My fellow Young Democrats-

We are just 18 days away from the June Primaries here in Virginia. In addition, the Arlington Democrats are conducting our School Board caucus digitally this week to endorse a candidate for the November Election. So naturally, we have to talk about how important these elections actually are.

No, this will not be a plug for any candidates in particular as the Arlington Young Democrats don’t endorse or take sides in primaries.

As Virginia continues to become bluer and bluer every election, primaries become vitally more important. Here in Arlington County, we have seen this trend for years. Joe Biden won 80% of the Arlington County vote in 2020 and year after year Democrats have won more elections up and down the ballot. In Arlington, the last non-Democratic seat was flipped back in 2018 on the County Board, which means there is not one seat that a Democrat does not fill in this county.

This trend is happening through the majority of Virginia. In 2018, we flipped three of the six Republican held Congressional Seats. In 2019, we flipped the House of Delegates and the State Senate. Last year, we held onto our flipped seats in Congress, Senator Mark Warner was the first race called in the entire country, and Joe Biden won 54% of the vote in the Commonwealth. Virginia has gone from being solid Red throughout the 20th century, to solid Blue in under 20 years since the turn of the millennium. That is an impressive achievement for all of us.

As we continue on this trend, this means that ultimately the Democratic candidate will win in November. Now as a Big Tent Party, this means a lot of different things. One is that we have a lot of people who will be voting for the Democratic Candidate. Another is that that means a lot of different viewpoints will be in that same electorate. So what does that mean for all of us?

The most important election in Virginia will increasingly become the Democratic Primaries.

With such a diverse field of candidates running for the nomination, Democratic Primaries are where we will be able to truly have our values shown. If you know which candidate most closely aligns with your stances and values, then you need to get out there and vote for them. We want to have candidates that truly align with the majority of our people, not just because they have a D next to their name.

So what’s on your ballot?

Right now everywhere in Arlington, you will have at least four races on the ballot: Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, and County Board.

If you live in the 45th House District or the 49th House District, you will also have the House of Delegates districts on the ballot.

We have brought a lot of our statewide candidates to our meetings this year and we already had one debate for the County Board and School Board in order to inform our membership. You can also attend our debate for the 49th District on Tuesday, May 25th at 7pm.

For information about all of the candidates currently running in Arlington County, read more here.

So here’s my plea to you: our Commonwealth is becoming bluer every year, meaning whoever wins in June will most likely win in November. If you want to have a say in who gets into office and want your voice to be heard, it's time to get off the couch and vote on June 8th in the primaries.