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Prince William County’s Office of Elections announced the 2024 “I Voted” Sticker Design contest winners. The winners were selected through a ranked-choice vote that concluded on March 24. The contest received votes from approximately 700 of the county’s registered Election Officers.
The contest winners are:
1. Therese Thomas
2. Erika Lozano
3. Latecia Abbington
4. Chris Moore (Owner, Riot of Colors)
5. Future Voter: Sonja Mueller (a student at Colgan High School)
The contest was open for submissions from February 5 to March 17. It was advertised through various channels, including the county’s website, X (Twitter), a press release shared with local media, and materials sent to the Art and History Department Heads at Prince William County Schools, Public Libraries, and the Arts Council. Local artists and designers were also contacted directly via email.
Eric Olsen, Director of Elections, commented on the diversity of the winning designs: “When we started this contest, I was concerned we couldn’t find one thing that could represent Prince William County. We didn’t, but that is perfect. The winning designs illustrate that PWC is not one singular thing but a community rich in attractions, history, people, and landmarks.”
The winning designs will be used over the next four years, with each year featuring a different sticker. The first-place design highlights the National Museum of the Marine Corps and will be used for the upcoming federal election. Sonja Mueller’s “Future Voter” sticker will also be available this fall.
These stickers will be distributed at all Early Voting locations, sent with all mail ballots, and handed out at polling places on Election Day. The initiative encourages civic participation by offering a new sticker design each year.
We've asked Democrats seeking a congressional seat in our area where they stand on supporting President Biden's re-election bid.
In the 10th Congressional District, which includes Manassas, Manassas Park, and western Prince William County, Suhas Subramanyam gave his full-throated support to the president.
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Original Post: Senator Tim Kaine (D) and congressional hopeful Eugene Vindman quietly campaigned in Woodbridge on Wednesday, July 3.
The duo were joined by other elected officials, including Margaret Franklin and Victor Angry, who sit on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.
Veterans Grow America hosted an event on its retail space next to Wegmans at Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center in Woodbridge.
It was great to join Senator @TimKaine this afternoon for a roundtable discussion at Veterans Growing America in Woodbridge.
From helping Veterans build their own business, to fighting to end Veteran homelessness — in Congress I will be a champion for our Veteran community. pic.twitter.com/8yBTxJnx0B
— Eugene Vindman (@YVindman) July 3, 2024
A Kaine campaign spokesman emailed Potomac Local, and Kaine made the campaign stump as part of his “Salute to Service” tour, which kicked off on July 1 to celebrate public servants, made stops in Stafford and Woodbridge, highlighting his long-standing support for military members, veterans, teachers, and healthcare workers.
A spokesman for Veterans Growing America told us Kaine’s campaign would invite the press, but no press attended the event. Potomac Local did not receive notification about Kaine’s campaign stumps in our area despite receiving regular press releases from his Senate office.
Communications from Kaine’s campaign and senate office in Washington, D.C., are managed by employees. A Kaine campaign staffer added that reporters would have been allowed in if any had shown up.
The campaign appearance comes after the presidential debate between Biden and Trump. Many Democrats have called for Biden to step aside and allow someone else to run for the presidency due to the president’s declining cognitive abilities.
So far, the candidates have been silent on whether or not Biden should end his re-election campaign, so we asked Kaine and Vindman (see the text of our email to each campaign below) and received no response from either candidate. However, Kaine stated his support for Biden’s re-election campaign on his X account on Thursday, July 4; “I’m with Joe. We stand up and stand together. Trump and his lemmings will tear us down and tear us apart.”
Sign up for our FREE news email, and we’ll let you know if the candidates respond to our questions.
Dear Senator Kaine and Col. Vindman,
Happy Independence Day. My name is Uriah Kiser, and I am the publisher of Potomac Local News. We recently came across a post on Facebook about your joint visit to Veterans Grow America in Woodbridge, a commendable organization and one of our valued sponsors.
Veterans Grow America informed us that no reporters attended the event, despite an expectation that Senator Kaine would invite the press. We would appreciate your assistance in addressing the following questions for an article we are preparing:
1. What members of the press were invited to the event? If none were invited, could you explain the reasoning behind this decision?
2. What key points and discussions took place during your campaign stop in Woodbridge? Additionally, why was Veterans Grow America chosen as the location for this visit?
3. Where do you, Senator Kaine, and you, Col. Vindman, stand regarding your support for President Joe Biden’s reelection? Since the debate a week ago, there have been calls for him to step down from the race; do you support those calls?
5. How has the president’s debate performance changed your respective campaigns as we closer to early voting?
6. Col. Vindman, you have been accused of having staff screen voters before you speak to them in public. https://x.com/notlarrysabato/status/1803102785744797731 Is this true? Is this why no press was invited to the Woodbridge event?
4. How do you each of you plan to spend your Independence Day holiday this year?The responses you provide will be included in a post on our site, potomaclocalnews.com. We believe our readers will be very interested in your insights and perspectives on these matters.
Thank you for your time and attention. We look forward to your response.
Uriah Kiser
Founder & Publisher
Potomac Local News
As we get closer to the start of early voting for the Fall 2024 election, Potomac Local News is dedicated to informing the community about candidates vying for one of three open seats on the Manassas City Council and the mayor's seat.
To help voters make an informed decision, we are launching a new feature series, "One-Question Manassas City Council Candidate Survey." This series will run throughout the campaign season, offering insights into each candidate's stand on key issues affecting our city.
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By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
(The Center Square) – If there were any doubts that Virginia is returning to its status as a key battleground state in the upcoming presidential elections, visits by First Lady Jill Biden and former President Donald Trump would indicate confirmation.
Biden is scheduled to greet campaign volunteers in Virginia Beach on Thursday, hours before the president and former president will square off in their first presidential debate. Trump on Friday comes from Atlanta to a 3 p.m. rally in Chesapeake.
In January, the president and Vice President Kamala Harris essentially chose Virginia to kick off their bid for reelection by holding a joint event in Manassas with a focus on abortion.
In recent weeks, Trump has signaled Virginia is very much in play between visits and new campaign investments.
The most significant piece of evidence is that the Trump campaign is zeroing in on the commonwealth with plans to open 11 field offices, as reported by CBS News.
Earlier in the month, Trump met with Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin during a closed-door meeting at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling to strategize how to win in the commonwealth. At the time, Youngkin told ABC 13 News Now that the commonwealth appears “competitive” in the presidential race.
“There’s a lot of interest in how this election is going to go,” Youngkin said. “So our political teams have been coordinating on how best to do that and we had to sit down and talk about it and we talked about Virginia and, and how I was able to win my election in 2021. And the lessons learned.”
Youngkin is expected to appear with Trump at the Friday rally. The governor did not attend a March rally by the Trump campaign in Richmond.
A May poll by Roanoke College shows Trump and Biden are neck-and-neck in the commonwealth, despite Biden beating Trump by over 10% in the 2020 election and Hillary Clinton handily winning Virginia in 2016.
The commonwealth has not gone for a GOP presidential candidate in 20 years, when former President George W. Bush was up for reelection.
On Friday, June 14, Manassas leaders hosted a delegation of Chinese officials and business leaders from the City of Quianjiang in Hubei province. The Manassas Department of Economic Development organized the visit to encourage cultural and economic exchange. This was the first such visit since officials from the City of Shaoxing visited in 2015.
Mayor Michelle Davis Younger, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story, was initially scheduled to lead the delegation but dropped out at the last minute due to a scheduling conflict. Vice Mayor Pamela Sebesky, along with Interim City Manager Doug Keen, took over the task.
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Updated June 27: The Fox News Channel will broadcast live from the Juke Box Diner in Manassas on Friday, June 28, 2024, at 6 a.m. 5 o'clock in the morning Gov. Glenn Youngkin will join the broadcast, according to the Manassas GOP.
President Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally in Chesapeake, about 200 miles away, at 3 p.m. on the same day. Youngkin, a potential vice presidential candidate, is expected to join Trump at the rally.
Last year, on July 5, 2024, Youngkin appeared on Fox and Friends at the same diner. During his appearance, he discussed education and hiring more police officers. In an interview with Potomac Local News, Youngkin emphasized the need for departments to support their officers, highlighting a partnership with Petersburg that has reduced police vacancies.
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Republican Derrick Anderson emerged as the winner of the June 18, 2024, Republican Primary for Virignia’s 7th Congressional District.
The district includes eastern Prince William County, Stafford, and Spostylvania counties, and Fredericksburg.
Anderson secured 16,203 votes, accounting for 45.25% of the total votes cast. He will face Democrat Eugene Vindman in the upcoming November 2024 General Election.
The primary race saw Anderson leading comfortably among his competitors. His closest rival, Cameron Hamilton, garnered 13,333 votes, representing 37.23% of the electorate, which was not enough to close the gap with Anderson. Jon Myers came in third with 4,585 votes, capturing 12.80% of the total vote. The remaining candidates, John Prabhudoss, Maria Martin, and Terris Todd, received significantly fewer votes, with each securing less than 3% of the total.
Our country is the weakest it has been since the event that drove me to run for Congress: the botched withdrawal in Afghanistan. I lost five of my guys, including Green Berets, in Afghanistan, and I was disgusted by the weakness portrayed by the United States during the chaotic withdrawal that saw 20 years of progress and sacrifice wasted in the blink of an eye,” Andesron said in his election night speech on June 18. “We will secure our border to make sure our communities are safe again, our nation is secure, and to guarantee that those who immigrated here legally still have access to the American dream they came here for. We will make living more affordable. It’s time Washington be reminded that their policies are impacting each of us more than they try to understand, and it starts right in our pocket books, wallets, and at our kitchen tables. That ends today.”
Anderson made a bid for the nomination in 2022, but lost to Yesli Vega.Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) has held the the 7th District congressional seat since 2018. She’s not seeking re-election to Congress but is running for Virginia Governor in 2025.
Pivoting to the General Election, Anderson tells us he’ll be knocking doors in Prince William County tomorrow, June 22, 2024.
Vindman, of Dale City, ran a campaign solely to oppose Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President. He and his twin brother Alexander Vindman were key figures in Trump’s first impeachment in 2020.
Vindman cruised to victory over a sea of Democrat candidates vying for the nomination, winning nearly 50% of the vote in the district. He out raised them, too, raking in more than $5 million, mainly from out-of-state liberal donors who oppose Trump.
