In November 2019, progressive activists won public office in Loudoun with as little as 51% of the vote, and Democratic control was cemented. It is a peculiarity of Virginia law that local elections are held in odd-numbered years, leading to low-turnout elections that can be carried by small numbers of people with strong beliefs. Some of these elections were defined by the brazen intervention of outside interests. It was clear they were often more interested in national politics than in the everyday concerns of local residents.
Juli Briskman was a tech worker who happened to be captured by White House press corps photographers extending her middle finger at then-President Donald Trump’s motorcade as it passed through the county, where his company owns a golf property. After national left-leaning publications had some fun with the photograph, her local employer fired her for the uncouth act, but she set up a GoFundMe that raised money from Trump critics across the country, in order to make up for lost wages. So much money poured in that she used the windfall to run for a position on the county’s board of supervisors. She won, turning an obscure position previously concerned largely with activities like paving roads into a soapbox for national partisan affairs.
Biberaj, the prosecutor, was elected by a 1% margin after George Soros paid $845,000 to support her bid. Her opponent, the Republican incumbent, spent $113,000 altogether, a more typical sum for a local race.