Republican Realtor Jeanne LaCroix was poised to win the Woodbridge District seat on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, flipping a deep blue district after her Democratic opponent refused to exit a race that his own party wanted him nowhere near.
Muhammad "Sef" Casim, the Democratic candidate, was projected to lose his bid after archived social media posts surfaced containing racial slurs, sexually explicit insults, and disparaging comments. Top state and local Democrats called on Casim to drop out. He refused.
The result: a Republican gain in a county that has trended leftward for years.
The trouble began when archived posts attributed to Casim surfaced publicly. Records from other sources, including the Prince William County Republican Committee, cited posts comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, endorsing the persecution of Christians, and accusing the United States of funding genocide abroad. The racial slurs and sexually explicit content were apparently enough to rattle even a party that rarely polices its own on such matters.
Casim issued a statement apologizing and blamed "a lack of maturity":
"I posted some comments on social media that are deeply offensive and hurtful, especially to the African American community. The tweets I wrote in my youth are not a reflection of my character and who I am today."
He then pivoted to identity:
"As a Muslim-American who has experienced what it's like to live in America after 9/11, discussions around cultural sensitivity are very important to me."
The apology did not land. Virginia Black Caucus Chairman Del. Luke Torian and state Sen. Jeremy McPike were among the Democratic leaders who called on Casim to step down. An open letter published in the Prince William Times was reportedly signed by prominent party figures, Fox News reports.
"His use of deeply derogatory language that has caused immeasurable pain and harm to African Americans throughout this nation's history reflects a fundamental failure of character and judgment that cannot be overlooked. Mr. Casim has demonstrated that he does not grasp the weight and history of the words he chose to use."
Casim stayed in the race anyway, insisting "the stakes of this election are too high" to quit.
What followed was a masterclass in the kind of deflection that has become standard operating procedure for Democrats caught in their own contradictions. Rather than reckon with his own words, Casim turned his fire on Republicans. Specifically, he invoked former Prince William Chairman Corey Stewart:
"Make no mistake, the attacks on our campaign are coming from the political party that elected former Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart, who has infamously defended White nationalists and used rhetoric that emboldened neo-Nazis."
Notice the move. Casim posted racial slurs. Casim disparaged the African American community. Casim's own party leadership told him his words reflected "a fundamental failure of character." And his response was to point at somebody else entirely.
Stewart, the Republican who ran for governor in 2017 and Senate in 2018, championed the county's circa-2007 immigration enforcement policy that required police to check immigration status. Under his tenure, the county enacted a 287(g)-type policy. Stewart told "Fox & Friends" that he was "hanged in effigy" over the policy and cited a 38% drop in violent crime as one of its results. He also compared the removal of Confederate symbols and statues to how ISIS was destroying historic sites across the Middle East, a comparison that generated its own controversy.
None of that has anything to do with Casim's social media posts. But when your own record is indefensible, changing the subject is all you have left.
Casim also deployed a second, equally familiar tactic. He wrapped himself in the language of social justice, positioning himself as the defender of the very communities his posts targeted:
"Hate has absolutely no place in our society. Our marginalized communities who form the backbone of Prince William County, including our African American community, immigrant communities, and the undocumented, deserve a fighter who will stand up for them."
This is a man who used racial slurs against Black Americans, now claiming to be their champion. The cognitive dissonance is remarkable, but not surprising. In progressive politics, the right vocabulary can apparently launder any history. Say "marginalized communities" enough times, and maybe everyone forgets what you actually wrote.
It's also worth noting that Casim described illegal immigrants as people who "deserve a fighter." This is the modern Democratic baseline: illegal immigration is not a law enforcement matter but a civil rights cause, and candidates compete to see who can promise the most to people who aren't legally present in the country. Even a candidate drowning in his own scandal couldn't resist the urge to signal on that front.
To their credit, or at least to their sense of self-preservation, local Democrats did try to solve the problem. A write-in challenge from Pam Montgomery, who is Black and whom Casim had faced in the February primary, emerged after party leaders reportedly urged her to continue her bid. The goal was clear: give voters an alternative so the seat wouldn't fall to a Republican.
It wasn't enough. A write-in campaign against a candidate already on the ballot is an uphill climb under the best circumstances. When the reason for the write-in is that your own nominee is a liability, it signals chaos, not competence. Voters in the Woodbridge District apparently saw a party that couldn't manage its own candidate and drew the obvious conclusion.
Prince William County has shifted leftward in recent cycles, a trend attributed in part to liberal voters moving farther from Washington and an influx of new immigrant populations. A Republican picking up a seat in this environment is not a minor event. It suggests that even in blue-trending territory, Democrats can lose when they hand voters a reason to look elsewhere.
Jeanne LaCroix didn't need a wave election. She didn't need a national realignment. She needed her opponent to be exactly who he was, and for his party to be unable to do anything about it.
The Democratic Party talks endlessly about accountability, about the weight of words, about who deserves to hold power. Their own leaders wrote that Casim's language reflected "a fundamental failure of character and judgment that cannot be overlooked." Then they watched him stay on the ballot, split their own vote with a write-in, and hand the seat to a Republican.
They overlooked it. And voters didn't.
