Arlington’s two Republican members of the Electoral Board appear at loggerheads over how long early-voting dropboxes should be available before Election Day.
Richard Samp, the senior Republican on the three-member panel and its vice chair, used the July 8 board meeting to press for a reduction from more than 40 days of use to just 10. Not everyone was in favor.
For Arlington Democrats, the number to beat on Nov. 4 is 51,465.
That’s the difference between the number of votes cast in the county, in 2021, for Democrat Terry McAuliffe (73,013) over Republican Glenn Youngkin (21,548). McAuliffe lost that race, falling short by about 64,000 votes statewide.
The Arlington County Democratic Committee has abandoned a proposal to place major restrictions on who can vote for top leadership positions.
Just a month after the Democratic steering committee floated the idea, party leaders announced at a party meeting yesterday (Wednesday) that they were pulling it from consideration.
Arlington Republicans introduced two candidates for the House of Delegates and one County Board challenger at a Monday meeting.
The party acknowledges that, as always, November will be an uphill battle in Arlington. However, the goal is to put forward “candidates who are well-versed in what’s happening locally” as part of a five-year strategy, party chair Matthew Hurtt said.
Rep. Don Beyer is pursuing another term in office, promising to keep fighting “abuses of power” while his party plots strategies to take back Congress.
The Democrat representing Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, which includes all of Arlington, acknowledged to ARLnow that his party has struggled to resist dramatic policy changes under President Donald Trump while Republicans control the legislature.
Some of Arlington’s non-Democrat candidates for County Board see potential opportunities in the county’s ranked-choice voting system this November.
But so does incumbent County Board Chair Takis Karantonis.
Barring an appeal from one candidate who failed to qualify, Arlington’s County Board field for November is set at five.
County election officials have confirmed to ARLnow that a prospective sixth candidate narrowly missed meeting the 125-signature threshold for ballot access.
They faced off in the summer of 2020, and now Republican Bob Cambridge again will be sharing space on the November ballot with Democrat Takis Karantonis.
Cambridge was announced Monday (June 23) the Arlington County Republican Committee’s County Board nominee. He joins a crowded field that includes Democratic incumbent Takis Karantonis and three independents.
By OLIVIA DIAZ Associated Press/Report for America
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrats in Virginia have built up a hefty fundraising advantage for their effort to reclaim the governor’s mansion in a race seen as a bellwether for the party in power in Washington heading into the 2026 midterms.
Leaders of the Arlington Young Democrats are hoping to have an impact on what could be a key downstate legislative race.
The group will be throwing its organizational efforts behind Lily Franklin in House District 41 in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg area.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The candidates for Virginia’s lieutenant governor are set to make history after Sen. Ghazala Hashmi won the Democratic nomination for the position on Wednesday.
Hashmi is the first Muslim and the first Indian-American to be nominated to appear on the ballot for a Virginia statewide office. She defeated five other candidates, including Democrat Levar Stoney by less than a percentage point, to secure the nomination in a razor-thin primary race. Stoney congratulated Hashmi on Wednesday in a concession statement.
By OLIVIA DIAZ Associated Press/Report for America
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Former Del. Jay Jones will look to be the face of legal resistance to President Donald Trump in Virginia after winning Tuesday’s closely watched Democratic state primary for attorney general.
