Whether she was helped by Democratic crossover voting remains an open question, but in the end, Nikki Haley topped Donald Trump among the Fairfax County electorate on March 5.
The former South Carolina governor picked up 57.29 percent of the vote to 40.28 percent for the former president, according to preliminary figures as of March 8 at 2:55 p.m. reported by the Virginia Department of Elections.
The remaining votes were scattered among other candidates who remained on the ballot despite having earlier dropped out of the race – something Haley herself did on March 6.
Turnout in the Republican primary was 10.5 percent of the Fairfax electorate, higher than the 7.6 percent in the Democratic primary (which President Biden won handily). That could have been because the GOP campaign was seen as more competitive and drew more voters, or perhaps because some Democrats used Virginia’s open-primary law to cross over and vote for Haley in the GOP contest since the Democratic race’s result was seen as a foregone conclusion.
Haley fared well in Northern Virginia but found little traction elsewhere in the commonwealth, as Trump won 63.3 percent of the overall vote in the Old Dominion. In some areas downstate, the former president received more than 90 percent of votes cast in the Republican primary.
Biden Wins Big in Fairfax, But Challengers Score Nearly 14% of Vote: President Biden came away with a large portion of the Fairfax County vote in the Democratic presidential primary, but his two opponents split nearly 14 percent of the vote between them.
The president won just over 86 percent of the Fairfax vote, according to preliminary figures reported March 5 by the Virginia Department of Elections. Marianne Williamson garnered 10 percent and Dean Phillips picked up 3.7 percent.
Turnout in Fairfax was 7.6 percent of the electorate.
Statewide, Biden won 88.7 percent of the vote, according to preliminary data, with Williamson earning 7.8 percent and Phillips 3.5 percent.
