A big sign promoting Joe Biden’s Presidential campaign in Arlington’s Aurora Highlands neighborhood was defaced with pro-President Trump graffiti sometime between Sunday evening and Monday morning. The sign is situated at the only-in-Arlington intersection of 26th Street South and 26th Place South, in an expertly mulched patch of Natalie Mosher’s yard.
Mosher and her husband had the sign made by a graphics company in her native Michigan and installed it on white-painted 2 x 2’s Saturday. They had begun to take it down for repairs when Washingtonian, alerted by a post on Nextdoor, popped by to take a look. The neighborhood does not appear to be much of a swing area, politically: Biden signs occupy many yards, and no others seemed to have suffered any vandalism.
The graffiti was applied with gold spray paint, with messages like “Trump,” “2020,” “Tump,” “MAGA,” and a cartoon depiction of a penis sprayed on the approximately three-foot-high letters spelling “Joe.” Further down 26th Street South, I spotted a similar “MAGA” graffito, again in gold paint, sprayed on the road.
Reached by phone, Mosher describes herself as “just a north of 70 female trying to keep a smile on my face.” She called the police after she saw the vandalism and, following the advice of the officer she spoke with, plans to file a report online.
Mosher tells Washingtonian she was a Pete Buttigieg supporter who switched her allegiance to Biden after Buttigieg dropped out of the Democratic primary. She’s since volunteered for the Biden campaign, making phone calls and sending postcards to people who’ve been purged from Georgia’s voter rolls. The vandalism was “pretty disgusting,” she says, blaming it on “a lack of leadership from the White House” and Trump “energizing his base with hateful behavior.”
Mosher says she won’t back down and plans to keep the sign up until the day after Election Day, repairing and repainting it as often is necessary. She says she has “some other things in the works” to augment the display. (When we spoke, she had just returned from Lowe’s, where she purchased some lights for the sign.) “I will not be intimidated or bullied by any ass out there,” she says.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
