NEW YORK — Juli Briskman, who went viral in October 2017 when she was photographed flipping off the president as she rode past on her bicycle, defeated the incumbent Republican on Tuesday and won a seat on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors in Virginia.
Briskman, a first-time politician, will now represent the Algonkian District on the board, which serves more than 400,000 residents.
“It’s feeling fantastic, it’s feeling surreal,” the 52-year-old mother of two and former government contractor told the Washington Post. “The last two years have been quite a ride. Now we’re helping to flip Loudoun blue.”
Remember the photo of the cyclist caught flipping the bird to President Trump's motorcade as it was leaving his Virginia golf club in 2017?
— TheBeat w/Ari Melber (@TheBeatWithAri) November 7, 2019
The cyclist, Democrat Juli Briskman, just won a country board seat in Virginia representing the same golf course owned by Trump. pic.twitter.com/JNMVT94vt1
Briskman unseated the incumbent Republican on the board.
After her firing, Briskman sued her company, Akima, and accused them of violating her freedom of speech, claiming that they were more worried about retaliation from the Trump administration. She didn’t get her job back, but she did get her severance pay.
According to her website, Briskman campaigned for better-funded education systems, including paying teachers a living wage, equal pay for women and the support of small businesses, among other issues.
She earned endorsements from Emily’s List, the Loudon Education Association, the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union and a number of other politicians and organizations.
VIDEO: A viral AFP photo taken in the fall of 2017 shows a cyclist flipping off Donald Trump's presidential convoy. The image cost Juli Briskman, the cyclist, her job. Two years later, she is jumping headfirst into politics and is running for local office pic.twitter.com/uavzz7uyas
— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 23, 2019
Virginia saw a wave of blue Tuesday night as Democrats won both the state House and Senate and gaining control of both the governor’s office and the legislature for the first time in more than 20 years.
“I’m here to officially declare today, November 5, 2019, that Virginia is officially blue,” Gov. Ralph Northam told a crowd of supporters.
