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Jenna Portnoy
Reporter Covering Congressional Delegations Virginia, Maryland and D.C.
Juli Briskman, the cyclist who launched her major on President Trump's motorcade – and who lost her job in a public administration company – faces an act of resistance in a race for a local office in Northern Virginia.
The 51-year-old marketing executive said this week that she would file the documents to challenge Suzanne M. Volpe, a Republican who represents Algonkian District on the Board of Loudoun County Supervisors in 2019. .
The county votes reliably for state-level and federal-level Democrats, but Republicans retain control of the council, 6 to 3, and Republicans have represented the county in Congress for nearly 40 years.
Democrats hope that voter hostility to Trump, coupled with recent population growth and demographic changes, will help them overthrow Representative Barbara Comstock (R) in November and move the Board of Supervisors 2019.
Briskman stated that she was not planning to apply for public office until last October, when she was forced to leave her government contract position, as she sees, exercising her first amendment rights. .
"We have the right to peacefully protest and criticize and express our dissent to our government," she said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
Juli Briskman gives Donald Trump the middle finger while the president's motorcade leaves the Trump National Golf Course on October 28, 2017 in Sterling, Virginia. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP / Getty Images)
"I have received comments that people should respect the president. Even if you do not like what they do, you should not show that kind of disdain. And I just do not agree and I think the Constitution gives me this privilege.
Would she do it again? "Probably," she said.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won Loudoun County with 55% of the vote in 2016 and the following year, Ralph Northam (D) extended his margin, winning 59% of the vote in Loudoun.
But it remains to be seen if and how national politics will influence local elections in 2019.
Volpe, who has been a board member since 2012, said that although she supports the president, she hopes the campaign will focus on local issues.
"Right now, I'm focusing on the work my constituents have done: improve our transportation, make our community safer, create jobs, be fiscally responsible," she said. declared. "Needless to say, I'm going to focus on the race at the right time."
Briskman said it would work to adequately fund the county's growing schools, limiting uncontrolled development and increasing transparency in local government.
She declined to name some articles she would work on to change, but said she was against Volpe's successful call for tax cuts last year, as the move cost about $ 14 million. dollars to the district.
Volpe defended the tax reduction.
"I felt it was important because not only did we have families of workers in difficulty," she said, "but we also have an elderly population with a fixed income and it is important to 'try to find that balance'.
Briskman, a divorced mother of two teenagers, has lived in Loudoun County for almost 20 years and has been active in scouts and scouts and co-founded a local racing club.
She has a degree in journalism from Ohio State University, an MBA from Johns Hopkins University, and a certificate in social media from Georgetown University.
Early in his career, Briskman was a reporter for the Winchester Star and continued to work in the field of communications and public relations, including embassies in Kazakhstan and Latvia.
Briskman was asked to leave his job under contract with the government or to face a dismissal following the photo agency Agence France-Presse Trump's procession has become viral.
She filed a lawsuit and obtained her claim for severance pay, but her trial for unfair dismissal was dismissed. Rather than appeal, she decided to look for a public office.
Trump often returns to the Briskman section in Loudoun to visit the Trump National Golf Club. Each time, she and a group of Democrats organize impromptu demonstrations in front of the station with signs and Trump balloons. The middle fingers remain down.
"When he comes to my neighborhood," she said, "I think there should be resistance."
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