Democrat James Walkinshaw will succeed his former boss, the late Rep. Gerry Connolly, as U.S. Representative for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, the Associated Press projects.
Walkinshaw, who represents the Braddock District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, bested Republican nominee Stewart Whitson, a former FBI staffer, in today’s special election.
With only 37% of the vote tallied, AP called the race at 7:36 p.m., just over half an hour after polls closed. Walkinshaw had garnered around 75% of the vote in the district, which accounts for the entirety of Fairfax City and the majority of Fairfax County.
“This is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump’s reckless agenda,” Walkinshaw said after the polls closed. “This is the beginning of the end for MAGA rule in Washington, and this is the beginning of a new chapter.”
The 42-year-old Walkinshaw’s election comes nearly four months after Connolly, who represented the district since 2009, died of esophageal cancer in May.
Though a specific timeline for his ascension to Congress is currently unknown, Walkinshaw is expected to resign from his county board seat in the coming days.
In order to be sworn in, the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives must first receive a certificate of election from the Virginia Department of Elections declaring Walkinshaw the winner. A specific date is then up to Congress.
Most recently, two new representatives — both Republicans — were sworn into the Republican-controlled Congress on April 2, the day after their respective special elections.
“I am confident that the same consideration will be extended to the people of Virginia’s 11th District and I will be at the Capitol prepared to take the oath at 9 a.m. tomorrow,” Walkinshaw wrote in a letter to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Walkinshaw’s win also kicks off another election: the one to replace him on the Board of Supervisors, which has drawn contenders ever since he won the party’s nomination for this Congressional seat earlier this summer.
The current field of candidates includes Fairfax County School Board members Ilryong Moon and Rachna Sizemore Heizer, as well as Fairfax Young Democrats co-president Sabrina Mattin. Only one Republican, community leader Ken Balbuena, has entered the race so far.
