Locally, in the City of Falls Church, former F.C. School Board chair Laura Downs handily won election to an open seat on the Falls Church City Council, defeating former Board of Zoning Appeals chair John Murphy by a solid margin of 4,701 to 3,279, with 83 percent of registered voters here casting ballots, according to City Voter Registrar David Bjerke.
In her victory statement issued to the News-Press yesterday, Downs wrote, “I would like to thank the Falls Church City citizens who voted for me and thank my opponent, John Murphy, for a civil campaign that explored many ideas and issues in our city. John and I agree on many things, and we both love our city. I will do my best to listen to and address the concerns and feedback of his supporters. I am looking forward to serving the Falls Church City community and want to thank my family, friends, volunteers and supporters. The future is bright for our city and I am honored to be given the opportunity to help lead it.”
For the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Senate and U.S. president, Falls Church voters also returned overwhelming margins for the Democratic nominees, incumbents Don Beyer and Tim Kaine, and U.S. presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
In fact, the margin for Harris in Falls Church was 7,017 to 1,576 for Trump, so that among the 8,857 total votes cast, 79.2 percent went to Harris and only 18 percent for Trump. Three minor candidates got 147 total votes and there were 92 write-ins.
However, stunningly, the man with the support of only 18 percent of adults in Falls Church will be ruling over us all out of the White House, a mere seven miles as the crow flies, come January 20.
As political commentator David Frum of The Atlantic posted yesterday, “Trump won. We must now prepare to live in a different America. It is now a country where millions of our fellow citizens voted for a president who knowingly promotes hatred and division; who lies—blatantly, shamelessly—every time he appears in public; who plotted to overturn an election in 2020 and, had he not won, was planning to try again in 2024.”
This is who and what the majority in America chose this week, although Harris carried all the west coast and northeast (we can now call Virginia part of the northeast). The margin for Harris in Falls Church and adjacent counties of Arlington and Fairfax was so pronounced that it turned Virginia blue overall.
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat affectionately known as Falls Church’s “Native Son,” also won handily, with his vote in the City of Falls Church portion of his 8th Congressional District casting 6,825 votes for him to 1,562 for Jerry Torres, the Republican nominee, and a total of 303 for two minor candidates. His margin was 77 percent of the total ballots cast to 18 percent for Torres.
Democratic U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, whose Falls Church stop last week was followed by a surprise cameo appearance, along with Harris, on Saturday Night Live during its 50th season this last Saturday, won statewide by a comfortable 54.1 percent to 45.9 percent over Republican Hung Cao, and among Falls Church voters, received 76 percent of the vote to 19 percent for Cao.
Harris, in delivering her concession speech at Howard University yesterday, said, “The light of the American promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and keep fighting.”
She said, “Don’t ever stop trying to make the world a better place. We must not throw up our hands, but instead roll up our sleeves.” She is in service, she said, to “the Constitution, my conscience, and God” and her four watchwords are “optimism, faith, truth and service” and added, “Do not give up the fight that fueled the campaign.”
“Only when it is dark can you see the stars,” she added, while numbers of students in the audience were shown by TV cameras in tears.
U.S. Congressman Gerry Connelly, who won re-election in the 11th District adjacent Falls Church to the west, issued a statement saying, “Last night, the election didn’t go the way we wanted. I was hopeful we could finally put the madness of Donald Trump behind us, but that’s not what the votes said.”
He added, “I remain cautiously hopeful that when all the votes are counted, Democrats will win a majority in the House…Regardless of whether I’m in the minority or the majority in January, I will fight for Northern Virginia’s values and against Donald Trump’s far right agenda….I will continue fighting for what’s important: protecting democracy here and abroad, standing up for a woman’s right to choose, and making sure the American economy works for everyone. I urge you not to despair, and don’t agonize, organize.”
The Rev. Burl Salmon, rector of the historic Falls Church Episcopal in downtown Falls Church, issued a statement yesterday afternoon in the context of the national election. He wrote, “As news of our nation’s elections becomes more real, many of us are grieving, some are rejoicing, and a significant number of those within our parish are genuinely afraid…Fr. Matthew and I are as close as a phone call, a text, an email, or a visit, and we invite you to be in touch with us as you need to.
“We are citizens, friends, not of this temporal and temporary world, but of the Kingdom of God…in which there is only justice and equity, and we will work, proclaiming release to the captive and freedom to the oppressed.”
