Arlington County

The election for President of the United States is on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Vice President Kamala Harris (D) is running against former president, Donald J. Trump (R), a businessman and former reality television star.
For her running mate, Vice President Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. For his running mate, former president Trump chose JD Vance.

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is running to be the 47th President of the United States. She previously served as a US Senator for the state of California, as well as the Attorney General for California, and the District Attorney for San Francisco.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is the Democratic candidate for Vice President of the United States. He previously served as a congressman for Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District. Governor Walz is a National Army Guard veteran and retired school teacher. 

Together on the Issues
⭐ They support reproductive freedom and access to abortion and will never allow a national abortion ban to become law!
⭐ They support affordable housing!
⭐ They support investing in small businesses–especially when it comes to entrepreneurs from marginalized communities!
⭐ They support making healthcare more accessible and affordable!
⭐ They support affordable quality childcare and education!
⭐ They support high-quality clean energy jobs and environmental justice!
⭐ They support passing the Equality Act and protecting the rights and freedoms of LGBTQIA+ communities!
⭐ They support common-sense gun violence prevention legislation!

There’s definitely more, but you get it by now.

The Opposition
Former Republican President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance are facing off against Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz. 

The Republican candidate for president is Donald Trump. If you’ve found yourself looking at our voter guide, we probably don’t need to tell you all the reasons not to vote for him–so we’ll just do a few. Donald Trump’s administration is responsible for legislation and deregulation that led to disasters such as deregulated meat distribution and increases in working class tax payments due to his 2017 tax law. Trump also fired the CDC team that was responsible for detecting zoological diseases in wildlife in China, which was a decision that directly led to the mishandling of Covid-19. Even before his presidency, Trump had a terribly long history of racism, homophobia, sexism, violence against women, and fraudulent activity. One paragraph is not enough to cover his record of being an absolutely horrible human being, let alone a deplorable president.

Let’s not forget: thirty-four counts. And an insurrection. 🤬

JD Vance, on the other hand, is just your run-of-the-mill racist. He’s not even exceptionally good at it, seeing as how he admitted to creating false stories about Haitians on national television. He also talked about single childfree women (who are free to have children or not if they wish) using “childless cat ladies” as an insult. JD Vance’s pivot from his previous statements about Trump exposes how weak his constitution is, and how it has affected his political motivations. At best, JD Vance is a grifter who was extremely critical of Trump before he realized there was money in extreme MAGA Trumpism. At his worst, Vance is your everyday sexist who knows that the general public will excuse him for being fatally boring if he spews racist and sexist rhetoric. Please, for the love of all that is good and even somewhat enjoyable, do not vote for these vile men. 

Recommendation (Note: Not an endorsement!)
For many–maybe even countless–reasons, Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz are without a doubt the progressive candidates in this race. We don’t even need to say anything more about the other two.

This election will be held on November 5, 2024. Incumbent Democratic candidate Tim Kaine and Republican candidate Hung Cao will face each other in the general election for United States Senator for Virginia.

United States Democratic Senator Tim Kaine was first elected to the Senate in 2012. He served as Virginia’s governor from 2006 until 2010. Prior to that, he was the lieutenant governor. Additionally, Senator Kaine served as Richmond’s mayor from 1998 until 2001 and City Council District 2 representative from 1994 until 2001. In 2016, Hilary Clinton announced Senator Kaine as her running mate in her bid for the presidency. He is married to Anne Holton, former Virginia Secretary of Education. 

On the Issues 
⭐ Champions reproductive rights and access to abortion 
⭐ Was a deciding vote to protect the Affordable Care Act
⭐ Advocated for quality public education since his time in Virginia local and state politics
⭐ Helped pass the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act
⭐ Strong supporter of DACA
⭐ Passed his EMBRACE Act to improve climate resiliency at military facilities
⭐ Supports Equality Act
⭐ Popularly known as America’s Dad

The Opposition
Senator Kaine is facing a challenge from Republican candidate Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain. Cao unsuccessfully ran for Virginia’s Congressional District 10 seat against former Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton in 2022. Cao is anti-abortion, regularly uses anti-immigrant rhetoric, and boldly supports former president Donald Trump. 🤬

Recommendation (Note: Not an endorsement!)
Because of his decades-long proven track record of being a champion for the people, Senator Tim Kaine is the progressive candidate in this race. 

Virginia’s 8th district includes Arlington County, Alexandria County, and Falls Church County counties and part of Fairfax County. With a population of 784,684, this district leans strongly Democratic.

This election will be held on November 5, 2024. Incumbent Democrat Don Beyer Jr., Republican candidate Jerry Torres, and Independent candidates Bentley Foster Hensel and David R. Kennedy will face each other in the general election for Virginia’s 8th Congressional District. Congressman Don Beyer Jr. has served in the House of Representatives since 2015.

Incumbent Congressman Don Beyer is serving his fifth term as the U.S. Representative from Virginia’s 8th District. He served as Lieutenant Governor from 1990 until 1998. He was Virginia’s Democratic nominee for Governor in 1997.Rep. Beyer is the senior House Democrat on Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, and serves on the essential House Committee on Ways and Means. He is a member of the New Democrat Coalition’s Climate Change Task Force and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He has served in a number of leadership roles both in business and for progressive causes. He lives in Alexandria with his wife.

On the Issues
⭐ Voted for Emergency Medical Services for Children Reauthorization Act of 2023
⭐ Voted for Action for Dental Health Act of 2023
⭐ Voted for Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act
⭐ Co-sponsor of Medicare for All and sponsor of the Choose Medicare Act because “I firmly believe in a future with universal healthcare”
⭐ Voted AGAINST Lower Costs, More Transparency Act in accordance with the wishes of the American Hospital Association, who wrote Speaker Johnson and Leader Jeffries in opposition of the bill for “site-neutral payment cuts” in the bill that would cut over $3.7B over 10 years to essential drug administration services.
⭐ Co-sponsored the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022
⭐ Voted for Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022, co-sponsored Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021
⭐ Repeatedly voted against politically motivated anti-abortion bills
⭐ Voted against politically motivated condemnation of Biden administration’s handling of the border
⭐ Voted against the Police Our Border Act
⭐ Voted against the politically motivated bills attacking immigrants
⭐ Voted for the Federal Prison Oversight Act
⭐ Repeatedly voted against politically motivated attacks on efforts to hold police accountable
⭐ Voted for Law Enforcement De-Escalation Training Act of 2022
⭐ Voted to protect and provide care for pregnant women in custody
⭐ Voted for the Mental Health Justice Act of 2022
⭐ Co-Sponsored and Voted for the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2021
⭐ Voted for the Family Violence Prevention Order Act of 2021

The Opposition
Incumbent Democrat Congressman Don Beyer is being challenged by Republican Jerry Torres, as well as Independents Bentley Hensel and David R. Kennedy. We could not find social media accounts or a campaign website for Jerry Torres. 🤔

Independent Bentley Hensel grew up in Louisiana and has since worked on campaigns to elect Democrats. He is a Sr. Data and DevOps engineer at CivicActions. He supports fair taxes and notes campaign finance reform as a priority. Hensel wants to establish a non-partisan panel of security experts, consumer advocates, and other experts to review data breaches and determine what must be done to counteract them and compensate their victims. Interestingly, Hensel lists Digital Gaming Rights as one of his key issues. Specifically, he is focused on the industry’s DRM (Digital Rights Management) issue. There are many issues in the games sphere, many of which have been highlighted and targeted by the EU. Hensley’s suggestions mirror some of the better policy that has been implemented in this arena. This is a niche issue, but it is one worth mentioning. Gaming is big business, and many of the worst, most predatory practices in the corporate world have gone largely unchecked in the gaming industry.

Independent David R. Kennedy was born in New Jersey. He is a recent graduate from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. and also has earned a Master’s in public policy studies from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Lehigh University. He has worked in higher education financial policy and advocated for federal government support for medical research, science and technology for over thirty years. He is a ten-year resident of Northern Virginia and lives with his wife and their three cats. He supports the right to choose and advocates for affordable housing solutions and fair wages. Kennedy also looks to partnerships between schools, police, the criminal justice system, and the faith community to make our streets safe.

Recommendation (Note: Not an endorsement!)
Hensel’s policy proposals are undoubtedly progressive, but there are too few areas he discusses. We simply do not know his positions on some of the issues we most passionately advocate for, so we cannot fully recommend him. That said, he appears to have a good head on his shoulders and offers good advice for how to better tackle the growing tech industry and its problems.

What Kennedy has listed as his issues and priorities are all certainly progressive ideals. His career and life path prove that he has walked the walk as well. That said, he has too little information on too few things for us to truly know how robust his progressive ideals are. He is a progressive choice in this race, but we cannot fully recommend him for these reasons.

Rep. Beyer has a strong record as a progressive representative. He is a champion of healthcare rights across the board and for criminal justice. For these reasons, Representative Don Beyer is the progressive candidate in this race.