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Special election to fill late VA Rep. Gerry Conolly's seat
Polls closed at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday in the race to replace the late U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly in Virginia's 11th District.
FAIRFAX, Va. - UPDATE: The Associated Press has called the race for Virginia's 11th District seat for Democrat James Walkinshaw.
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Polls closed at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday in the race to replace the late U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly in Virginia's 11th District.
Democrat James Walkinshaw is facing Republican Stewart Whitson. Walkinshaw is a member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and previously served as Connolly’s chief of staff. Whitson is a former FBI special agent and Army veteran who oversees federal affairs for a conservative think tank.
See live results below.
Who is James Walkinshaw?
James Walkinshaw is a native of Northern Virginia, living in Fairfax County.
For more than a decade, he served as Chief of Staff to late Rep. Connolly. He has been on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors since 2019 where he serves as Chair of both the Board of Supervisors’ Legislative Committee and Environmental Committee.
Walkinshaw graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics in 2005.
Who is Stewart Whitson?
Stewart Whitson is a U.S. Army combat veteran and a former FBI Special Agent who currently works at a conservative think tank.
He's a long-time resident of Great Falls, where he lives with his wife and five children.
Whitson earned a Juris Doctorate degree and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Minnesota, a master’s degree from the George Washington University and a Certificate in Strategic Management from Georgetown.
He is also a former adjunct professor at Catholic University and a licensed attorney and member of the Minnesota State Bar.
Who was Gerry Connolly?
Rep. Gerry Connolly, a longtime Virginia Democrat, died, at the age of 75 in May. His death triggered Tuesday's special election.
Connolly was a fixture in Virginia politics for decades, serving in Congress since 2009. Before that, he was elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1995 and later became its chairman in 2003. Earlier in his career, Connolly worked as a staffer for the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the 1980s.
He had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy and immunotherapy.