All eyes were on Virginia as Election Night 2020 began on the airwaves. Thanks to early voting in light of the global pandemic, there was an expectation that the results would not be final until the wee hours of the night, as absentee votes had yet to be counted. Sure enough, that was the case in several elections, but none more so than in the Presidential Election between current President Donald Trump and his opponent former Vice President Joe Biden. Reports were coming in early that there was a chance that Trump would win and therefore flip the state red. However, as the mail-in votes began to surface from areas such as Fairfax County, it became more evident that Biden was going to win, which he did, earning 53.65% of the votes and Trump receiving 44.49%. This maintains a current streak of Virginia voting Democratic in Presidential elections the past four years.

Throughout the state there are several Congressional races that saw the Democrats win in expected races. Senator Mark Warner maintained his seat over Daniel Gade (R) and Jennifer Wexton (D) defeated Aliscia Andrews (R) after a flurry of write-in votes were counted. However, it wasn’t an overall victory for Democrats as Qasim Rashid lost in his race to unseat Rob Wittman (R). Despite running an inspired race with lots of grassroots support, Rashid came up just short. He released the following statement in a press release after he called Wittman once 80% of the votes had came in:

“We built this campaign on a new kind of politics. We are disappointed with the outcome, but we are not regretful. We celebrate our message of compassion through action, and we continue to fight for justice for all.

I’m grateful for my fellow Virginians across the political spectrum who voted for me. It is clear that the desire for change is present here in the First District. When I called Rep. Wittman to concede this race, I urged him to build a broad coalition representative of the First District—not just those who voted for him, to listen to ordinary people—not corporate lobbyists, and to govern in the interests of working families—not billionaires. I implored him to get to work on building broadband as a utility, following the science on environment, and on protecting healthcare—not repealing it without a replacement.

I’ve spent my career serving and advocating for marginalized communities, working families, and I’m not going to stop any time soon. I’ll be alongside you fighting for our shared values and progress for our hardworking families.

More than anything, I’m grateful to each of you. We organized this district, we ran hard and fought from the heart. We built this campaign with compassion through action. We put working families from Manassas to Mathews at the center of our campaign. We rejected corporate PAC money and were fueled by We the People. We out fundraised our opponent and ran a positive campaign that focused on the issues. This is a testament to our campaign team and staff, our fellows and volunteers, and our constituents who so graciously supported us with your time and money.

If you heard me on the campaign trail, you’ll know the most important lesson my parents ever taught me: That whatever I do in life, I must center service to humanity at the forefront—otherwise it is a waste of my life. I don’t intend to waste a moment. You have my promise. My plan was always to continue serving my community post-November 3rd. I’ve spent my career serving and advocating for marginalized communities, working families, and I’m not going to stop any time soon. We will continue to fight to uphold justice and compassion, and I am so grateful to have you in this fight with us.

Thank you for your dedication, trust, and support. My deepest gratitude to each of you. Our work here isn’t done. We are just getting started. God bless you all.“

On a local level it was a great night for Democrats. Congressman Gerry Connolly maintained his seat overwhelmingly for CD-11. In Dumfries Councilman Brian Fields was re-elected to a second term, along with Shawn Peet and Tyrone Brown, who are on the council for the first time. Manassas saw a blue wave take place as Michelle Davis-Younger became the first Black woman to win the mayoral race. Darryl Moore won the Manassas Park City Council race.

However, not all sits well for voters in Virginia as they wake up to a new day. Virginia Question 1, which the PW Perspective’s Langston Carter wrote about its dangers prior to Election Day, was overwhelmingly approved with a 65% vote. One of the questions facing the state will be is who will be on the electoral commissions to oversee the districts.

There are still some more results to be determined, but one thing is clear as the state’s focus shifts to next year’s Gubernatorial and Lieutenant Governor’s races: that the voices of Black and Brown voters along with first time voters will play a major role as to who will occupy Richmond 12 months from now.

Statistics provided by vpap.org.