After reporting record turnout levels in 2016 and 2020, Fairfax County saw a noticeable dip in voter participation for this year’s general election.
The county reported a voter turnout of 68.35%, with 561,368 of its 821,347 registered voters casting a ballot either on Tuesday (Nov. 5) or during the 45-day early voting period, according to unofficial results that will be certified after noon tomorrow (Friday), the deadline for the county’s elections office to receive mail-in ballots.
In comparison, more voters participated in the last presidential election in 2020 than any other in Fairfax County’s history, with 605,023 out of 761,573 active registered voters casting a ballot — a turnout rate of 79.4%, per county records. The high mark in terms of turnout percentage remains 2016, when 82.5% of 761,573 registered voters, or 605,023 people, weighed in.
Despite the decline in turnout for the third consecutive presidential race featuring Donald Trump as the Republican nominee, Fairfax County maintained its status as part of Northern Virginia’s blue wall — a bloc of left-leaning voters who have helped turn Virginia from a reliable GOP stronghold into a purple state over the past decade.
Fairfax County voters supported all but one Democratic candidate running for federal office over their Republican and third-party counterparts, though the local Democratic committee admitted their GOP counterparts were more mobilized locally than in the past.
Harris sweeps all but two precincts
Based on unofficial results published by the Virginia Department of Elections, Vice President Kamala Harris came out ahead in all but two of Fairfax County’s 264 precincts.
Former president Donald Trump eked a 14-vote lead in Clifton’s Liberty precinct, while managing a slightly bigger the Gunston precinct near Lorton, saw Trump collect a majority of the 1,787 votes cast — 51.26% compared to Harris’ 46.78%.
Harris’ overall support in Fairfax, however, was lower than her predecessor as the Democratic nominee. While nearly two-thirds (65.45%) of Fairfax voters supported Harris, her tally came in closer to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 percentage (64.43%) than President Joe Biden’s 2020 percentage (69.89%).
Harris ultimately secured Virginia and its 13 electoral votes, thanks also to large tallies in Arlington (77.77%), Alexandria (77.06%) and counties in the southeastern part of the state.
Cao finds more success than Trump — barely
Despite claiming victory nationwide and garnering more votes in Fairfax than he did in 2020, Trump was not the best candidate on the ballot when it came to penetrating Fairfax’s blue wall.
That honor belongs to Republican Senate candidate Hung Cao, who claimed three of the county’s voting precincts. Along with the two that went for Trump, Cao also came out ahead in the Clifton South precinct by a single vote: 1,037 versus 1,036 for the incumbent Tim Kaine.
In all, Cao netted 178,023 votes in Fairfax County — besting Trump’s tally of 173,320, which was higher than the 168,401 votes that went to the then-president in 2020. Kaine still secured 67.45% of the vote, trouncing Cao en route to a third term in the U.S. Senate.
Kaine secured a total of 372,685 votes in Fairfax County, exceeding Harris’ tally of 365,654 votes.
House races see more voter participation
While overall voter turnout dropped, the national and statewide races helped boost participation down the ballot.
Approximately 142,000 more votes were cast in the county’s congressional elections this cycle than in 2022, the last time Virginia’s U.S. House seats were up for grabs.
Most noticeably, turnout in the race for the 11th Congressional District — a seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly — jumped by nearly 100,000 voters from 2022. Connolly defeated Republican challenger Mike Van Meter with 66.49% of the vote, roughly the same margin of victory that he saw two years ago.
Both the 8th district, represented by Rep. Don Beyer, and the 10th district, represented by Rep. Jennifer Wexton, also saw jumps in participation among their few precincts within Fairfax’s borders. While Beyer easily prevailed both in Fairfax County and district-wide this year, the uptick in voters didn’t favor Democrats in the county’s portion of the 10th district.
Republican candidate Mike Clancy bested Suhas Subramanyam with 19 more votes in the county’s eight precincts within that district, which includes the town of Clifton. Subramanyam ultimately won the seat with 51.9% of the vote, mostly thanks to support in Loudoun County, which he currently represents as a state senator.
