Six months after being defeated by Rep. Gerry Connolly in what turned out to be his final election, the most recent Republican nominee for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District will return to the campaign trail.
Mike Van Meter, who garnered almost 33% of the vote in the 2024 general election against the longtime Democratic incumbent, confirmed to FFXnow that he plans to run for the seat in the 2026 midterm elections.
The Springfield resident is the first candidate to enter the race, vying for the seat held by Connolly since 2009. Connolly announced Monday (April 28) that he won’t seek reelection after his cancer reemerged.
“I don’t really think anybody else [Republican] has the stomach to run up here,” Van Meter said earlier this week on his eponymously-named podcast.
Van Meter, a former D.C. police officer and 20-year FBI veteran, received 134,802 votes last November while running on a traditionally conservative platform focused on border security, crime reduction and improving the economy.
Though Van Meter’s campaign website has yet to be updated from his previous run, his campaign priorities are not expected to change much, if at all.
“I am absolutely a supporter of Donald J. Trump,” Van Meter said in his podcast on Monday. “His agenda, his vision I am 110% behind.”
Van Meter faces an uphill path to victory in the 11th district, which encompasses most of Fairfax County. Republican challengers have regularly lost to Connolly by 2-to-1 margins for the past 10 years, plagued by a lack of name recognition and other roadblocks.
Republicans have generally struggled to make any headway in recent years in reliably Democratic Fairfax County, though Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris won Virginia by a smaller margin last year than former president Joe Biden did in 2020. With the exception of Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, Democrats currently hold every seat representing Fairfax at the local, state and federal levels.
Van Meter likely won’t be alone in seeking the Republican nomination for the 11th district. A Fox News reporter stated that Karina Lipsman, who challenged Rep. Don Beyer in the 8th district in 2022, is considering a run.
“We’ve already had several people express interest in running,” Fairfax County Republican Committee Chair Katie Gorka told FFXnow. “There are definitely people who would consider running [who] look at it differently if they were running against an incumbent versus running for an open seat.”
The 2026 primary election date has yet to be finalized.
Photo via @VanMeterForVA/X
