Democrats retake Connolly’s seat in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District special election

by Ben Paviour, Virginia Mercury
September 9, 2025

Democrat James Walkinshaw decisively won a special election Tuesday to replace former U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, narrowing Republicans’ majority in the House of Representatives to six seats. The Associated Press called the race in Walkinshaw’s favor at 7:36 p.m., with the Democrat taking roughly 75% of the vote compared to Republican contender Stewart Whitson’s 25%.

Live election results: Virginia’s 11th Congressional District special election

Connolly endorsed Walkinshaw, his former chief of staff, before he died in May.

Addressing a crowd of supporters Tuesday night, Walkinshaw said his victory marked a political turning point, calling President Donald Trump’s administration “the most corrupt in American history.”

“This is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump’s reckless agenda,” Walkinshaw said.

Walkinshaw, who also serves on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, defeated Whitson in a suburban Washington D.C. district that Democrats have held since Connolly first won the seat in 2008.

Trump figured heavily into Walkinshaw’s campaign. In one ad, Walkinshaw described the election as “our first chance to send a Democrat to Congress since Trump took office again.” He has presented himself as a counterweight to Trump’s agenda on everything from DOGE to the president’s Big Beautiful Bill. 

The district’s proximity to the capital loomed large in his race, with Walkinshaw denouncing Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce and his deployment of National Guard troops to D.C.

Whitson, an Army veteran who works for a conservative think tank, faced daunting odds in a district Kamala Harris won by more than 30 points last year. He was also outflanked in fundraising, capturing less than a quarter of the more than $1 million raised by Walkinshaw.

Whitson’s rhetoric followed Trumpian themes, calling for an end to “waste, fraud and abuse” and describing the U.S. Department of Education as a “failed experiment.”

On Tuesday night, Whitson conceded, pledging his continued commitment to the state and nation.

“I congratulate my opponent and extend my gratitude to every voter who participated in this important election,” Whitson wrote.

Walkinshaw’s election puts a coalition of Democrats and a handful of Republicans one vote closer to forcing a full House vote on the release of records related to disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein. 

Like Walkinshaw, Connolly was a former Congressional staffer turned Fairfax supervisor. He won a 2008 race to replace longtime Republican Rep. Tom Davis, fended off a close Republican challenge in 2010, and won the ensuing elections by large margins as Northern Virginia became more solidly Democratic. 

Connolly announced he’d been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in November, 2024, days after being reelected. In April, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee said he would not run for re-election and endorsed Walkinshaw shortly thereafter. Connolly died a few weeks later.

After over 30 years of public service, Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly dies at 75

Walkinshaw’s campaign briefly drew national attention after Connolly’s social media accounts reiterated those endorsements after the Democrat’s death, in the midst of the ensuing nine-person primary. Walkinshaw emerged with nearly 60% of the vote.

As a supervisor, Walkinshaw voted against adopting Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s model policies for public schools which aimed to limit transgender students’ access to bathrooms aligned with their gender identity. He backed a plan to replace a county parking lot with 279 units of affordable housing, and drove a successful effort to replace the county’s gas-powered leaf blowers with electric ones.

In Congress, Walkinshaw has pledged to work to ban assault-style weapons, expand federal non-discrimination protections, protect victims of sexual assault and eliminate partisan gerrymandering. 

Walkinshaw differs from his former boss on at least one policy item: crypto. Walkinshaw received a $1 million boost in broadcast ads from the crypto lobbying group Protect Progress, Axios reported in June, and touts blockchain as a transformative technology on his campaign website. Connolly consistently voted against industry-backed legislation.

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