A special election will be held Tuesday Sept. 9 to fill a U.S. House seat in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District vacated by the passing of Rep. Gerry Connolly in May.
The 11th Congressional District encompasses most of Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County, which is home to 80,000 federal workers.
AFGE has endorsed James Walkinshaw, who served as Rep. Connolly’s chief of staff for 10 years and whom Connolly himself endorsed before his passing. Connolly was first elected to the seat in 2008 and won eight subsequent reelections.
While serving under Connolly, Walkinshaw helped the lawmaker’s office fend off attacks on federal workers and labor rights during President Trump’s first term in office.
If elected to Congress, he has pledged to sign on to the discharge petition that would force a vote on a bill to overturn Trump’s anti-labor executive order from March and restore collective bargaining rights for nearly a million federal employees. He has also pledged to cosponsor the REHIRE Act, which would reinstate federal employees who were illegally fired by the administration.
During a recent interview on WUSA 9, Walkinshaw said Democrats should be pushing for more aggressive investigations into Trump’s activities – particularly as they relate to fired federal workers – and should be mobilizing Americans across the country who are opposed to the administration’s policies and actions.
“I do think we can make progress on pushing back on the Trump administration across this country with thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of people organizing, protesting, rallying to raise awareness of some of the worse actions of the Trump administration,” he said.
Born and raised in Northern Virginia, Walkinshaw has served on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors since January 2020 and also currently serves as chair of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board.
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sept. 9, and anyone in line by 7 p.m. will be able to vote. Click here for further details.
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