Democrats told you the Northern Virginia economy would take a hit from the Trump/DOGE government job cuts, and guess what, it’s happening.
The Abigail Spanberger campaign highlighted the bad news in a press release on Saturday, and I’ve been able to verify the numbers.
In the process of checking their math, if anything, I found that the Spanberger people undersold the damage, by comparing the August 2025 jobless rates in Northern Virginia localities to August 2024.
ICYMI
- Trump policies gutting Virginia economy: How do we dig ourselves back out?
- Virginia unemployment rate up for seventh straight month, as MAGAs twiddle their thumbs
The campaign reported a 38 percent year-over-year increase in Arlington, where the jobless rate is now 3.5 percent – the jobless rate in Arlington was 2.5 percent a year ago.
But the jobless rate in Arlington when Donald Trump took office in January was 2.0 percent; so, we’re talking an increase just this year of 44.4 percent.
Yikes.
In Alexandria, unemployment is up 35 percent year-over-year – the current jobless rate is 3.8 percent; a year ago, it was 2.8 percent.
The since-Trump-took-over increase, with the jobless rate heading into January in Alexandria being 2.2 percent: 41.8 percent.
Fairfax County: 3.7 percent now, 2.9 percent a year ago, and because the jobless rate was 2.2 percent in Fairfax when Trump took the oath of office in January, it’s 39.8 percent because of Trump/DOGE.
Similar trends are in place in Loudoun County (38.3 percent increase in unemployment since the beginning of the year), Prince William County (37.0 percent), Spotsylvania County (33.7 percent) and Stafford County (35.8 percent).
“Abigail is hearing from Virginians who have lost their jobs because of President Trump’s continued attacks on Virginia’s workforce and economy. This new data confirms what Abigail has been saying since January – President Trump’s DOGE cuts are killing Virginians’ jobs and hurting Virginia’s entire economy,” said Connor Joseph, the communications director for the Spanberger campaign.
Quibble here: why insert a quote from the communications guy in the PR?
Just make up something and say the candidate said it, as usual.
Got that out, so, OK, more from Connor Joseph, who was previously on Spanberger’s staff in Congress as a communications director.
“While Abigail is offering a vision for lowering costs and standing up to the chaos, Winsome Earle-Sears has backed President Trump’s attacks on Virginians’ jobs and Virginia’s economy at every opportunity,” Joseph said.
I also see “senior advisor” to Spanberger among the jobs on Connor’s resume.
Here’s some senior advice: quote the actual candidate!
The hit on Earle-Sears is something the Spanberger folks have been stressing since the first of the year.
Earle-Sears, as the MAGA nominee, is stuck defending the Trump/DOGE cuts, because she wants – translation: still hasn’t received – the Trump endorsement, and thus can’t run the risk of saying anything remotely critical of the Dear Leader.
That Trump endorsement, which may or may not come – Earle-Sears is way, way back in the polls, and Trump isn’t known to side with candidates who are expected to lose – wouldn’t help her much anyway.
Trump is polling in the upper 30s and low 40s in Virginia, a state that he lost in each of his three presidential runs.
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Chris Graham
