Silverman, Elrich, and de Ferranti win. Here’s who else won local races near you.

At-large DC Councilmember Elissa Silverman beat back a challenge from Dionne Reeder, while Matt de Ferranti ousted incumbent John Vihstadt in Arlington. Marc Elrich will be the next Montgomery County Executive.

While DC residents were obsessively watching the needles on national forecasting sites as the Democrats took the House while Republicans gained seats in the Senate, these significant Washington-area contests will also make a big difference in residents’ lives.

So will Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, the neighborhood-level councils which have a significant influence on local matters including housing and transportation. GGWash endorsed in 45 races, and so far it’s clear 24 urbanist candidates will take their seats in 2019 with two races too close to call. Urbanist ANC candidates won a couple of key races in Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle, and Takoma/Manor Park.

In DC, all incumbents win, including Silverman

Most of the races at the top of the ballot in DC were already functionally decided in this summer’s primaries. The main race up in the air was for DC Council At-Large, where Elissa Silverman beat back a challenge from Dionne Reeder, who was backed by Mayor Bowser and a number of business interests.

Anita Bonds, the Democratic nominee for council at-large, led the vote with 44%, while Silverman was second with 27%. Under DC’s system, there are two at-large seats up every two years, and the top two vote-getters win the seats. Reeder came in third, with 14% of the vote.

Every single other incumbent for DC Council also won: Brianne Nadeau in Ward 1, Mary Cheh in Ward 3, Kenyan McDuffie in Ward 5, Charles Allen in Ward 6, and Chairman Phil Mendelson; so did Mayor Bowser and Attorney General Karl Racine. This means that DC will have the exact same legislature and executive in 2019.

It also continues the recent winning streak for elected officials whose names are colors.

Cheh, by the way, missed her own election night party to attend the birth of her first grandchild. Congratulations!

In Maryland, Marc Elrich will be Montgomery County Executive and Larry Hogan stays governor

As in DC, most of the races in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties were mostly wrapped up after the primary. Larry Hogan held the governorship against a challenge by Ben Jealous. Otherwise, the major contested race in our region was for Montgomery County Executive.

Marc Elrich, the Democratic nominee, held a commanding lead with about 65% of the vote with 60% of precincts counted by 11 pm. Nancy Floreen, the Democrat-turned-independent and fellow at-large councilmember whom we endorsed (with reservations), only was pulling in about 20% of the vote.

The Democratic nominees won in all county council races: at-large members Gabe Albornoz, Evan Glass, Will Jawando, and Hans Reimer, and district members Andrew Friedson (1), Craig Rice (2), Sidney Katz (3), Nancy Navarro (4), and Tom Hucker (5).

Farther south in Prince George’s County, Angela Alsobrooks will be County Executive, and all of the primary winners for County Council won their seats: Tom Dernoga (1), Deni Taveras (2), Dannielle Glaros (3), Todd Turner (4), Jolene Ivey (5), Derrick Leon Davis (6), Rodney Streeter (7), Monique Walker (8), and Sydney Harrison (9). Mel Franklin and Calvin Hawkins will hold the two newly created at-large council seats for the county.

Democrats, also not surprisingly, held the House seats in the region. Democratic nominee and wine company founder David Trone won in the 6th district, which stretches from western Montgomery County to Western Maryland, beating Republican Amie Hober.

Wexton wins in VA’s 10th, de Ferranti in Arlington, and Wilson in Alexandria

Matt de Ferranti, the Democratic nominee, has defeated one-term incumbent John Vihstadt, an independent, for a seat on the Arlington County Board. We supported de Ferranti, arguing that he would “push to innovate, to find ways to improve the lives of residents” versus Vihstadt, a constant critic of county initiatives who didn’t work to advance issues in the county himself.

Not surprisingly, the Democratic nominees all won in Alexandria’s City Council: Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, Amy Jackson, John Chapman, Redella “Del” Pepper, Canek Aguirre, and Mo Seifeldein. Justin Wilson, who beat incumbent mayor Allison Silberberg in the primary, was unopposed in the general election and will be Alexandria’s next mayor.

Jennifer Wexton (D) has defeated Barbara Comstock (R), flipping Virginia’s 10th district for the first time in 40 years. The Virginia 10th covers the Winchester area, all of Loudoun County, western Prince William and Manassas, and some “fingers” into Fairfax County that hit southern Fairfax, Chantilly, and part of McLean in the north. She won with 55% of the vote over Comstock’s 45%. GGWash endorsed Wexton in the primary, saying she had the “experience and connection to pivotal Loudoun County” to lead the county in a new direction. With Comstock out, Democrats now represent the entire DC region in Congress.

In less contentious Congressional races, incumbent Democrat Don Beyer won Virginia’s 8th district, which covers Arlington County, Falls Church, Alexandria City, and areas of Fairfax County like Huntington, Mt. Vernon, and Springfield. Incumbent Senator Tim Kaine, the Democratic nominee and Vice-Presidential candidate in 2016, won over Republican Corey Stewart, previously chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors.

In DC, GGWash endorsed in 45 ANC races, and 24 won so far

While there’s no change at the upper levels of the DC government, at the neighborhood level there is indeed some change. Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) are hyper-local elected bodies in DC, and on Tuesday there were nearly 100 competitive races on the ballot (out of 296 districts total). Compared to many other candidates you voted for on Tuesday, ANCs have a much smaller purview and constituency (~2,000 voters), but when it comes to the decisions about the look and feel of your neighborhood, ANCs hold a lot of sway. They are very important when it comes to zoning, preservation, liquor licensing, transportation, and other city agencies decisions.

While we are still waiting for the results from write-in candidates, as of writing here are the results for 40 contested races where GGWash endorsed:

ANC/SMD	Our endorsee	Who won?	Won by how many votes?
1A01	Layla Bonnot	Layla Bonnot	116
1A02	Amr Kotb	Teresa Edmondson	26
1C02	Bridget Pooley	Bridget Pooley	125
1C06	Michaela Wright	Michaela Wright	597
1C07	Japer Bowles	Japer Bowles	148
1D05	Stuart Karaffa (incumbent)	Chelsea Allinger	110
2B02	Daniel Warwick (incumbent)	Daniel Warwick	440
2B04	Aaron Landry	Aaron Landry	259
2B09	Nina Miller (write-in)*	Ed Hanlon	197
2C01	Michael Shankle	Michael Shankle	146
2F08	Kevin Wenzel	Janice Ferebee	152
3C01	John Grill	Lee Brian Reba (incumbent)	126
3C08	Victoria Gersten	Victoria Gersten	333
3E02	Amy Hall (incumbent)	Amy Hall	117
4A04	Patience Singleton (incumbent)	Patience Singleton	196
4B01	Evan Yeats	Evan Yeats	97
4B02	Erin Palmer	Erin Palmer	399
4B07	Geoff Bromaghim	Geoff Bromaghim	169
4C01	Charlotte Nugent (incumbent)	Charlotte Nugent	334
4C07	Kim Varzi	Kim Varzi	508
5A03	Emily Singer Lucio	(Too close to call)	1
5A08	Gordon-Andrew Fletcher (incumbent)	Gordon-Andrew Fletcher	842
5C01	Henry Coppola	Gail Brevard (incumbent)	259
5D05	Sydelle Moore	Sydelle Moore	170
5D06	Jason Burkett	(Too close to call)	15
5E04	Shelley Vinyard	Sylvia Pinkney (incumbent)	138
5E06	Karla Lewis	Karla Lewis	36
6A03	Ramin Taheri	Mike Soderman (incumbent)	105
6B05	Taylor Kuether	Steve Holtzman	426
6D02	Anna Forgie	Anna Forgie	743
6D07	Brant Miller	Ed Daniels	288
6E01	Alexander Padro (incumbent)	Alexander Padro	194
7B04	Nicole Smith-McDermott	Nicole Smith-McDermott	128
7D01	Tamara Blair	Tamara Blair	187
7D04	Mysiki Valentine	Cinque Culver	108
8A04	Troy Donte Prestwood (incumbent)	Troy Donte Prestwood	233
8C02	Chyla Evans	Chyla Evans	45
8C04	David Jones (incumbent)	Regina Sharlita Pixley	44
8E02	Amanda Beale	Cheryl Moore	81

*The exact number of write-in votes are still being counted, but current margins are enough as of writing to call these races.

GGWash endorsed three new candidates in ANC 1C, which covers Adams Morgan, and all won. This could signal a shift in the ANC, which has built a reputation over the years (and recently) for typically being against new housing. The same in true in ANC 4B, which encompases Takoma and Manor Park — all three GGWash endorsees won there as well, and we’ll have to wait for the results of a write-in campaign in 4B06. This ANC has been the center of a lot of heated internal debates, and it seems like voters were ready for a change.

A few noteworthy incumbents were ousted around the city this elections as well. In Dupont Circle, Aaron Landry beat Nick DelleDonne, a divisive commissioner who has fought against multiple urbanist issues in the neighborhood. In 5D05, infamous incumbent Kathy Henderson ran (unsuccessfully) for Ward 5 councilmember this year, but her anointed replacement lost handily to our pick, Sydelle Moore.

Two races where we endorsed are just too close to call as of writing. In 5A03, Emily Singer Lucio trails by just one vote, and in 5D06 Jason Burkett holds a narrow lead of 15 votes over Romello Goodman. One race in particular was a landslide: Anna Forgie beat the incumbent in 6D02 by 743 votes.

Final results and results for write-ins will be tallied up in the next few weeks. Congratulations to the winners and all the candidates who ran this year. Involved and committed citizens like you are how democracy works! If you want to stay updated on results for your ANC, check out the DC Board of Elections website.