Andres Jimenez wins Democratic Primary for Mason District supervisor
Andres Jimenez has won the Democratic Primary for Mason District supervisor, with 35.24 percent of the vote, according to results reported by the Virginia Department of Elections.
Jimenez, an at-large member of the Fairfax County Planning Commission who emphasized his background in environmental and climate advocacy, racked up a long list of endorsements, including Board of Supervisors chair Jeffrey McKay, Rep. Gerry Connolly, and labor unions.
His chief challenger, Reid Voss, a community leader in Lake Barcroft, came up just 275 votes short with 32.29 percent. Voss, a former Republican who had downplayed his history of working for GOP officials, courted Republican voters.
A revelation late in the campaign that Jimenez missed many meetings of the Planning Commission wasn’t enough to sink his chances of winning the primary.
Jeremy Allen, an aide to Rep. Don Beyer came in third with 20 percent of the vote, and Annandale businessman Steve Lee, who got a late start campaigning, came in fourth place with 12.48 percent.
Voter turnout in Fairfax County was just over 11 percent in the Democratic Primary. Since voters in Virginia don’t specify a party affiliation, it is not known how many Republicans voted.
There are no Republican candidates so far for Mason supervisor in the general election on Nov. 7.
Jimenez is expected to be the first supervisor in Mason District following the 28-year run by Penny Gross, who is retiring at the end of 2023.
Voss outperformed Jimenez in several Mason District precincts, including Bailey’s, Barcroft, Belvedere, Masonville, Parklawn, Sleepy Hollow, Saint Albans, Camelot, Poe, Walnut Hill, and Tripps.
Allen won big in the Crossroads precinct and got over 70 percent of the vote in Bren Mar, his home precinct, where he led a successful campaign against a proposed data center.
Lee outperformed the other candidates in the Brook Hill and Columbia precincts.
In the hotly contested race for the 35th Senate District in the General Assembly, the incumbent, Dave Marsden got 62.87 percent of the vote, handily defeating newcomer Heidi Drauschak who got 37.13 percent.
Marsden, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, was endorsed by U.S. senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and the Washington Post. The more progressive Drauschak had been accused of being a recent resident of Virginia, a charge she denied.
Marsden will face Republican candidate Mark Vafiades in the general election.
Board of Supervisor Chair Jeffrey McKay won the Democratic Primary with 56.49 percent of the vote. Challenger Lisa Downing, a retired CIA agent with no background in politics, had a strong showing with 43.51 percent.
McKay will face Republican Arthur Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance and perennial candidate, in the November election.
In the race for Commonwealth’s Attorney, the incumbent, Steve Descano got 55.39 percent of the vote, beating trial attorney Ed Nuttall, with 44.61 percent.
The Fairfax County Republican Committee, unhappy with Descano’s reform initiatives, urged Republicans to vote for Nuttall.
Sheriff Stacey Kincaid won the primary with 75.22 percent, compared to 24.78 percent of the vote for Kelvin Garcia, a former police officer in Washington, D.C.
In other contested Board of Supervisor races, Jimmy Bierman won an open seat in Dranesville, Albert Vega won an open seat in Springfield, and Supervisor Dan Storck won in Mount Vernon.
In the 37th Senate District, which includes some Mason precincts, Saddam Salim beat incumbent Chap Petersen. Stella Pekarsky, a member of the Fairfax County School Board, beat Sen. George Barker in the 36th District (Centreville).
School board member Karen Keys-Gamarra beat three challengers in the open 7th House of Delegates District (Reston), and school board member Laura Jane Cohen won the open seat in the 15th House District (Burke).
14 responses to “Andres Jimenez wins Democratic Primary for Mason District supervisor”
Leave a reply
11% turnout is so sad. Yes this is the primary but realistically it is the election. 11% of the populace chose the leadership for all 100%.
I just hope Jimenez takes note from the revitalization projects that are happening in Arlington and Falls Church City of turning the aging garden-complexes into more modern mixed-use housing that can preserve affordable housing for the residents while maintaining a better job of maintenance/zoning laws and keeping crime out.
The District will be lucky if he shows up for work. Forget about all the other issues, the voters decided that incompetence and lack of commitment to committees is better than a known leader that get things done in LB.
Thank you Gerry Connolly and Jeff McKay for leading us down this path.
Test scores in Math and reading plunge to a 13 year low – keep voting the way you do folks- Yes -it can and will get worse…
Mason District will now have a candidate for supervisor who was not supported by the majority of Mason District Democratic voters. It remains to be seen whether he will be successful in the General Election. And even if he is, there will be a large contingent of Mason District voters, who wont be happy with him as a supervisor, and there will probably be little change in the lukewarm support for business development in Mason that’s not about vaping shops, karaoke bars or title insurance companies.
Amen, but there isn’t an independent or GOP candidate at this point. And even if one were to step forward, too many people in Mason are blind partisans. I hope Mr. Vega leads with humility and actually shows up for his job.
I hardly think it is any of the candidates’ responsibility to ensure they represent a majority when there are four candidates, all who polled well. If we had rank choice voting as Arlington implemented this year, we could work towards a majority vote. As it is, a plurality of voters counts as much as a majority. No one asked any of the candidates to quit the race, and in a year of transition there are going to be lots of issues from which to decide. I bet in November Andres WILL represent all or most of the Democrats who will be voting. Finally, what’s the point of describing his term as supervisor (which he has not won, which would only start next year) as a disappointment, when you have no idea how he would be received or how he would act on your particular concerns? Voting is a way citizens help define the issues for their leaders, but we still haven’t had that vote!
Hi James I fully agree with Jimenez, this race was highly competitive with the amount of candidates and the amount of support each candidate had. Jimenez is the best suited candidate I believe out of all of them. People have started complaining and made up their minds with how horribly they think he is gonna act. I am a fan of Ranked Choice Voting especially compared to the current system but I think there are other new voting methods to consider that further improve on this. I learned about Star Voting and Ranked Robin voting, they are similar to Ranked choice voting where you ranked people based on your preference but takes all the votes into account and does not burn as much votes. I don’t think I could explain either systems effectively so I will refer you some resources. Ranked Robin is better if you don’t want to change the pitch of RCV in this state but it looks like STAR voting has some upsides however I have not seen a critical look at it.
https://www.equal.vote/star_vs_rcv#:~:text=With%20STAR%20Voting%2C%20every%20possible,’One%20Person%2C%20One%20Vote.
https://www.equal.vote/ranked_robin
There appears to be 4 comments on this article, but the comments are not listed below.
The comments are visible now. This issue only affected Annandale Today viewed on a phone.
Thank you Ellie for covering these local elections. I saw little other coverage.
The District will be lucky if he shows up for work. Forget about all the other issues, the voters decided that incompetence and lack of commitment to committees is better than a known leader that get things done in LB.
Thank you Gerry Connolly and Jeff McKay for leading us down this path.
This is quite disappointing that so few people exercised their right to vote in the primary. Now, we’re possibly stuck with a candidate who has a very poor attendance record and even the current supervisor couldn’t give her support to. Hopefully, another candidate will come forward to challenge him in November. At least Reid Voss went out and visited homes in the area to ask for votes and to find out the concerns.
I need Jeremy Allen to go harder, Bren Mar was supporting him in the opposition of the data center. Nobody wants that monstrocity next to their homes!