On Election Day in Virginia, most eyes were on the battle for control of the Virginia General Assembly, a race with significant implications for abortion rights, education policy, tax cuts, and public safety in the commonwealth.

But voters in Northern Virginia also made consequential choices in contests for local offices with broad powers to shape development and education policies in the region, including county supervisors and school boards.

In Prince William County, campaigns up and down the ballot focused on voters’ concerns about data center development, a political lightning rod in the county that has particularly tangled Democratic politics in the increasingly blue-leaning county.

Democrat Deshundra Jefferson will become the new chair of the Board of County Supervisors, after a hard-fought race with Supervisor Jeanine Lawson (R-Brentsville), per results from the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. Both candidates advocated for a more measured approach to data center development and higher taxes on the industry, in contrast to the current Democratic majority on the board, which has pressed forward with approvals for data center projects. On the campaign trail, Jefferson and Lawson both opposed the controversial Prince William Digital Gateway project, which is set for a vote before the current board before the end of the year.

Beyond data centers, Jefferson also advocated for increasing funding for the county’s schools, increasing pay for first responders, and expanding affordable housing options. She argued that her historic candidacy — she will be the first Black person to lead the board — was more in touch with the county’s increasing racial diversity.

But all four incumbent Democratic supervisors who have formed the board’s current pro-data center majority will also keep their seats, according to VPAP. Margaret Franklin (D-Woodbridge), Kenny Boddye (D-Occoquan), and Andrea Bailey (D-Potomac) all defeated anti-data center challengers. Victor Angry (D-Neabsco), who has called data center development “the golden goose” for the county and a means of reducing heavy tax burdens on residents, was unopposed in his race.

Republicans will remain in the minority on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. Incumbents Bob Weir (R-Gainesville) and Yesli Vega (R-Coles) won re-election, and Republican Tom Gordy carried the Brentsville District,  according to VPAP.

In Loudoun County — the birthplace of Virginia conservatives’ ideas about “parents’ rights” and school overreach on racial equity and transgender student policies — all nine seats on the county school board were up for grabs, with only two incumbents running for re-election. The school board has drawn serious criticism over its role in overseeing the schools’ response to two high-profile sexual assaults and, more recently, responding to drug overdoses in county high schools.

Both incumbents, Harris Mahedavi (Ashburn) and Erika Ogedegbe (Leesburg) had Democratic backing — school board races are technically nonpartisan, but parties endorse candidates — and appear to have lost their seats, according to results from VPAP. Mahedavi lost to Deanna Griffiths, a recruiter who had Republican support. Ogedegbe lost to Lauren Shernoff, an educator, in a rematch of last year’s contest for the seat. Shernoff ran as an independent, but received more than $14,000 in campaign contributions from Spirit of Virginia, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s political action committee.

But critics of the school board did not prevail in other parts of the county, and it appears that candidates endorsed by the local Democratic Party may still form a majority on the board. Anne Donohue, who had the Democratic endorsement, declared victory in the at-large race over Michael Rivera, who was supported by local Republicans. Donohue, who local Republicans criticized for running an overly partisan campaign while working for the federal government, has said she ran to push back against the negative narrative about the schools.

Conservatives succeeded in unseating the Democratic incumbent in the Loudoun commonwealth’s attorney race as well. A week after Election Day, the final canvass of votes showed incumbent Buta Biberaj behind by 300 votes.

Biberaj trailed Bob Anderson, a former Loudoun County prosecutor who had the backing of the Loudoun County Republican Committee, by just over 1,000 votes on Election Night. She conceded on Wednesday afternoon.

“I just received a gracious concession call from Buta Biberaj,” Anderson wrote on X on Wednesday. “It is not easy to decide to run for public office, but I am honored to once again be Loudoun County’s Commonwealth’s Attorney-Elect. I am ready to get to work restoring transparency to the office and to deliver on my promise to protect our community from violent crime.”

Anderson’s campaign spent just $70,000, a fraction of Biberaj’s over $1 million. Anderson focused on a platform of transparency and effective communication and coordination with other county agencies, issues that have been areas of criticism for Biberaj, in particular her office’s role in the mishandling of two high-profile sexual assaults in Loudoun schools. She also faced community frustration over her decision to remove the commonwealth’s attorney’s office from prosecuting low-level misdemeanors.

Turmoil over the schools and criticisms of Biberaj don’t appear to have spilled over into the Loudoun Board of Supervisors, which Democrats will continue to control with seven out of the nine seats. The board has faced allegations that several Democratic supervisors misused taxpayer funds on international trips in the lead-up to the election.

And aside from a slight hiccup — the power went out in a portion of the county — Arlington Democrats saw a fairly predictable election day. Democrats Maureen Coffey and Susan Cunningham appeared to be smoothly sailing into the two open Arlington County Board seats, after securing the Democratic Party nominations in the primary.

Coffey garnered 35% of the votes by late Tuesday night, while Cunningham had 38%. Runners up included Audrey Clement, a perennial independent candidate who received 12.8% of the vote, while Republican Juan Carlos Fierro received 12.6% .

Cunningham and Coffey emerged on top in Virginia’s first-ever publicly-run ranked choice voting election in June, a contest that came shortly after a pivotal vote to end single-family zoning in the county.  Coffey, an early childhood policy expert at the Center for American Progress, is now the youngest member of the board and its only renter. She was a supporter of the missing middle while Cunningham, the executive director of Arlington Thrive, an anti-poverty nonprofit, was not.

Their elections now mean the Arlington County Board is entirely white; an interesting contrast to the county’s newly elected representative to the House District 2 seat. Running unopposed, Tuesday was merely a formality for Adele McClure, who now represents parts of the county in the state house. A long-time community advocate and LBTQIA+ activist, McClure made history as the first Asian person to represent Arlington in the General Assembly. She is also the first Black person since Reconstruction to serve in the legislature for Arlington since the 1870s.

“As your new Delegate, I will speak truth to power, defend our progress, champion a bold, progressive agenda alongside my fellow Democrats, and stand up for the dignity of individuals and families in Arlington and across the Commonwealth,” McClure said in a statement Tuesday night.

Meanwhile in blue Fairfax County, the evening was a bit of a mixed bag for Democrats.

Pat Herrity, the long-running lone Republican on the board representing the Springfield District, defeated Democratic challenger Albert Vega. Vega, who ran a primary platform centered around expanding affordable housing and increasing transparency from the police department, gained 42% of the vote to Herrity’s 55% as of Tuesday night.

But despite heavy campaigning from county Republicans and the omnipresence of “parental rights” in the commonwealth’s political zeitgeist, the Democrats were able to maintain full control of the 12-member Fairfax County School Board Tuesday night. Conservatives backed a few candidates in the hopes of gaining sway on the board in the largely Democratic county – which has pushed back against Youngkin’s attempts to institute anti-LGBTQ+ policies and largely remove discussions of race from school curricula – but came up empty.

“Tonight’s results show people are fed up with the political attacks targeting our world-class public schools and teachers,” Vice Chair Karl Frisch, who represents the Providence District, said in a statement Tuesday night.

And while Biberaj is at risk of losing her progressive sway in Loudoun’s courts, other Northern Virginia reform prosecutors held onto their seats Tuesday. Steve Descano in Fairfax and Parisa Dehghani-Tafti in Arlington both cruised into a second term; neither faced an opponent after securing the Democratic nomination in the primary, though Descano’s primary opponent, Ed Nuttall, was the subject of a write-in campaign.

In Prince William County, Amy Ashworth, another incumbent, led by about 7% Tuesday night over challenger Matt Lowery, who was endorsed by Jason Miyares, Virginia’s “tough-on-crime” attorney general.

This story has been updated with the outcome of the Loudoun commonwealth’s attorney race.