a Democratic stronghold.
Arlington tends to heavily favor Democrat in presidential elections. President Joe Biden received 80.7% of Arlington votes in 2020, while Hillary Clinton carried 75.8% of the county’s votes in 2016.
Arlington Democrats have nominated JD Spain, Sr. as the party’s candidate for County Board.
A preliminary tally of votes in the ranked-choice contest, conducted Friday evening, showed Spain with an insurmountable lead prior to the counting of provisional ballots.
Initial results in Arlington’s Democratic County Board primary show a close race at the top.
JD Spain, Sr. leads the first round of vote tallying, with 33%, followed by Natalie Roy with 29% and Tenley Peterson with 23%.
On Mother’s Day weekend, a pair of moms have defeated a pair of dads in the race for the Democratic endorsement for Arlington School Board.
Kathleen Clark and Zuraya Tapia-Hadley were announced last night as the winners of the coveted endorsement after a nearly two-week party caucus process. They’ll now run in the November general election, where Democratic endorsees are nearly undefeated this century.
With the Arlington School Board caucus now underway, several Democratic candidates have released introduction videos.
Local Democrats have until May 11 to vote in this year’s caucus, determining which of the four candidates currently running for School Board will receive the party’s endorsement for two open seats.
On the eve of Super Tuesday, local party leaders, political consults and pundits on both sides of the aisle have already agreed on who the Republican and Democratic nominees for president will be.
One question lingering in the minds of many is whether the D.C. suburbs, including Arlington, can offer any indication of whether candidates are gaining or losing sufficient suburban voters to impact the general election.
Four School Board hopefuls are now jockeying for the endorsement of Arlington Democrats this May.
Kathleen Clark, Larry Fishtahler and Zuraya Tapia-Hadley launched their School Board bids during the Arlington Dems monthly meeting at Lubber Run Community Center on Wednesday night.
Two new candidates for Arlington County Board have emerged — one is new to the ballot, while another is returning.
Last night (Wednesday), first-time candidate and current Planning Commissioner Tenley Peterson and second-time candidate J.D. Spain, Sr. announced their bids for the seat Chair Libby Garvey will vacate at the end of the year.
Arlington School Board Vice Chair David Priddy says he will not be seeking another term.
He was elected in 2020 along with Cristina Diaz-Torres, who currently serves as the School Board Chair and last month announced that she too would step down after one term. Both of their terms expire at the end of this year, meaning two seats are up for election this year.
(Updated at 4:10 p.m.) Tight races for the state legislature and proposed restrictions on abortion motivated Virginians to the polls on Election Day.
This was despite the lack of statewide and federal elections, which typically drive turnout. The races for local office and the Virginia General Assembly played out against the backdrop of Republicans vying for a trifecta — control of the governor’s office as well as the lower and upper legislature chambers — and Democrats trying to stop them.
(Updated at 11:15 p.m.) It is another good election night for Arlington Democrats.
While some might have hoped for a Missing Middle-inspired upset in the two-seat Arlington County Board race, Democrats Maureen Coffey and Susan Cunningham have commanding leads over Republican Juan Carlos Fierro and independent Audrey Clement.
Arlingtonians could have an update on the results of the Arlington County Board Democratic primary as soon as this afternoon, according to the local elections office.
“We will be accepting about 500 mail and provisional ballots today and results will be uploaded throughout the afternoon,” says spokeswoman Tania Griffin. “We’ll also have an update regarding the [ranked-choice voting] tabulation later this afternoon as well.”
