WaPo: “The Northern Virginia suburbs shifted slightly toward President-elect Donald Trump in Tuesday’s election, defying conventional wisdom about the D.C. area’s status as an increasingly blue bulwark, according to unofficial returns.
In a state where Democrats rallied heavily around Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, some in the party were caught off guard by a GOP surge that also saw moderately conservative areas take on a deeper shade of red.
“At this point, I’m perplexed,” said Jeff Kent, chair of the Spotsylvania Democratic Committee in a county that Trump won by almost two more percentage points this year than in 2020. “I don’t have an explanation for how things came out. The realities are not syncing up from what I see in my head to what is clearly evidenced in the results.””