A cyclist who flipped off President Donald Trump’s motorcade in 2017 was elected supervisor for the Algonkian District in Loudoun County, Virginia, on Tuesday night.
Juli Briskman went for a bike ride on October 29, 2017, when she encountered the president’s motorcade as he was leaving the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, VA. The mother, who said she became part of the online “resistance” against Trump soon after his 2016 election, flipped off the motorcade, twice.
The feminist used the viral moment to launch her bid for supervisor on September 12, 2018, noted CNN.
“Today, I am filing my organizational papers in a bid for local office in Loudoun County, Va. Loudoun deserves transparency in government, fully funded schools & smarter solutions to growth,” Briskman posted to Twitter, liking to a Washington Post article about her flipping the bird. “It’s time for a change.”
“I am running to serve as Supervisor for the Algonkian District where I have worked, volunteered, organized and raised my kids in public schools. I have launched my campaign on [Crowdpac] because … if not now, when? Let’s Do this!” she added.
I am running to serve as Supervisor for the Algonkian District where I have worked, volunteered, organized and raised my kids in public schools. I have launched my campaign on @Crowdpac because… if not now, when? Let's Do this! https://t.co/zeYn4QR1pR
— Juli Briskman (@julibriskman) September 12, 2018
Two months after announcing her run, Huffington Post posted a video of Briskman reliving her glory as the cyclist who flipped off Trump.
“That picture is going to follow me for the rest of my life. And it’s my butt, and my finger. But if thats what this nation needs, I’m happy to be that person,” she told the outlet in November 2018.
“I didn’t think too much about it,” the Democrat said in reference to disrespecting the president. “It was a natural reaction.”
Briskman bragged that she told her family about the display via a group text message right after the incident.
“I said, ‘Hey, guys, I just got to go past Donald Trump on my bike and I flipped him off.’ And of course my kids were like, ‘Oh, mom!'” she recalled.
Briskman used the photo as her Facebook and Twitter cover pictures, she added.
Not everyone was as amused as Briskman, however.
Akima LLC, a government contractor she was working for at the time, canned Briskman in November 2017, as reported by The Daily Wire.
“They said, ‘We’re separating from you,’” Briskman told Huff Post, following the incident. “Basically, you cannot have ‘lewd’ or ‘obscene’ things in your social media. So they were calling flipping him off ‘obscene.’”
Other Virginia Democrats had a good night on Tuesday, too. “Democrats won complete control of the Virginia government for the first time in a generation,” The New York Times reported.
“In capturing both chambers of the legislature in Virginia, Democrats have cleared the way for Gov. Ralph S. Northam, who was nearly driven from office earlier this year, to press for measures tightening access to guns and raising the minimum wage that have been stymied by legislative Republicans,” the Times added.
The Democratic governor was recently caught up in a blackface scandal and resisted pressure from the Right to resign. Gov. Northam also infamously defended abortion up to the moment of birth, and even after birth, during a radio interview in January.