Neighbors of VP Candidate, Supreme Court Justices sense tense atmosphere amid election

Small-town America may come to mind when walking the streets of Del Ray, Virginia. With the leaves swirling down from the tree-lined sidewalks and neighbors greeting each other as their dogs exchange sniffs, a picturesque afternoon plays out here as voters head to the polls.

Just a 30-minute drive from D.C., the Alexandria suburb is dotted with coffee shops, pet stores and local restaurants. It also counts vice presidential candidate JD Vance as one of its 20-thousand residents. 

Vance’s home sits on a quiet street sandwiched between a small family park, now outlined with fences and cement barricades, and homes that display political signs endorsing his opponents. 

However, this is not the only way that residents of the area have shown their uneven emotions amid this election. The Wash had a chance to talk with several neighbors, many of whom are uneasy about the election outcome and what it could mean for their small community. 

Nora and Casey, who did not want to give their last names, work in movie production in the Del Ray area. They voted earlier and shared concerns about the election results and the general feeling of the community.

“I’m just terrified with how the outcome might be, so trying to stay distracted, but there’s a lot of anxiety because very real issues are on the line,” Nora said. 

Even those just visiting the area feel the atmosphere as polls rolled in. Chelsea Pace and Lee Green are both from Northern California and are in Virginia for Pace’s work.

“I’m working with a lot of other theater artists,” Pace said. “The mood is kind of like, ‘Do we all want to be in our own apartments scrolling on our feeds? Or do we all sort of just want to, like, be in the same place and be in community with each other?’ I am excited and terrified, kind of an equal measure.” 

Young Del Ray residents also feel anxious about the election in their backyard despite being unable to vote in this race. 

Bailey Gordon, 15 and Aiden Hoganson, 14, discussed what being a young neighbor of a large political figure is like, including the clashing of political views from other residents being “tense.”

“It’s just, like, really polarized right now, and it’s very evident for support, too,” Hoganson said regarding the views of neighbors in the area. “Yeah. I think generally it isn’t too different from normal, unless you actually, like, go out of your way to talk to different people and, like, look at the houses because it is usually very clear who supports who.”

“I’m just terrified with how the outcome might be, so trying to stay distracted, but there’s a lot of anxiety because very real issues are on the line,” Nora said. 

And though there were no protesters for either party in the early afternoon of Election Day, security details have been posted outside Vance’s home for the past few weeks.

Three National Homeland Security officers who declined to provide their names also talked with The Wash regarding the neighborhood climate. According to one of the three officers from Arizona, he does not think there will be people protesting outside Vance’s home unless the GOP leads in the polls.

“Think we should get some crazy people here,” he said. 

According to another one of the officers, the Homeland Security detail does not happen often. “They asked during election time because they need so much help, they ask us, so, like, we’ll just come out and do, like, three-week rotations to help them out,” he said. “But we don’t really do this that often.”

When Vance is in town, road closures lead to several upset neighbors and inconvenience the town’s residents. Stephanie, a citizen of Del Ray for 10 years, discussed the difference between Vance being away from his home. 

“Honestly, he’s been on the campaign trail so much lately that we haven’t noticed much difference,” Stephanie said. “Before, there were just a lot of Secret Service people around.”

For the Supreme Court Justices living in other Virginian neighborhoods like Del Ray, the U.S. State Marshalls have been assigned to the outside of their homes. 

Though they would not give us their name, one resident of the same neighborhood as Justice Samuel Alito said that politics were not discussed as neighbors, something that was unlike Del Ray. 

“We don’t talk about politics on the street,” the neighbor said. “It keeps the equilibrium.”

The consensus seems to be that everyone, regardless of political affiliation, type of security detail or the neighborhood they share, waits as the results roll in to see the fate of their high-profile neighbors holding or hoping to hold seats on Capitol Hill. 

Stay tuned for more election reports from The Wash.