LGBTQ flags and quinoa: The liberal Va. enclave where J.D. Vance lives
One resident said he’s okay with the senator living in the neighborhood because “it says a lot about Del Ray — he picked a place that’s a great place to live.”

By Paul Schwartzman and Peter Hermann
Updated July 16, 2024 at 11:49 p.m. EDT | Published July 16, 2024 at 7:17 p.m. EDT

The chatter started last year in Del Ray, the liberal enclave eight miles south of the White House in Northern Virginia, after word spread that a not-so-liberal U.S. senator had paid $1.6 million for a house in the neighborhood. ... J.D. Vance’s presence became well-known enough that Pierce Kreutzer was not surprised recently when he saw Donald Trump’s pick for vice president outside with his three children while they ran a lemonade stand.

“He has chatted with me a few times because I’m one of the only people in the neighborhood who look like a Republican,” Kreutzer said, referring to his taste for khaki pants and golf shirts. ... Kreutzer described himself as far from a Republican and said the senator’s choice of real estate suggests his conservative brand of politics may be less than authentic. ... “He railed against the liberal elites and then he picked the wealthy liberal neighborhood outside D.C. to bring up his kids,” said Kreutzer, 35, a commercial real estate broker who lives a few doors away. “He’s more aligned, truly, with people like me than he is with your typical Trump voter.”



A street in Del Ray, where neighbors are getting used to the idea of having a possible future vice president nearby. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

A short drive from Reagan National Airport, Del Ray is an affluent neighborhood in Alexandria, where President Biden won more than 80 percent of the vote in 2020. On Tuesday, the day after Trump chose Vance as his running mate, neighbors on the senator’s street said they had seen him come and go but had not talked with him at length. ... And most were good with that. ... “It doesn’t bother me that he lives here. He’s got to live somewhere,” said Caroline Barna, 35, Kreutzer’s wife, who said she encountered Vance’s family trick-or-treating last Halloween. “His politics aren’t great. I don’t agree with him, but what are you going to do?”

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Marianne LeVine and Razzan Nakhlawi contributed to this report.

CORRECTION
A previous version of this story said a gunman wounded Majority Whip Steven Scalise (R-La.) at a congressional softball practice in 2017. It was a baseball practice. The story has been updated.

By Paul Schwartzman
Paul Schwartzman specializes in political profiles and narratives about life, death and everything in between. Before joining The Washington Post, he worked at the New York Daily News, where he covered Rudolph W. Giuliani’s rise as mayor. Twitter https://twitter.com/paulschwartzman

By Peter Hermann
Peter Hermann covers crime for The Washington Post. He previously worked for the Baltimore Sun for 22 years, covering a Baltimore suburb and then the Baltimore Police Department. Twitter https://twitter.com/phscoop