Back in 2017, Juli Briskman was a complete unknown until she decided to make her feelings about the current administration public, and have it caught on camera. Two years later, she’s back in the news after a successful bid for local office in Virginia.
On that fateful October day in 2017, Briskman was out on her bike when President Trump’s motorcade, headed back to the White House from Trump’s golf course in Sterling, Virginia, passed her.
Knowing exactly who it was, she took the opportunity to express her feelings about the administration — with her middle finger. The photographers traveling with the president managed to capture the unmistakable gesture, and no surprise, it went viral.
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Unfortunately, Briskman’s employers didn’t care for the attention she had received, informed her that she had somehow violated their social media policy, and forced her to resign .
One year later, Briskman announced she would run for office in Virginia.
While old tweets have come back to haunt many political candidates, Briskman didn’t make any secret of who she was or why anybody might recognize her name.
When she made the announcement on Twitter, she linked a Washington Post story featuring the famous picture alongside it.
Briskman ran an energetic campaign for Supervisor of the Algonkian District in Loudon County, Virginia.
She knocked on plenty of doors and focused on issues such as funding local schools and expanding green spaces in the community, according to BuzzFeed News.
And, of course, she was vocal about her opinion of the man in the Oval Office.
When election night finally rolled around, Briskman defeated her Republican opponent, eight-year incumbent Suzanne Volpe, with 52.4% of the vote.
She tweeted that she was “looking forward to representing my friends & neighbors in Algonkian District who backed me up today!” And, as the Washington Post noted, the district she’ll be supervising includes one of Trump’s golf courses.
h/t CNN , BuzzFeed News , CBS News
