The cyclist who flipped off U.S. President Donald Trump is now an elected official in her home state of Virginia.
Juli Briskman, now elected in Loudoun County, drew widespread attention in October 2017 when she was photographed next to the presidential motorcade leaving Trump’s golf course in Sterling, Va.
Briskman was cycling by when she spotted the line of black vehicles and, realizing who was likely inside one of them, raised her middle finger in defiance.
The photo quickly went viral and earned the 52-year-old both praise and criticism online.
Her employer wasn’t impressed, however, and the single mother of two was fired from her job at government contractor Akima LLC.
Briskman turned that loss into a win on Tuesday. She was elected to serve as supervisor for the Algonkian District, on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, beating out Republican incumbent Suzanne Volpe.
Briskman previously told AFP that getting fired two years ago opened “a lot of doors” for her, including an invitation to run for local office with the Democrats.
“Looking forward to representing my friends and neighbours in Algonkian District who backed me up today!” she wrote on Twitter after the win, adding middle-finger-related hashtags like #FlipLoudpun and #FlipVA as well as a link to the famed photo.
Her success was one part of a historic win for Virginia Democrats, who took control of the state’s House and Senate on Tuesday, putting them in control of all three branches of government in Virginia for the first time in years.
During her campaign in Loudoun County, Briskman focused on issues that were important to her, like education and women’s rights, rather than her overnight viral fame.
She told AFP she didn’t want to be seen as “just the person that rode my bike one day and flipped off the president.”
She announced her campaign on Twitter last September, saying: “It’s time for a change.”
While her face is not visible in the photo, Briskman was honest with her bosses about what happened after the image when viral.
In a lawsuit filed against her former employer, she claims she was forced to resign for violating the company’s social media policy. Briskman says she posted the photo on her personal Facebook page but did not mention her employer.
At the time, she told CNN that while the action was a little out of character, it accurately described how she was feeling about Trump’s administration.
“Health care doesn’t pass, but you try to dismantle it from the inside. Five hundred people get shot in Las Vegas, you do nothing about it. You know, white supremacists have this big march and hurt a bunch of people in Charlottesville, and you call them good people,” she said.
“My finger said what I was feeling. I’m angry and I’m frustrated.”
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