Voters in northern Virginia will head to the polls on Tuesday for a special election that House Democrats hope will bolster their numbers in the chamber and lower down on an already slim Republican majority.
With a Democratic win Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson would solely give you the option to afford to lose two Republicans on party-line votes as opposed to three.
The election in the eleventh Congressional District is being held to fill longtime Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly’s seat. Connolly died from cancer in May.
Democrat James Walkinshaw, Connolly’s former chief of employees and a Fairfax County supervisor, is closely favored. Walkinshaw faces Republican Stewart Whitson, a navy veteran and former FBI special agent at present working as a lobbyist.
Situated in the suburbs of Washington, DC, the district consists of a big swath of Fairfax County and is dwelling to 1000’s of federal employees. It voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris over President Donald Trump by 34 share factors in the 2024 election. Connolly sailed to reelection by that very same margin.
House Democrats hope to add again to their ranks after a string of member deaths has given the GOP some respiration room with the celebration’s slim majority in the chamber. Connolly was the third House Democrat to die whereas in workplace this 12 months after Reps. Sylvester Turner of Texas and Raul Grijalva of Arizona each died in March. Tennessee Republican Mark Green stepped down in July, placing the present House breakdown at 219 Republicans to 212 Democrats.
It’s attainable all three of the Democratic vacancies will get stuffed earlier than Green is changed in December, placing extra stress on the narrow GOP majority. The election to change Grijalva is ready for September 23 and the special election in Turner’s district is scheduled for November 4: each seats are expected to keep in Democratic palms.
The arrival of these Democrats may imply a well timed benefit for House members wanting to pressure a vote to launch the Jeffrey Epstein files. The bipartisan discharge petition led by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna wants 218 signatures to transfer ahead, and the congressmen preserve they’ve 216 signatures to date with out the 2 possible Democratic members becoming a member of the chamber this month.
“We have the 218 votes. 216 already support it,” Khanna mentioned in an interview with ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “There are two vacancies that haven’t been reported as much, but two Democrats are going to be joining, and they are both committed to signing it. That’s going to happen by the end of September.”
NCS’s Alison Main contributed to this report.