A Northern Virginia Dem coasted to an easy win in a special election yesterday for the U.S. House seat left vacant after the death of former Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, an expected result that will slightly narrow the party’s deficit in the chamber. Via the New York Times:
James Walkinshaw, a former chief of staff to Mr. Connolly who won his former boss’s endorsement shortly before he died in May, defeated Stewart Whitson, a Republican lobbyist for a conservative think tank, according to The Associated Press.
Mr. Walkinshaw, 42, who is an elected member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, is the first Democrat to win a House special election since President Trump took office in January. He framed the election as “our first chance to send a Democrat to Congress since Trump took office again.”
The district, most of which sits in Fairfax County across the Potomac River from the capital, has been solid Democratic territory since Mr. Connolly was first elected to Congress in 2008. Mr. Connolly carried at least two-thirds of the vote in each election since 2016.
