Jacqueline Smith answers a question at a local debate.Jacqueline C. Smith won Tuesday’s special election and will go on to become Prince William County’s next Clerk of the Court.
On her campaign Facebook page, Smith wrote “We did it! Thank you all for your support.”
Smith, who is a personal injury lawyer from Dumfries, had the endorsement of the Democratic Party.
Smith won 53.9 percent of the popular vote, whereas her opponent Jackson Hunter Miller won 46 percent of the vote. A total of 13,905 votes were cast for Smith compared to 11,871 for Miller.
Miller, who once served as a council member in Manassas City, won that jurisdiction with 57.5 percent of the vote. Smith won Manassas City Park with 56 percent of the vote. However, Smith took 55.6 percent of the total votes in Prince William County, which yielded the largest number of votes by far.
Miller, who is a Republican, serves as Delegate for the 50th District within the Virginia General Assembly. He will retain that seat and is running for reelection in November.
Smith ran on a platform of keeping politics out of the clerk’s office. She said she would bring transparency and efficiency to the office. She said simple changes such as answering the phones would serve all populations including those who could not easily drive to the clerk’s office or access email.
She also said should she be elected she would once again hold marriage ceremonies at the courthouse again, which were stopped shortly after the Supreme Court ruled that states could not prohibit same-sex marriage.
Smith said she initially became interested in the position of clerk while working pro bono after Hurricane Katrina. She found that land records destroyed and mismanaged in a courthouse caused people to lose their homes and properties.
The website Blue Virginia called Smith’s victory a “major upset” for Republicans, claiming Smith was outspent many times over and still won over the people.
Democrats are celebrating her victory, calling it proof that the “Trump effect” (meaning the anti-Trump liberal/progressive movement) is real, and predicting this election was a pivotal political moment, signaling good things to come for Democrats this November
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