Results from today’s general election are starting to trickle in, and Fairfax County’s initial batch of tallied votes strongly favor Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race.
As of 9:24 p.m., Harris has about two-thirds or 66% of the votes that the county has counted so far, which include some early votes and Election Day results from 127 of the county’s 264 precincts, according to unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections.
Republican nominee Donald Trump has 31.3% of the vote so far.
Harris is projected to win Virginia with 51% of the vote versus 46% for Trump, according to Associated Press estimates, which called the state for the vice president at 11:42 p.m.
In more local races, Rep. Don Beyer is on track for a sixth term representing Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, which includes southeastern Fairfax County, Annandale and McLean as well as Arlington County and Alexandria City.
Beyer has almost 69% of the votes counted so far compared to a 28% share for Republican challenger Jerry Torres, per the unofficial Virginia Department of Elections results. The Associated Press called the race for Beyer at 8:13 p.m.
Democrats are also leading the races for the 10th and 11th Congressional Districts. Rep. Gerry Connolly will serve a ninth term in Congress after winning a comfortable 66% of the vote over Republican Mike Van Meter, a former FBI agent and Navy veteran, the AP declared at 9:57 p.m.
“Thank you to the voters of the 11th District of Virginia for once again putting your faith in me,” Connolly said in a tweet. “Serving you is the honor of a lifetime and I will fight for our values in the next Congress.”
State Sen. Suhas Subramanyam (D-32) declared victory in the 10th district around 9:16 p.m., though he has a narrower edge of 52.7% over Republican Mike Clancy’s 46.9%. The district is open with incumbent Rep. Jennifer Wexton not seeking reelection due to health issues.
“Now, it’s time to take on the tough fights and build a brighter future for our community,” Subramanyam said in a statement after thanking Wexton for her support. “I look forward to getting to work for the people of our community.”
The battle for one of Virginia’s two Senate seats also appeared to be tighter but was called for Democratic incumbent Tim Kaine by the AP at 11:22 p.m. Kaine has 54% of the vote compared to 45% for Republican nominee Hung Cao, according to unofficial Virginia returns.
GMU exit poll finds strong support for Harris
Early exit polling from George Mason University found that Harris is gaining strong support in suburban Fairfax County precincts, suggesting she is likely to carry Virginia in the election.
The polling, conducted by students at GMU’s Schar School of Policy and Government, shows Harris drawing notably higher support than what President Joe Biden received in 2020 in select suburban precincts.
“We are reasonably confident that Harris wins Virginia by 12 points, 2 points above Biden’s 10-point win in 2020,” Jeremy Mayer, an associate professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at GMU, told FFXnow.
According to Anderson Amato, a junior at GMU and the poll’s survey designer, Harris is securing around 70% of the vote in three Democratic-leaning precincts — Cardinal Forest Elementary School in Springfield, Centerpointe (the Herrity Building), and Little Run Ele 109 — chosen to mirror the state’s voting patterns.
All three precincts lean heavily Democratic, with party affiliation ranging from 60-62% across the three locations. Demographically, the areas are majority white, with the next largest group being Asian voters. Gender is evenly split at around 50-50, per Amato.
One notable finding, he said, is that younger voters in the 18-25 age group are supporting Trump at a higher rate than expected, around 20% compared to 70% for Harris.
“We did notice that younger people were voting for Trump at a slightly higher margin than some of the other demographics, certainly more than maybe you would expect for a Republican candidate,” Amato said.
While Black women showed strong support for Harris at 88%, Black men backed her at a lower rate, around 72%, and had a higher rate of third-party voting, Mayer said.
While that could be good news for Republicans nationwide, Mayer noted that Harris is picking up votes with Hispanic voters.
“Hispanics went strong for Harris, and were only 12.7% for Trump,” he said. “We had similarly small numbers for them, but if that does reflect anything about the national vote, that’s amazing news for Harris.”
The top issues driving voter concerns appear to be abortion and the economy, with 23% of respondents citing abortion as their primary concern, compared to 14.4% who said they were voting to prevent the other candidate from winning.
Amato said the survey also revealed strong anti-Trump sentiment among some Republican voters, with a number of GOP-leaning respondents indicating they voted a straight Democratic ticket due to their dislike of the former president.
“Overall, we are confident Harris wins Virginia tonight,” Mayer said.
