Woman who famously flipped off Trump's motorcade wins election in Virginia

Juli Briskman flips off Donald Trump&#039;s motorcade.

(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

published 6 November 2019

Juli Briskman's middle finger launched her political career.

While riding her bike in October 2017, Briskman found herself alongside President Trump's motorcade as it left his golf club in Sterling, Virginia. Briskman raised her hand and flipped the cars off, not knowing that a photographer was behind her, capturing the moment. After the image went viral online, she told her employer, a government contractor, that she was the woman in the photo. Briskman was fired.

Briskman, a Democrat, told The Washington Post that this pushed her into becoming more active in politics, and she volunteered for a congressional candidate and worked at a polling station. She decided earlier this year to run for a seat on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, promising to promote more government transparency. The unofficial results of Tuesday's election are in, and Briskman has 52 percent of the vote. She defeated the incumbent, Republican Suzanne Volpe.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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