Twelve months later, there is scant evidence that McAuliffe’s attempt to revive the agitated emotions of 2020 and to cast Youngkin as a Donald Trump proxy is working. What seems evident is that many residents are feeling drained and ready to return to a time when politics wasn’t all-consuming.

“Everyone exhausted themselves with the presidential election. And I think there was such a sense of fear that Trump would be reelected, that when thank God he wasn’t, you know, people tend to [say] ‘That crisis has been averted. I can go back to other priorities in my life,’” said Tony Sanchez, a 57-year-old Democrat who works for a defense contractor…

“You see a ton of Youngkin signs around,” said Holly Ford, who has lived on the block for a quarter-century. “I think there’s a lot of quiet voters who are not going to vote for him, but you don’t see the signs in the yard [for McAuliffe] because I think Democrats are typically more demure” — especially in comparison to last year.