In a stunning political upset, Republican Jeannie LaCroix flipped a long-held Democratic seat Tuesday night in Northern Virginia after a Democratic campaign imploded in the final weeks amid scandal, residency questions and open party warfare.
LaCroix won the special election for the Woodbridge District seat on the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors with 1,694 votes, or 43.73 percent. Democratic nominee Muhammad Sufiyan “Sef” Casim received 1,436 votes, or 37.07 percent. Write-in candidates collected 744 votes, or 19.20 percent — a massive share in a local race and a clear sign of Democratic fracture.
The result marks the first time in 38 years that a Republican has held the Woodbridge seat, a district Democrats had controlled for decades.
Casim’s campaign began unraveling after resurfaced social media posts drew widespread condemnation. Critics described the posts as racist, misogynistic and xenophobic. Although Casim issued a public apology, prominent state and local Democrats said the comments were disqualifying and urged him to withdraw.
Most of the Democrats serving on the county’s Board of County Supervisors called for him to step aside. The Prince William County Democratic Committee, however, stood by Casim and said his apology was sufficient — a decision that fractured the party’s local base.
That fracture widened when Pamela Montgomery, a 32-year Woodbridge resident and former chief of staff to Delegate Margaret Franklin, launched a write-in campaign just one week before Election Day.
Casim had narrowly defeated Montgomery in a February Democratic firehouse caucus by just 33 votes. Montgomery later alleged irregularities in that contest, claiming some participants were not properly registered in the Woodbridge District. She said at least 31 ballots were thrown out.
Montgomery’s late write-in bid siphoned off nearly one-fifth of the total vote — enough to swing the race decisively.
Residency questions further complicated Casim’s campaign. He had previously run for Virginia’s House District 23 seat in December 2025. After losing that primary to Franklin, he moved to Woodbridge and quickly filed to run for the supervisor seat she vacated.
Some residents labeled the move “carpetbagging,” suggesting he relocated primarily to pursue political opportunity. Under Virginia law, however, the move was legal. Candidates must have lived in Virginia for at least one year and establish residency in their district by Election Day.
Still, concerns persisted. According to local reporting, Casim declined to answer residency questions during a Feb. 5 virtual candidate forum. On the day of the Democratic caucus, a source told 7News that Casim cast a provisional ballot because the address he provided the party reportedly did not match his voter registration.
Neither Casim nor Prince William County Democratic Chair Samuel Chisolm responded publicly to questions about the provisional ballot.
The Democratic infighting spilled into public view the day before the election. The county’s Democratic Committee posted what it called a “fraud alert” on Facebook, alleging that Montgomery’s write-in campaign was coordinating with Republicans. The post included a video showing a Republican volunteer near a member of Montgomery’s team and asked, “What’s going on here?”
Montgomery’s campaign manager fired back, saying the video actually showed a Republican volunteer helping an elderly man from Montgomery’s team put up campaign signs.
“So rather than the narrative you made up,” he wrote, “it was actually a touching moment where someone reached across political lines to lend help to a fellow resident.”
The campaign manager said his response was deleted twice by the Democratic Committee and that screenshots were forwarded to state party leadership. LaCroix, meanwhile, maintained a focused campaign message centered on local governance issues. A Woodbridge resident for about a decade, she previously ran for the seat in 2023 and lost to Franklin, receiving 37 percent of the vote.
The Woodbridge District has a long Democratic lineage. Margaret Franklin won the seat in 2019 in an unusual contest after Democrat Frank Principi mounted a write-in campaign following a primary defeat. Principi himself had held the seat for three consecutive terms from 2007 to 2015. Before him, Democrat Hilda Barg represented Woodbridge for two decades beginning in 1988.