Arlington, Virginia– Not everyone who voted in Northern Virginia in Tuesday’s election felt the impact of President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal government, but even many who did say they had colleagues or neighbors dealing with the consequences.
“I’ve seen a lot of federal families lose their jobs, lose their income, lose their certainty here,” said Carina Valdez, who voted for Barcroft Sports. & Arlington fitness center.
Valdez, a 40-year-old mother and elementary school teacher, said she voted for Democratic candidates at all ballot boxes, adding her voice to Democratic sweep From all the statewide offices in the commonwealth that sent a scathing letter to President Donald Trump and his party.
Abigail Spanberger, elected as the state’s first female governor, ran on a promise to protect Virginia’s economy from the aggressive tactics of the second Trump administration, which executed everything it needed. the civil serviceHe imposed tariffs and sponsored a reconciliation bill that diminished the already fragile state Health care system.
An Associated Press analysis of Spanberger’s double-digit victory over Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earl Sears showed a significant swing toward Democrats from four years ago, when Republican Glenn Youngkin won the state’s top office, and since last November, when Democrat Kamala Harris won Virginia by less than 6 percentage points in the presidential race.
the 2025 AP Voter Pollan expanded poll of voters on Tuesday found that voters with a federal government employee or contractor in their household were more likely than other households to support Spanberger, while a majority of Virginia voters said their family finances were at least “slightly” affected by Trump-era federal government cuts.
Even Youngkin admitted that the federal government shutdown led to a “huge turnout yesterday.”
“People aren’t getting paid. They’re worried about mortgages and rents,” he told reporters in Richmond on Wednesday. “They’re worried about how they’re going to feed their families. The challenge of this government shutdown is real, and I’m incredibly understanding of that challenge for all Virginians. And I think it caused a huge turnout yesterday.”
Democratic House Speaker Don Scott said the election is about more than just federal jobs. He noted that Democrats gained nearly a dozen seats in Virginia’s 100-member House of Delegates on Tuesday, guaranteeing them the party’s largest majority in three decades.
“We saw a small wave, but we did not see this tsunami,” he said.
Trump himself acknowledged the effects in his first public appearance since Democrats swept gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, won New York’s mayor’s race, flipped two seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission, and won voters’ approval to redraw California’s congressional district map to combat the president’s partisan gerrymandering elsewhere.
Speaking at the White House on Wednesday to Republican senators, Trump called the shutdown a “huge negative factor” in the bombing and urged lawmakers to end it.
Trump has not pushed for a response to Democrats’ demands to expand premium subsidies for health insurance customers under the Affordable Care Act. He urged Republican leaders to end the Senate filibuster so they wouldn’t need any Democratic votes to approve spending measures — or anything else — as long as the GOP maintained its majority.
That may not be enough to appease some voters in Virginia. Some of Spanberger’s supporters made clear Tuesday that they blame Republicans in Washington, given the GOP’s control of the White House and Capitol Hill.
“They have the majority and they should be able to get something done,” Sherri Cohan, a 56-year-old accountant, said at her polling place in Arlington, where the former Republican nominee voted for Spanberger.
Paul Kaptanakis, a 37-year-old restaurateur, cited the effects of Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to the nation’s capital, the shutdown and rising prices when explaining his vote for Spanberger and other Democrats.
“I lost probably $300,000 from the year before,” he said, comparing this year’s revenue to 2024. “I’m still in good shape, but I could have been a lot better.”
About 6 in 10 Virginia voters reported that their household finances were affected “a lot” or “a little” by federal government cuts this year, a poll of voters showed Tuesday. About two-thirds of those voters supported Spanberger, while about 6 in 10 voters who said they were not affected by the cuts supported Winsome Earl Sears, the Republican nominee.
About two-thirds of voters living in a household with a current federal employee or contractor voted for Spanberger, compared to just over half of voters in households without a family member working for the government.
Alonzi Scott, an early voter in Arlington, said he retired in September from the Office of Naval Research because of disagreement with new performance plans that required him to “faithfully implement the president’s agenda.”
“When I saw that, I told my bosses at the time that I was retiring,” Scott said. “I’ve been in business for 40 years, and it’s time to get out the door.”
Scott said he would like to see the nation on a better path and plans to volunteer in local politics as soon as he is able.
The shift toward Democrats has been particularly strong in northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C., where many federal employees live.
Four years ago, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe led suburban Loudoun County in 2021 by 11 points. Harris beat Trump there by 16 points. Spanberger’s margin on Tuesday was about 29 points.
In Fairfax County, McAuliffe led by 30, Harris by 35 and Spanberger by 47. In Prince William, Spanberger nearly doubled the Democrats’ 2024 margin, leading the county by 34 points compared to Harris’ 18. McAuliffe led Youngkin there by 15 points.
Meanwhile, in Southwest Virginia, a largely Republican, rural area with a smaller federal government footprint, Spanberger has made gains but usually in the single digits.
Rebecca Wolfinger, a 49-year-old healthcare worker, said the fallout from the lockdown was a major issue for her.
“Everything that happened with the federal government and people losing their jobs all over Arlington and other places in Virginia affected my vote a lot,” she said. “I felt like the Republican nominee didn’t show a lot of concern about people losing their jobs.”
__
Barrow reported from Washington. Diaz reported from Richmond. Associated Press journalists Josh Bock and Will Weissert contributed from Washington.