Parked outside Greenberry’s Coffee in McLean, Virginia, on Election Day were a Porsche Cayenne, a Mercedes-Benz GLS, and a BMW X5 — three luxury SUVs. They were flanked by Land Rovers.
McLean is perhaps the wealthiest suburb of arguably the wealthiest region in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. And the industry that fuels it is the federal government.
Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), a lifelong federal employee, won the McLean precinct by 40 points this year. Her McLean margin was a 13-point increase for Democrats compared to 4 years ago, and the voters at Greenberry’s helped illustrate why.
“I’m a furloughed federal worker,” said one voter, enjoying her latte after voting Democratic.
The government shutdown has both angered the federal class and given them some free time for door-knocking and canvassing.
In the neighboring precinct, which votes at James F. Cooper Middle School, Spanberger won by 30 points. Cooper Middle School is located in the “Langley Pyramid,” and students who attend there typically go on to Langley High School, one of the most sought-after and exclusive public high schools in the United States. The average home in the Cooper Middle School district is $1.9 million, according to Homes.com.
Placed in the parking lot of Cooper Middle School was a sign for none of the candidates. It simply said, “We Support Federal Workers; Hold the Line.” You can see these signs all over northern Virginia, including at the Lutheran churches. The Democrats placed this Election Day sign at Cooper Middle School — it was paid for by the late Democratic Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly’s congressional campaign.
Connolly, who died in May, represented this area well. He was a congressional staffer for 10 years, then worked for government contractors, and then held elected office for the last 30 years of his life.
This is the formula for the wealth of McLean and northern Virginia in general: A federal employee can make more than $190,000, while the average federal salary in Fairfax County is about $112,000, nearly twice the wage of a median American. Then there’s the lucrative work as a Beltway Bandit: cash out of your government job to work for a contractor or as a lobbyist, and thus parlay your public service into private wealth by serving the special interests.
DEMOCRATIC SHUTDOWN IS A POLITICAL WINNER IN VIRGINIA
It’s working: Five of the seven wealthiest counties in the U.S. are within commuting distance of the Capitol.
This is the federal class, and their politics at the moment are ascendant.
