ALEXANDRIA, Va. — U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Don Beyer cast early ballots at Alexandria's registrar office Friday morning, opening Virginia's early voting period before a crowd of about 50 on North Royal Street.
Warner voted shortly before 10 a.m. Beyer followed.
The program drew Alexandria and state officials, including City Council members John Taylor Chapman, Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi and Canek Aguirre; School Board member Tim Beaty; state Sen. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker of the 39th District; and Del. Kirk McPike of the 5th District. Volunteers with Moms Demand Action, USAID, and other advocacy groups also attended.
Chapman, who emceed, asked how many in the crowd had voted early in recent elections and drew a round of hands.
"As a politician, I love to make sure that folks are getting to the polls as early and as soon as possible," he said. "That way we can make sure folks vote and then go after folks that are not voting."
Beyer
Beyer opened by paraphrasing Plato — that one downside of not participating in politics is being governed by your inferiors — and told the crowd the country is in an unfamiliar place.
"So many people who are afraid that our democracy is under great threat, afraid that this election will not be a fair one," he said, citing Fulton County, Georgia, and Maricopa County, Arizona, and President Donald Trump's effort to curtail mail-in balloting. He praised Virginia officials for declining to turn over voter lists to the federal government and noted the Supreme Court's decision this week rejecting the administration's mail-in ballot order.
He urged residents who vote by mail to drop ballots off rather than mail them. "I trust our postmasters and our postal officials, but who knows?"
He closed on a line he attributed to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., that lives begin to end the day people become silent about things that matter.
Warner
Warner told the crowd this is "the most important year in my life," and framed the first day of voting as a chance to respond.
He said constituents have spent months telling him and Beyer to do more, and that Friday was the day voters could act.
"For all of you who have been on Don and I all the time — Don, Mark, you've got to do more, you've got to do more, fight back," he said. "Well, today is the first day we actually, as a commonwealth and as a country, get to fight back."
He ran through a list: a war with Iran he called a war of choice, $4 gas and $6 diesel, and federal legislation he said would remove 300,000 Virginians from health coverage. He said that if reelected he would push beyond repairs to the existing system. "We've got to have universal healthcare."
He described corruption in Washington as worse than he has seen. "In America, it looks worse than a Third World nation in terms of how it is pay to play."
Warner also returned to artificial intelligence, an issue he has pressed in recent weeks, saying it will be the biggest force in Americans' lives and that Congress needs guardrails around data centers, children's safety and job disruption.
He put the election at 45 days away. "This is when we take back our democracy," he said.
The Kennedy Center
Asked afterward about the Kennedy Center's closure, Warner said Trump is withholding money Congress appropriated to rebuild it. He put the figure at about $270 million; the appropriation has been reported at $257 million.
"This president arbitrarily is saying he's not going to release those funds unless he gets his name on it," Warner said. "For most people, enough said."
He noted that Trump, having installed himself as board chairman, owes the institution a fiduciary duty. "Holding back congressionally appropriated funds and threatening to tear it down — I used to be in business for a long time. That would get a board of directors sued."
A federal judge blocked the board this week from restoring Trump's name to the building. The board voted hours later to close the center.
The challenger
A few yards from the rally, Tony Sabio, the Republican running against Beyer in the 8th District, was handing pamphlets to voters heading in.
"I'm greeting voters coming in regardless of what political party they are. I don't even ask them," he told The Alexandria Brief. "Even ones that actually voted and they came out and said, well, I didn't vote for you, I still give my pamphlets."
Sabio does not live in Alexandria and did not vote Friday. He ran unopposed for the Republican nomination in the Aug. 4 primary. House candidates must live in the state they seek to represent but not in the district.
Sabio said he was a Navy corpsman with the Marine Corps, then served in the Secret Service's Special Operations Division during the Bush administration, then spent 11 years at the CIA — eight in counterterrorism and three in counterintelligence — before becoming a small-business owner.
He greeted Beyer during the event, shaking hands and sharing a laugh.
"Myself and Beyer agree on a lot of things. We agree both on AI. We agree on nuclear," Sabio said. "I look at Beyer, he's not my enemy. He served valiantly."
Asked why Beyer should lose in November, Sabio declined the framing. "I wouldn't say that. The voters need to decide," he said. "Beyer is at his tail end of his career, and I respect his career. But what we need to look at is what the future of the 8th District is going to be."
He said his campaign grew out of conversations that followed an unsuccessful school board run in 2022, which published accounts place in Fairfax County, and that he intends to run again regardless of the outcome. "You build a foundation one brick at a time."
The pamphlet he was handing out lays out a platform he calls The Promise for America, organized around five pillars: energy affordability, jobs and manufacturing, small business, public safety and border security, and what it labels American health freedom. It identifies him as a Navy veteran, a former Secret Service agent and a former CIA officer, under the words common sense, opportunity and unity.
Asked how he reaches voters who will not look past the R next to his name, he said the work is incremental. "Every conversation, it's planting a seed of a new idea of what America can be."
Who is on the ballot
In the Senate race, Warner faces Republican Bert Mizusawa, a retired Army general. Mizusawa won the Aug. 4 Republican primary with about 52% of the vote over David Williams and Kim Farington. Warner was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
In the 8th District, Beyer faces Sabio, Libertarian Shelly M. Arnoldi and independent Tim S. Sharman. Beyer took about 68% of the vote in the Democratic primary over Michael Duffin, Adam Dunigan, Mo Seifeldein and Lorena Thorne Bruner. Sabio was unopposed for the Republican nomination.
The district covers Alexandria, Arlington County, Falls Church and part of Fairfax County. Alexandria voters will also decide three proposed amendments to the state constitution.
Voting in Alexandria
Early voting opened Friday and runs through 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31. The ballot includes the U.S. Senate race, the 8th District U.S. House race and three proposed state constitutional amendments.
The Office of Voter Registration & Elections at 132 N. Royal St. is open weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with weekend and extended hours later in October. The Beatley Library on Duke Street opens for early voting on selected dates beginning Oct. 18.
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Ryan Belmore is an Alexandria journalist, neighbor, and the founder and publisher of The Alexandria Brief. Send tips and feedback to ryan@alexandriabrief.com.
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