Democrat-Backed Candidate Wins Election To Fairfax Co. School Board

John Matthews
WMAL.com

FAIRFAX — (WMAL) Voters in Virginia’s largest county asserted their ‘blue’ nature Tuesday, electing a Democrat-backed candidate to an at-large seat on the local school board by a wide margin.

Attorney Karen Keys-Gamarra won the seat with nearly 41,000 votes, beating Republican-backed candidate Chris Grisafe by a nearly 2-1 margin in an election that only drew about 10 percent of the county’s registered voters.

Keys-Gamarra, the mother of three Fairfax County schools graduates, will succeed Jeannette Hough, who resigned her seat in June after her husband accepted a job overseas. Hough was one of three GOP-backed members on the Fairfax Board.

The election’s outcome was not good news for the county’s Republicans. Keys-Gararra won nearly every delegate district in the county by a comfortable margin, including the two districts – Springfield and Sully – that are currently held by GOP-supported school board members.

Virginians will return to the polls in November to elect a new Governor and General Assembly.