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.
Republicans will field an Arlington County Board candidate this year.
The Arlington GOP announced today (Wednesday) that Juan Carlos Fierro will run in the November general election, facing whoever comes out on top of yesterday’s Democratic primary.
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%.
The Democratic primary for one open Arlington County Board seat got off to a slow start today.
As of 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, only about 3.7% of Arlington registered voters had cast ballots in the Democratic race today. About 5.2% of the county voted early or by mail, according to the county’s election dashboard.
The Arlington Democratic primary is tomorrow (Tuesday).
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. as five candidates — James DeVita, Julie Farnam, Natalie Roy, Tenley Peterson and JD Spain — compete for the one open seat on the Arlington County Board. Historically, the victor of the Democratic primary tends to be a reliable predictor of the November general election outcome.
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.
Competing visions of housing and development in Arlington underpinned a County Board candidate forum Wednesday night.
In particular focus at the Arlington Committee of 100 event were divided stances on Missing Middle. Supporting the rezoning policy, which the Board unanimously approved last year, are Democrats Tenley Peterson and JD Spain.
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.
(Updated at 10:35 a.m.) Democratic candidates are racking up tens of thousands of dollars in donations, as well as numerous notable endorsements, as this year’s local races heat up.
Three Arlington County Board contenders are leading the pack in terms of donations for this election cycle, campaign finance reports show. Natalie Roy has raised about $41,000 so far, JD Spain has raised $37,000 and Tenley Peterson has raised $23,000.
Arlington spent $74,000 in two months combating a lawsuit over Missing Middle housing, public records show, drawing the ire of a County Board candidate.
The county, which hired law firm Gentry Locke at the start of this year, paid $49,251 for services in January and $24,536 in February, according to invoices. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe campaign for the lawsuit — which alleges that Arlington failed to adequately study the impacts of Missing Middle before approving the zoning change — has raised about $69,000 since last June.
While the presidential primaries are now a done deal, races for Arlington Democratic nods are just getting started.
A full slate of candidates are vying for seats on the Arlington School Board and Arlington County Board. Five Democratic contenders are jockeying for the place of outgoing County Board Chair Libby Garvey and another four are gunning for two School Board seats.
President Joe Biden and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won the majority of votes in Arlington in yesterday’s Virginia presidential primary.
However, the low voter turnout in both primaries might serve as a warning sign for both Biden and the now clear Republican frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, of a lack of voter enthusiasm.
