Virginia voters will pick the successor to the late Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly on Tuesday in a special election.
The 11th District is poised to elect Democrat James Walkinshaw, a Fairfax County supervisor and Connolly’s former chief of staff. He’s facing Stewart Whitson in the reliably Democratic district. Walkinshaw easily won the primary in June with the support of numerous federal and state elected officials.
In 2021, he sponsored legislation in Fairfax County to put a 5-cent fee on disposal plastic shopping bags, earning a rebuke from former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a Fairfax County resident.
Walkinshaw could be sworn into the seat as soon as this week. That would narrow the Republican majority in the House, which currently stands at 219 to 212. Connolly died in May due to esophageal cancer.
