Arlington Democrats take a breath, regroup as shock of Trump victory sets in

A combination of venting, defiance, group therapy and gearing up for future battles.

That's how Arlington Democrats were coping Wednesday night (Nov. 6), just 24 hours the night after the party's devastating losses at the national level.

What most had anticipated as a celebration of Kamala Harris's ascendancy to the presidency turned into a wake when Donald Trump took the prize instead.

"Heartbroken and defeated" is how Arlington Young Democrats president Bryant Atkins described his feelings during the gathering, held at Lubber Run Community Center.

"We are grieving," said Paul Ruiz, deputy chair of the local party. "Many of us woke up this morning feeling scared."

Ruiz noted in his remarks that his mother had died unexpectedly earlier in the year.

"Having experienced that, this isn't so bad," he said. "But I recognize the feeling, because it came from the same place."

At the event, party leaders worked to understand and explain the reasons behind their party's second defeat to Donald Trump in three election cycles.

"Voters just want a better economy — we understand that," said Atkins.

Kip Malinosky, a former party chair who spearheaded efforts bringing local Democrats to help in battleground states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania, tried to be philosophical. Governments across the world are facing the wrath of voters, he said, and Democrats were the latest to pay the price.

"People are pissed, and they are kicking out incumbents," Malinosky said. "Sometimes, the winds are just too strong."

That didn't make the results of the presidential race any easier to swallow for him.

"It's a devastating result, absolutely devastating," Malinosky said. "Tears, rage, despair [are] absolutely valid."

Cooperate, or Resist?

Where Democrats go now brought up some divisions among the speakers that took to the podium at the Nov. 6 event.

Despite the party's election dominance in Arlington, two of the winners in local races suggested county Democrats needed to be cooperative and reach out to those with different points of view.

"We are in a bubble here in Arlington. We keep seeing that election after election. We have to think about why that is," said Kathleen Clark, fresh off a School Board victory.

She encouraged the party to "build relationships with people who think differently."

JD Spain, Sr., who won the County Board seat being vacated by Libby Garvey, pushed a related theme in his remarks.

"We've got to learn the art of compromise. We've got to work together in uniting and building bridges," he said.

Party chair Steve Baker, however, said efforts at reaching out to others can't include compromising core principles.

"Don't concede the fight," he said.

"Resist the Trump agenda," Malinosky added.

Less Shock Than After 2016 Result

In November 2016, a day after Donald Trump's first victory, Democrats met at their then-gathering place, the a ground-floor meeting room at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association in Ballston.

The mood at that gathering was of a shell-shocked group that couldn't comprehend what had just transpired.

This time, however, the meeting's tenor — while emotional — seemed to an observer somewhat less apocalyptic in tone than eight years before.

That was a view in which several party leaders concurred. Despite hopes for a Harris victory and better success at the congressional level, there had been the understanding that may not come to pass, they acknowledged. So the shock was less than in 2016.

Like many in the Democratic grassroots, Arlington's rank-and-file seemed at first hesitant to see President Joe Biden removed against his will as the party's nominee. But when that happened, enthusiasm at the local level quickly pivoted to Harris. Biden has been seldom mentioned at local party gatherings since.

During the run-up to the general election, Arlington Democrats focused efforts on ramping up turnout. More than 1,000 volunteers took part, including 800 serving as poll-greeters on Election Day.

"That's what Arlington Democrats do best," Baker said.

That extra turnout helped Democrats win the County Board seat outright, rather than require the new ranked-choice-voting process to be ramped up. Spain came away with more than the needed 50% of first-choice votes to win an outright victory.

Atkins believes that, both at the local level and in its outreach efforts elsewhere, Arlington Democrats could be proud of their efforts.

"To say that we didn't go down swinging is entirely false," he said.

Celebrating Local Election Success

Although more showed up at a party luncheon earlier that day, only a few elected Democrats were on hand at the evening event: County Board member Takis Karantonis, School Board Chair Mary Kadera and Clerk of the Circuit Court Paul Ferguson.

Ferguson, one of the co-chairs of the 2024 Democratic joint campaign committee that coordinated local campaign efforts, said that at the county level, "we have a lot to celebrate."

"The state of the Arlington Democratic Committee is excellent," he said. "It's unlikely we are ever going to lose a local race in the future, but we won't take it for granted."

"It was truly spectacular what we were able to accomplish," said Sarah Lanford, who heads up precinct operations for Arlington Democrats.

Lanford urged Democrats to regroup, refocus and "organize, not agonize."

"Hope and grief can coexist," she said.

Republicans See Improvement, But Still Lag

The Arlington County Republican Committee faced the opposite emotional roller coaster as did Democrats — a good night on the national level but plenty of challenges locally.

Republican candidates for County Board, 8th District U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate all fell short by large margins, and county voters approved all five Arlington bond referendums despite a GOP recommendation to reject them all.

But party chair Matthew Hurtt said there was a silver lining in the Northern Virginia data.

"All told, there was a 91,000-vote swing against Kamala Harris and the Democrats and toward Donald Trump and the Republicans across Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax and Loudoun," Hurtt said in a post-mortem election e-mail to the party faithful.

That included an increase in several points in Trump's vote percentage in Arlington. It had been about 17% in 2016 and 2020 but stood at a little over 19% in 2024, according to preliminary data.

The swing was more pronounced in several other Northern Virginia jurisdictions.

Trump "made significant gains across nearly every demographic, including big shifts among 18-29-year-olds and 30-44-year-olds, as well as Hispanic, Asian and Black voters," Hurtt wrote.

That could be helpful for statewide elections next year, if Republicans can keep those new converts involved in the process — and keep them voting the GOP's direction.

The Pivot to 2025 Gathers Steam

After licking their respective wounds, both local political parties will now have to make a quick pivot to 2025.

The governorship and other statewide offices, plus all 100 House of Delegates seats, will be up for grabs. Locally, Democrats will have to defend County Board and School Board seats.

"We can't change today, but we can change tomorrow," incoming School Board member Clark said.

Democrats already have their presumptive gubernatorial nominee in Abigail Spanberger. Getting her across the finish line next November is "what we've got to be focused on," said Tony Weaver, who served as campaign manager for Zuraya Tapia-Hadley's successful run for School Board.

Republican chair Hurtt said he has started work to recruit candidates for County Board, School Board and House of Delegates. Candidate recruitment has been a chronic challenge for the county's GOP.

In 2021, local Republicans were able to field a candidates for the three local House of Delegates seats. While those candidates were defeated by large margins, they did bring out more Republican voters, which may have contributed to Glenn Youngkin's narrow gubernatorial victory and a sweep that included the posts of lieutenant governor and attorney general.

In his missive to GOP rank-and-file, at least one of Hurtt's comments could just as equally have been uttered by his counterpart Baker.

"You can take a week or so to rest, but you and I must get back to work," Hurtt said.

And Baker had a prediction that equally could have come out of the mouth of Hurtt.

"I know we're going to have a great year next year," Baker said.