Weir beat his Democrat challenger Kerensa Sumers in a landslide 30-point victory today in a Special Election to determine who will complete the term of former Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland, who designed in Decembe022 after 10 years on the job.
Weir’s election is widely seen as a referendum on data centers and development, an answer to a Board of County Supervisors that continues to press forward on plaBattlefieldeNationalr more server farms in both residential areas in Bristow, and historical areas like the Manassas Battlefield National Park.
Several Democrats crossed party lines to vote for Weir after he promised to curb development in the rural area and for his opposition to data centers.
The five Democrats on the eight-member Board of County Supervisors support more data centers in an effort to increase the county’s commercial tax base, which they say, in turn, will lighten the tax burden on individual homeowners.
Democrats have also received substantial donations from labor unions, which have voiced support for data center construction.
With the approval of the Prince William Digital Gateway next to the battlefield, the county is primed to eclipse neighboring Loudoun to become the new data center alley, with more server farms powering the internet than anywhere in the world.
Opponents say that data centers consume too much electricity, use too much water, produce too much noise while cooling the servers inside the buildings, and create too much water runoff into area streams and reservoirs after the land is clearcut to build the centers.
With Weir’s win, Republicans keep the Gainesville District seat in their control, despite the changing electorate that, over the past 10 years, has shifted from Republican to Democrat control.
In the November 2022 General Election, Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D) won the Gainesville District.
It was a rough start to the election today when voters showed up to learn hundreds of pre-printed ballots were too wide to fit into the optical scanners. That left elections officials scrambling to print and deliver new ballots.
