When Candidates Attack Our Neighbors

Back to School Night Shouldn't Be a Battlefield

When Doris Evens volunteered to hand out flyers at Back to School Night in the Woodson High School pyramid on September 3, 2025, she never imagined that she would end up “going viral,” being ridiculed on WMAL, or having her entire personal life exposed by the Fairfax Times. 

Unfortunately, Republican operatives and Fairfax GOP candidate Saundra Davis had a different plan. Thus, within 36 hours of an interaction with GOP candidate Davis at Olde Creeke Elementary School, Evens life was turned upside down as the GOP and MAGA declared open season on a beloved grandma who just so happened to be an incredible volunteer for Moms Demand and the local Fairfax Dems.

On September 3rd at Back to School Night, Evens, a private citizen, handed out the Democratic Party flyer which contained a calendar and voting information. Across from her, GOP candidate Davis was handing out a primary-colored Republican Party flyer on “parents’ rights”. At the time, Evens had no idea that Davis was the Fairfax GOP candidate running to unseat incumbent democratic delegate Laura Jane Cohen in the November 2025 election. Nor did Evens know that Davis had lost her 2023 campaign for Fairfax County School Board by a huge margin, or that Davis had appeared in a Youngkin campaign ad as a self-described “former democrat.” 

Before handing out her GOP flyers, Davis had placed GOP candidate signs on Olde Creek ES property. All hell broke loose when Evens used a calm teacher voice to patiently explain that regulations forbid politics signs on school property. In response, Davis emphatically asserted her rights to place signs on school property and began filming and threatening Evens. The interaction is documented in this viral video posted by Davis on Twitter, which has been annotated to explain what actually happened. 

In the short, tense 60 seconds of the video, GOP candidate Davis berated volunteer Evens, and refused to answer basic questions, much less calmly discuss the rules and regulations of sign placement. Instead, she was evasive, verging on inarticulate, repeating that “every school across Fairfax County has political signs up” and that she had the right to have her signs there. 

Of course, neither statement by Davis was true. The rules forbidding political signs are outlined in FCPS Regulation 4426 which states, “nor shall campaign posters be displayed at or within the schools.” Furthermore, FCPS Regulation 3240 provides that “The principal shall determine the appropriate time, place, and manner for distribution and/or display of materials about controversial issues, including political literature.” 

Clearly, Evens was correct: campaign signs are forbidden on school property except on election day and/or at the discretion of the principal. Back to School night is not an election day, nor had Davis asked for permission from the principal of Olde Creek ES; therefore, she did not have the right to place political signs on school property. 

In a normal world, Davis would have engaged in a good faith conversation, where she would have listened to Evens’s expertise, as a former school employee. Instead of engaging in calm, good faith conversation, the video shows that candidate Davis was belligerent and aggressive, and threatened Evens by saying, “I’m about to make you famous if you touch that sign.” 

Unfortunately, Davis followed through on that threat. Within hours of this interaction, Davis turned to social media to whine about being told to follow school rules. Davis claimed that the interaction with Evens was an example of “what happens when the Left can’t win on ideas–they resort to intimidation”--an ironic statement considering the intimidation campaign Davis incited against a blameless volunteer who was merely following the rules. 

Davis Makes Doris Famous

Davis shared her version of the events and a video on Twitter and multiple Facebook forums, including her official campaign page and the Fairfax County Parents Association (FCPA) Facebook forum (formerly, OpenFCPS a group which advocated to open schools without masks or vaccines; targeted parents and teachers; and facilitated failed recall efforts on school board members during COVID).

Specifically, Davis announced that “a Democrat screamed at me and even tried to rip my campaign signs out of the ground,” all of which is so hyperbolic as to be factually questionable, when the video shows that Evens spoke calmly and gently pulled the sign from the ground. All in all, Davis, whose vast reach and media allies, managed to present herself as a victim, meanwhile harming the actual victim in the interaction.

On these FB pages, Davis and friends marveled at the viral nature of the video, excitedly counting the number of Twitter views as they increased into the thousands. One even exclaimed, “[Doris Evens] got the fame she wanted”, as if anyone would want to be attacked or forced into fame in this way. In the FCPA FB group, parents made nasty comments, calling Evens “uneducated,” “unhinged,” and “psycho.” 

Davis’s Twitter video quickly gained traction and went “viral”--just as Davis had threatened–over 76,000 views, but barely 800 likes. The comments about Evens on twitter were far worse and cannot be repeated here. Unfortunately, Evens’ address was shared several times, which Twitter (actually) removed after it was reported. Sharing a person’s address on social media is known as doxing, which is illegal. Unfortunately, it is difficult to prove; therefore, it is a standard strategy used to intimidate by bots, trolls, and MAGA.

MAGA Media Attack

As if this wasn’t enough, within hours of the incident, the Fairfax Times reproduced GOP candidate Davis’s false narrative in an article, as if the tense interaction between Davis and Evens was real news and not merely political gossip. The Fairfax Times shared an extraordinary amount of personal information about an unimpeachable private citizen, including Evens’s donation history, volunteer history, social media posts, photos of her family, and her Twitter handle, @screaminglibral, which has some fun content. Of course, this is a standard republican strategy used to intimidate democratic volunteers, school board speakers, civil rights activists, and progressive activists.

Besides being profoundly invasive, the Fairfax Times’ article completely misrepresented the interaction between Davis and Evens: it used pejorative language to describe Evens’s behavior while presenting Davis as a victim. The Fairfax Times “reporting” may have inspired even further dangerous rhetoric about and further doxing of Evens, who received hate mail, in addition to all of the repulsive social media comments incited by Davis’s twitter post, local GOP’s amplification of that post, and the Fairfax Times article.

Less than 36 hours after Davis yelled at Evens, WMAL hosted Matthew Hurtt, chair of the Arlington Republicans, and Stewart Whitson, GOP candidate for the special election for Gerry Connolly’s congressional seat against James Walkinshaw. WMAL and Hurtt used Davis’s version of the incident to hype the “sign stealing” as one more example of “dirty democrats” furthering WMAL’s incessant mantra that “all democrats are evil.” 

Oddly, the WMAL interviews primarily focused on Evens’s age, race, gender, and assumed identity as “a hippy,” involving sexist comments on the show and on Twitter. Both Hurtt and Whitson echoed Stephen Miller’s complaint about problematic “elderly white hippies.” This is such a weird and hurtful description of the septuagenarians and octogenarians who are actively supporting democracy and pushing back against authoritarianism.

Their comments were dismissive and critical of Baby Boomer activists. Especially Hurtt who seemed triggered by feminist women like Evens caring for their community and being active in politics. Hurtt dismissively called people like Evens as “Grantifa” and described them as displaying nasty, aggressive behavior, more along the lines of candidate Davis’s behavior than any behavior seen among the grandparent activists at Tesla and No Kings rallies. 

Hurtt went further to describe a “catch and release program” for senior citizens where he claimed that his group, Arlington GOP, actively seeks to capture Grantifa on video and audio to expose them because they are “anti-democratic.” He echoed this idea in a tweet at the time:

Is the GOP afraid of the Golden Grantifa?

The @arlingtondems and @FairfaxDems think they can allow their grand-tifa activists to act like fools without us blowing them up on social media. … Doris Ann Sprague Evens is learning today. You will be identified. You will be held accountable. - Matthew Hurtt, Arlington GOP Chair

If it is not clear, the Republican Party has declared a war on grandparents. Why? Because it is our kids’ grandparents (a.k.a., our parents) who are showing up again and again to fight against an authoritarian regime, speak up for the vulnerable in our schools and life, and happily wave signs at rallies around the country.

MAGA Politics in Local Elections

The activities described above and associated threats are a feature, not a bug in MAGA politics–in other words, it is part of the Trumpian strategy to intimidate people into silence in order to control the nation. Often it is referred to as “stochastic terrorism” which is “political violence instigated by hostile public rhetoric directed at a group or an individual.” Often the rhetoric offers “the instigator plausible deniability for any associated violence,” while the instigators use dehumanization, disinformation, fear, hate, and conspiracies to incite violence through “ideologically driven hate speech [which] increases the likelihood that people will violently and unpredictably attack the targets of vicious claims.” 

Unfortunately, this was not the last time that GOP candidate Davis targeted and filmed a lone senior white woman during her unsuccessful campaign to unseat Delegate Laura Jane Cohen. In this October 11, 2025 video, only a small snippet of the interaction is captured, but whatever preceded this outburst likely was heated on both sides. Why? Well, it was a beautiful October day at the Burke farmers market which is a lovely place to be on a Saturday morning. One can’t help but wonder what was said or done by Davis and her Fairfax GOP companions to elicit a “F*** you” and “F*** ICE” from a passerby carrying a reusable bag full of fresh produce on a beautiful fall morning.

Is This What Democracy Should Look Like?

Of course, anyone with eyes watching both of the videos and the media pile ons could see what was REALLY going on: media propaganda in support of one political party, gaslighting of the public, and intimidation of volunteers and voters for clicks. 

Just because their lackluster candidates don’t inspire their base, and they can’t get enough volunteers to canvas doesn’t mean that you should stop showing up to rallies, school board meetings, and Back to School nights. 

Keep on showing up and speaking up. Keep on doing the work supporting candidates, citizen voice, and democracy. But always bring a friend for safety and keep calm and keep receipts. 

Don’t let them rile you up. Be a calm Doris Evens in the face of aggressive belligerence. 

When they attack (because they will!) be sure to take video, photos, and screenshots. Document everything. Call the police when necessary.

Take some time for self-care, and then head back to the bridge with your sign, to the election booth with your vote, and to the school board podium with your voice.

THIS is what Democracy looks like. We cannot remain free without a fight. This includes our most local elections like the School Board, Board of Supervisors, and Mayor.

Be Cool like Doris in the Face of MAGA-Goliath