A former FBI staffer who said at a forum last Sunday (June 22) that he supports President Donald Trump “a hundred percent” will be the GOP’s nominee for a Fairfax-area Congressional seat this fall.
Stewart Whitson will advance to face the Democratic nominee in a Sept. 9 special election for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, local Republican officials announced this evening (Saturday).
Whitson, a resident of Great Falls, secured a plurality of the 2,601 ballots cast in the Republican canvass, besting a field of six other candidates including 2024 nominee Mike Van Meter, former 8th District contender Karina Lipsman and numerous U.S. Army veterans.
“This is a new day for the Republican Party in Northern Virginia,” 11th District Republican Committee chair Rosie Oakley said. “With Stewart Whitson as our nominee, we’re ready to take our conservative message directly to the voters and win this seat back for the people of the 11th District.”
Whitson spent nearly 10 years as an employee with the FBI, where he primarily focused on counterterrorism efforts.
After leaving the agency in 2021, Whitson joined the Foundation for Government Accountability, where he currently serves as the senior director of federal affairs.
According to his campaign website, Whitson plans to prioritize economic interests, as well as securing the border, supporting police and working to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse, if elected.
He faces an uphill battle in his bid for the Congressional seat, however, which has been in the hands of Democrats since 2008.
The late Gerry Connolly, who had held the seat since then, won each of his last five bids for reelection by a 2-to-1 margin, dating back to 2016, proving the Democratic Party’s local dominance. The GOP did fall just 1 point short of taking back the district during Connolly’s first reelection bid in 2010.
Energized by the possibility of flipping the 11th District, Republican voters from across Fairfax County converged on Fairfax High School from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for their party’s canvass.
A couple of voters who spoke to FFXnow favored Lipsman, in part because of her background as a refugee who fled the Soviet Union as a child.
Mary Lou, a voter from Great Falls, said she felt Whitson best represented her values as someone from her hometown and a fellow Catholic.
“My priorities are pro-life, religious freedom, school choice,” she said. “He just represents a lot of things that I personally believe in. There were good candidates. There were several others that I thought I might [support], but when I heard about him being local, I voted for him.”
