Looking beyond Election Day, Capitol Hill is on edge

Justin Papp, CQ-Roll Call on Nov 5, 2024

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WASHINGTON — Blanca de Leon won’t be closing up shop or boarding up the windows of her beauty parlor on Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast because of fears about the election, even as other businesses around the city brace for the worst.

That doesn’t mean de Leon, who owns Capitol Hair Salon a block away from the Capitol, isn’t nervous.

“I think if [Donald] Trump wins, it’s going to be crazy. If Trump loses, it’s going to be crazy too,” said de Leon. “I’m scared a little bit. But it’s not the end of the world.”

De Leon, like much of the rest of D.C., is in a state of nervous anticipation. Election Day — or as de Leon calls it, “the boring day” — is somewhat anticlimactic on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers away in their home districts and the next president not likely to be named until Wednesday, at the earliest.

But the election itself is just the beginning of a monthslong period of uncertainty for a community shaken four years ago by the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and a nation deeply divided along political lines.

“I feel very strong about the District’s preparation. I feel very sad that this is the state of things, to be honest with you,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday at a security briefing from Metropolitan Police headquarters.

Bowser said there were no identifiable threats but that she anticipated making a National Guard request at some time during the period between Election Day and the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.

Both the inauguration and Jan. 6, when electoral votes are certified by Congress, have been designated National Special Security Events, which unlocks additional resources and planning led by the Secret Service. And at the Capitol, bike rack barricades were up around the campus ahead of Election Day, along with fencing to block off the area where the inauguration platform will be located.

Whether Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris wins, congressional staffers said they see a tense period ahead on the Hill.

“Hopefully there are no riots regardless of the outcome, but I’m pretty sure we’ve already jumped that shark,” said one House Republican staffer, who said that some sort of unrest seemed likely to him.

The staffer, like many who work at the Capitol, had spent much of the last month working on campaigns, but returned to Washington by Election Day. Like so many others, he’ll take the edge off with a bit of alcohol.

“I’ll be in D.C. with some Hill friends watching over a few (maybe more) beers. Hope all my friends’ bosses survive and Rs full sweep,” he said via text, requesting anonymity to speak candidly.

For neighbors and businesses on Capitol Hill, the mood is one of uncertainty.

Aksana Tran, owner of Sweet Lemon Cafe and Sweet Lemon Bistro, said some past demonstrations had actually been good for her business. Over the summer, when thousands descended on Capitol Hill to protest a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she stayed open hours later than normal because of the increase in foot traffic.

Leading up to the election, Tran said she’s had employees who have asked for time off, citing fears of unrest. But at least as of Monday afternoon, she had no plans to alter her business hours or board up, in part because of her location near Second Street Northeast, a half-block down from Capitol Police headquarters.

“I said, ‘Don’t be afraid, we have the Capitol Police right here,’” Tran said.

De Leon, who opened her business recently but worked at a hair salon in the same location for more than a decade prior, said she recalls a number of protests at the Capitol. She’s had clients call and cancel from elsewhere in the city because they didn’t want to head toward unrest, and she gets the occasional protester asking to use her bathroom.

But de Leon said she grew up in El Salvador during the country’s civil war and remembers hearing gunshots in the morning outside her home, and then going to school later that same day.

“I’ve seen worse,” she said.