Our Battleground Virginia class at American University spent four days on the campaign trail — a mid-semester field experience to complement our in-class lectures — and what I found wasn’t just spectacle. It was a system in which forgiveness depends on your last name, as one candidate’s comeback would later show; where churches double as campaign headquarters;  and where voters have stopped trying to persuade each other and started wearing their politics like their identity.

The divide was stark. Every event felt like a world apart. Red or blue, never both. At least in the U.K., people tend to put their national identity above their political one. In America, political identity often comes first.

The Sermon and the campaign.

Saturday began with former President Barack Obama’s return to Norfolk to endorse the then-candidate for governor, Democrat Abigail Spanberger. It was less a political event than a cultural pilgrimage. The crowd sang, danced and cried; “hope” wasn’t just a word but a rhythm. Having studied political oratory, I watched Obama like a craftsman watching a master, the balance of humor and seriousness, the control in his pacing, the pauses between applause lines. His tone was hypnotic, equal parts sermon and stand-up. He didn’t just deliver a speech. He conducted a symphony of belief.

The next morning, we were in Richmond, seated among the congregation at Third Street Bethel A.M.E. Church, a historic African American church with a long tradition of civic action. The Rev. Reuben Boyd’s sermon wove scripture and politics seamlessly. “There are no kings here,” he declared, to a chorus of amens. Church leaders spoke about plans for a March on Washington next year, faith mobilized into activism before our eyes.

Afterward, Gwen Faush-Carney 49, a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, told me; “Through life’s experiences, God helps guide me. I’m independent when it comes to voting, but I share our church’s values of faith and service.” When I asked what that meant in practice, she smiled. “It means I vote Democrat, but I think about it first.”

In Britain, we keep faith and politics in separate pews. In America, they harmonize. The church isn’t just where you worship. It’s where you organize.

Liberty and the costume.

By Sunday afternoon, we were in Hanover County, where the Republican candidates for governor, attorney general and lieutenant governor rallied supporters alongside outgoing Gov.  Glenn Youngkin. It felt less like a campaign event and more like a homecoming. “Don’t Tread on Me” flags flapped above the crowd. One sign read. “Democrats: your use of hatred has produced evil. Who will vote for you?” The rally felt aimed at the faithful, not the undecided.

Among the crowd was a man dressed as Patrick Henry, 71, complete with a tricorn hat, who cheerfully introduced himself as the original Virginian patriot.

“He’s here every time,” laughed Charlie Waddell, 68, a substitute teacher and former local official. “The costume doesn’t change, and neither do the speeches.” Then, with a shrug, he said, “They love Trump. That’s the glue.”

Roger Martin, a retired engineer attending his first rally, summed up the mood perfectly. “Spam is bad for your computer. ‘Spamberger’ is bad for Virginia.” He laughed, then said of the Republican candidate, Winsome Earle-Sears, “She stands for Trump, that’s enough for me.”

For a Brit, it was fascinating. American conservatism doesn’t do understatement; it comes draped in banners and conviction. Where British Tories mutter about heritage, Virginia Republicans shout about liberty.

The name brand.

On Monday, we met Don Scott, a Democrat and speaker of the House of Delegates, who mixed gravitas with good humor. The conversation turned to Jay Jones, the Democratic attorney-general candidate who had sent threatening texts to a Republican rival years earlier but remained on the ballot.

Scott defended Jones as a “good man who made a mistake” and questioned why the issue of his violent messages, recently published by The National Review,  had lingered so long. Then came the telling line: “Jay’s dad was part of the Democratic establishment. He’s got a name brand. People know the Jones family.”

That night, Jones won comfortably. For an outsider, it was jarring. In Britain, a scandal like that would end a career. In America, or at least in Virginia, it’s a speed bump if your family has enough political capital. Tribal loyalty isn’t a bug. It’s the operating system.

Democracy as expression.

Election Day arrived, and students were dispatched to polling sites across Richmond and Norfolk to capture the mood of the electorate and file their notes and vignettes to 91����ington Post. Outside Clover Hill High School, a leafy suburb of Richmond, Jenny Mylott, a 55-year-old accountant, called the vote “a referendum on Trump.”

“We get government contracts, and now our company isn’t getting paid,” she said. “I’m hoping this election makes Washington wake up and compromise. It just cannot be a single person controlling everything.”

Across town, Tony Clark, a 20-year-old student, offered a different angle.

“The campaign felt like it was run back in 2008. But this vote was a symbolic middle finger to D.C.”

Both saw their ballots not as civic duties but as acts of expression, one weary, one defiant, both deeply personal.

Victory and exhaustion.

When results night arrived, I joined the crowd at Spanberger’s victory rally in Richmond at the convention center, which buzzed with exhaustion and elation. When Spanberger finally took the stage, she thanked voters and her family and even teased her youngest daughter for not cleaning her room, a small, human moment that cut through the political theater.

To some, she was a centrist pragmatist; to others, she was simply “not Trump.” In that room, those differences dissolved. Democracy felt tangible again, messy, noisy, occasionally absurd, but unmistakably alive.

What Britain doesn’t understand.

For a Brit abroad, the lesson was clear. In America, politics isn’t a conversation; it’s a calling. Faith groups mobilize, students organize, retirees proselytize. It’s less about left and right than about belonging, a contest not of policies but of identities.

The British system, for all its dullness, at least maintains the pretense of propriety. In America, standards are negotiable if you’re on the right team. But for all its flaws and theatrics, American democracy is gloriously alive. People shout because they care. They argue because they believe the system is still worth arguing over.

Loud, restless and endlessly unfinished, America’s democracy may not be tidy, but it is alive in a way Britain’s rarely feels.

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Still, both parties are refusing to take the blame for the reasons behind the 36-day shutdown. Democratic leaders say the election day victories are a sign to hold their ground. Republicans say blue wins in blue states are not a reason to cave.

House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said at a press conference Wednesday that he hopes the elections are a “wake-up call” for Republicans. Schumer said Democrats may have won the battle, but they have to keep fighting to win the war. 

“Americans have been feeling the real-world repercussions of Trump’s policies for months,” said Schumer, who Wednesday sent a letter asking President Trump to meet with party leaders.

Voters “know that Democrats are fighting for them and Republicans are doing nothing … Last night, Republicans felt the political repercussions.”

Bipartisan Stalemate

The shutdown has persisted because Democrats and Republicans cannot find a middle ground on health care tax credits, which makes insurance cheaper for millions of Americans. Those subsidies are set to expire Dec. 31.

Democrats have refused to reopen the government until Republicans agree to extend the tax credits.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Republicans have always been willing to talk about making health care more affordable, but have been reluctant to do so during the shutdown because they want to reopen the government before negotiating.  

Republicans have been reluctant to do so during the shutdown because they want to reopen the government before dialogue continues, he said.

“It was in no way necessary or appropriate to shut down the government in order to have bipartisan discussions about the subsidies,” Johnson said.

Mayoral Milestone in New York

In New York City, Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani beat former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor-elect, and its youngest in over a century. 

Mamdani, who calls himself a democratic socialist, started his campaign relatively unknown last year before surging to victory Tuesday against Cuomo. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,called Mamdani’s win “one of the greatest political upsets in modern American history.” 

Sanders said Mamdani not only took on oligarchs, President Trump and Republicans in the election, but also the Democratic establishment.  

“If you have an agenda that speaks for the working class in this country, if you are prepared to take on the oligarchs — explain to people that it’s unacceptable that the very rich become much richer while working families can’t even afford groceries or their rent — and if you put together a grassroots movement you can in fact win,” Sanders said.

Speaker Johnson called Mamdani an “avowed, openly proclaimed Socialist” at a press conference Wednesday. He said Mamdani’s win signifies a shift toward socialism in the Democratic Party.

“Mamdani is without a doubt the biggest win for socialism in the history of the country, and it is the biggest loss for the American people,” Johnson said.

Alejandro Medina, a marketer who splits his time between New York and Virginia, said he feels more comfortable living in Virginia now because of the election results, which flipped the governorship to Democrat.

Medina is an immigrant from Mexico who cannot vote because he is not a U.S. citizen.

“I have to allow people to vote on my behalf,” he said.

Electoral sweep in Virginia

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said Democrats are “playing politics” with the lives of Americans during the shutdown. Republicans currently have a majority in both the House and Senate, as well as control of the White House. 

The Democratic sweep of Tuesday’s elections presents a new mainstream for the party, he said. 

“From a Communist mayor in New York City to a Virginia Attorney General who said he wanted to murder his political opponent. Pro-terrorist Marxist radicals are now the left’s mainstream,” Emmer said.

In Virginia, Democrats won the races for Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General in one fell swoop. 

D.C. Tour Guide Lori Cohen, said she wasn’t surprised that Democrats won the state elections, with the exception of Attorney General-elect Jay Jones. 

On the campaign trail, Jones sent text messages about shooting his political rival, then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, to a Republican state delegate. Jones had apologized but stayed in the race.

Cohen said she wasn’t too pleased with the messages.

“I almost didn’t vote for him, but I didn’t want to continue Trump policies for attorney general, so I voted for him, and I kind of held my nose while doing it,” she said.

She said she voted Democrat because she disapproved of the shutdown and recent policy decisions by Trump. She said that she believes other democrats voted for similar reasons.

“There’s no end to the things to hate about Donald Trump,” she said.

Eric, a federal employee and Republican, who did not want his full name used, also said he was surprised by the election of Jones.

Jones “wanted to shoot his opponent twice and murder his children. I find that kind of extreme,” Eric said.

Eric is a Maryland resident, but he says he would have voted for Winsome Earle-Spears if he could have participated in the Virginia elections.

“I’m a Republican and she’s a Republican. I kind of go for the underdog,” he said.

Blue voted blue

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La, said the recent elections do not represent most Americans’ view of Republicans’ performance during the shutdown. Many of the states that saw Democratic wins Tuesday voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

“Is it any surprise that last night, blue states voted blue? We’re talking Virginia, New Jersey, New York,” Scalise said. “By the way, none of those were swing states.”

Pam Henkins, a retired federal employee who voted in the Virginia election, said that the federal shutdown was one of many factors that motivated her decision. 

Her husband is one of the federal employees furloughed as part of the shutdown, though he still works for the DOJ. The government has furloughed about 670,000 employees, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

“I feel like this president is lawless,” Henkins said, “and I relied on the Supreme Court to institute the structure and uphold Congress’s authority and that’s just gone dead.”

Scalise said Republicans have worked with President Trump to deliver results on issues, like lowering taxes and securing the southern border.

But Ed Markey, D-Mass., said the elections are a clear call from voters for Republicans to come to the table and negotiate to end the shutdown. He said Trump has given himself “king-like power” and enacted economic policy that is illegal and destructive. 

“President Trump is taxing food, and toys, and clothing and even tea … the last time there was a tax on tea there was a revolution in Boston,” Markey said. 

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RICHMOND, Va. — Winsome Earle-Sears flipped pancakes and served coffee to patrons of Shorty’s Diner in the final hours of her campaign for governor of Virginia on Monday. 

Earle-Sears was joined by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the rest of the Republican ticket at the a traditional Republican campaign stop. 

“Folks, we’re looking good because we have all the right ideas,” Earle-Sears said. “Our governor has begun it, and we’re gonna finish it.”

The diner’s owner, Tony Short, said that his diner has been a regular venue for Republican campaigns since 2021, when then-Fox & Friends anchor Pete Hegseth patrons at his Williamsburg location.

“Our place is full of the kind of customer you want to interview,” Short said. “Retired military, steel workers, people who were affected by COVID, and they were just loving it.”

Short is a lifelong Republican and voted for all the Republican candidates on the ballot this campaign cycle. In recent years, Short said he has become more involved in politics as a business owner and hopes to see the interests of small businesses addressed by whichever candidate wins the governorship.

‘I’m an egg guy.’

“I’m an egg guy. No one could talk better about it,” he said. “We sell 6,000 eggs a week, and the eggs went from $2 a dozen to $7 a dozen. There needs to be some government support for that.”

Jason Miyares, the incumbent attorney general seeking reelection, and John Reid, who is running for lieutenant governor, were among the other candidates who showed up to talk to diners.

Despite the most from Roanoke College showing a lead for Democrat and State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi in the lieutenant governor race, Reid said he was optimistic going into election day.

“I think Independents are breaking for me,” Reid said. “I’m the guy who’s gonna be the ambassador for entrepreneurship in Virginia.”

Deborah and Kerry Koslovic were unaware candidates were visiting that morning. They come to Shorty’s for breakfast whenever Deborah, a special-education teacher in Richmond Public Schools, is off work. 

Earle-Sears stopped at their table and chatted with them about Kerry’s service in the Navy.

“We were just so happy to meet her and wish her well, and she’s the one that asked us questions,” Deborah said. 

The Koslovics are fans of Reid, too. Deborah said she admired him when he was a radio host at WRVA and knew early on about his candidacy for lieutenant governor. of sexually explicit posts on an account linked to Reid did not bother her, she said. 

“I didn’t even pay any attention,” Deborah said.

Kennedy Jackson, a volunteer for the Earle-Sears campaign and lifelong resident of the Commonwealth, said he enjoyed meeting all the candidates and was looking forward to seeing the results of their campaign efforts on election day.

Now retired as a judge’s assistant for Richmond’s Circuit Court, Jackson started a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to “economic and social transformation” for Black families in Virginia. He said he believes Earle-Sears will make the change he wants to see.

“Her tenacity, her knowledge, her determination to make Virginia a great state is one of most important things too,” Jackson said.

‘She stands for Trump’

On Sunday night, Earle-Sears rallied her base outside the Hanover County Government Office, just north of Richmond, sticking to sharp attacks on Spanberger over transgender issues she’s employed throughout the race. 

Roger Martin, a retired first-time rally attendee from Hanover, said he has “voted in every election for both Republicans and Democrats” before but feels more strongly about this race. 

“Spam is bad for your computer. ‘Spamberger’ is bad for Virginia,” he said.

Martin said he wants to “back Trump because of what he’s doing in Washington, D.C.,” and called the border his top issue. He added that he was “surprised Trump has not said more” about Earle-Sears, whom he has not offered his endorsement.

Charlie Waddell, 68, a substitute teacher from Hanover and a former elected official in Herndon, said he came out to support Earle-Sears because she was the “fittest candidate for the job.” 

As a teacher, Waddell said he was “concerned” about Spanberger’s position on transgender children in school bathrooms. He called it “crazy” and said “we need to protect our schoolchildren.”

On the lack of a formal Trump endorsement in the race, Waddell said he “likes endorsements but locally people make up their own minds.” 

He added that he believed Trump had implied his support for Earle-Sears, saying “she stands for Trump, has the apprenticeship, and conservatives see that.”

At the rally,  Kathy and Fred Whitten sat in the back of their pickup truck with Terry Tuckerman and Tom Phillips, chatting about life and politics as if they’d been friends for years. In reality, they had met moments before. 

Fred Whitten emphasized the strength of the community in Virginia, which extended from fellow rally attendees to police officers protecting the county. 

“Republicans are kind people,” he said. “That’s just community.” 

The four said they showed up to the rally to support the candidates and preserve the quality of life in the state. 

“We enjoy the Commonwealth of Virginia as a place to raise children, do business and thrive as a family,” said Fred Whitten, who has lived in Virginia nearly his entire life and worked in the pharmacy industry for 33 years. 

All four agreed they wanted to continue Youngkin’s work in the state and said they supported the candidates with strong Christian values. 

“We want to avoid insanity,” added Tuckerman, who was born and raised in Virginia. “A lot of the views the other party has are insanity. I don’t understand it.” 

Meet-and-Greet in Prince George

Earlier on Sunday, Earle-Sears held a meet-and-greet in Prince George, Virginia, a community southeast of Richmond. 

In the loft of a rustic barn, 150 of her supporters traded campaign signs, proudly displayed their shirts and crowded together for selfies against the backdrop. Many of them had been to this loft before, and some were newcomers. 

The crowd got a surprise appearance from Youngkin. Miyares spoke with the voters beforehand and introduced Youngkin. 

“Virginia is making a choice,” Youngkin said. “A choice for prosperity, a choice for economic growth, a choice for public safety…a choice between light and dark.”  

Youngkin then asked the crowd, “who has already voted?!” A majority of the room threw their hands up in the air and cheered, the governor shared a call to action with them. 

“For those of you that have already voted,” Youngkin said, “you are now in charge of finding 10 friends to go vote, and if you’re married, that’s 20 friends!”

Earle-Sears joined Youngkin as he highlighted his administration’s successes, mentioning job creation numbers. She took over the mic to continue touting Youngkin’s victories, and reminded the audience that her administration would continue that work for them. 

Earle-Sears discussed the economic challenges facing Virginians, promising the crowd to get rid of the gas and car tax, and using the Youngkin administration’s job numbers to push that only she would be able to continue growing Virginia’s prosperity. 

Turning to the topic of taxes, Earle-Sears took aim at Spanberger, accusing her of supporting economic policies that would raise taxes on Virginians. 

“They are trying to be good with our money,” Earle-Sears said. “No! Let me be good with my money.” 

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NORFOLK — John Bull, who reported on politics in Philadelphia for two decades, has met every president since Ronald Reagan. Except for Barack Obama. Bull had not even seen Obama in person.

But on Nov. 2 he waited in a line that wrapped around the 9,000-seat Chartway Arena at Old Dominion University to see Obama cheer on Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for Virginia’s governor. Bull said he wanted to hear Obama’s “prescription for preserving democracy.” He also hoped the rally opened people’s minds.

“I would like to see the people that attend here energized enough to speak to their friends and their neighbors in an honest way,” he said, “so that folks that have an open mind will continue to have an open mind on election day.”

Jane Elizabeth, a former Richmond Times-Dispatch journalist and Bull’s spouse, said she hoped lots of people came to the rally for Obama and left excited to vote for Spanberger. Obama is the best person to excite voters on the fence for Spanberger, Elizabeth said.

“He’s just the most iconic Democrat, and also people are very nostalgic for his time in office,” she said. 

In Virginia over the weekend, gubernatorial candidates Spanberger and Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears (R) rallied supporters in their respective political strongholds ahead of Tuesday’s vote. Spanberger’s sprint, however, was bolstered by the presence of former President Barack Obama while Earle-Sears remained without even a Trump endorsement.

Standing in line waiting to get into the 9,000-seat arena, Air Force veteran and lifelong Republican Dave Phelps described himself as a “never-Trump Republican” and said he was supporting “anybody that will help move the MAGA out of our politics.”

Phelps had voted for Trump in 2016 and confessed that he is emotional about the state of the Republican party. “I feel like I’ve been kicked out of my party,” he said.

Phelps admitted he would probably be voting Democratic for the rest of his life because his party had disillusioned him. “I thought the Republican Party represented honesty. It represented law-abiding people, and a strong defense,” Phelps said. As a veteran he felt betrayed by Trump’s NATO and UN rhetoric, he said, highlighting just how important those treaties are.

“There’s no air space between any of the Republicans back to Trump…whether it be our [gubernatorial] candidate or whether it be our local representative. There’s no oxygen between them.”

Toward the back of the stadium sat a single-father with his two young sons. He entertained them with games of rock-paper-scissors. The crowds chanted and waved signs while waiting to hear gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger and former President Barack Obama speak.

“I want them to experience democracy. I want them to see it in action. I want them to experience it amidst the chaos,” he said. “I want them to remember we showed up when it mattered.”

The father is a former federal employee at the U.S. Department of Agriculture who asked that his name not be used because he’s worried about retaliation. He said he doesn’t usually attend political events, rallies or protests because as a federal employee he’s expected to remain nonpartisan. But he said “he had to show his sons the importance of democracy, in this moment… I just want to raise good men.”

As Obama took the stage, they all stood, the father taking the hand of one son, while the other enthusiastically waved his Spangberger sign and chanted, “Obama, Obama, Obama,” with the crowd.

Olivia Cherry, president of an LGBTQ+ student group at Hampton University called MOSAIC, was holding a bisexual pride flag as she stood in line outside Chartway Arena. She said she voted early for Spanberger and Jay Jones, the Democratic attorney general nominee who texted fantasies of killing then-House Speaker of Virginia Todd Gilbert.

Cherry learned of the texts after she voted, but she said she has no regrets.

“I’d still rather see him in office than (current attorney general) Jason [Miyares],” she said. “But I understand how that could change some people’s perspective on doing early voting and then finding out something later on that could have influenced your vote a little bit more.”

Elizabeth, the former Richmond Times-Dispatch journalist, said Spanberger may lose points with voters for sharing the ticket with Jones.

“Not a good look,” she said. “I would like to see them have a message that resonates with people who are on the fence.”

But Elizabeth wasn’t one of those people. She said she has a sign in her front yard supporting Spanberger, and she thought a lot of people waiting for hours to hear her already supported Spanberger.

It’s possible Obama’s appearance could draw the attention of people who hadn’t voted yet, though, Elizabeth said, noting that could ultimately help Spanberger win the undecideds.

“I don’t know if it will work or not,” she said. “I would say all these people already know who they’re going to vote for, but it’s worth a shot.”

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Fire officials confirmed that the woman had to be removed from her car, a silver Toyota Corolla, using the “jaws of life” before being taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.

Officials declined to comment on the extent of the woman’s injuries or the hospital to which she was taken.

The accident happened at the intersection of South Van Dorn Street and Greendale Village Drive just after 11 am. Police officials declined to comment on the other vehicle involved.

The accident and subsequent rescue halted northbound traffic on South Van Dorn Street for about 30 minutes.

Fairfax Police where at the scene clearing the accident and directing traffic. However, police officials declined to comment.

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