Act Daily News
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Jennifer McClellan has gained the Democratic nomination for Virginia’s 4th Congressional District within the particular election to succeed the late Rep. Donald McEachin, the commonwealth’s Democratic Party introduced early Thursday morning in a news launch, placing her in prime place to turn into the primary Black girl to characterize the Old Dominion in Congress.
McEachin died in November simply weeks after successful reelection.
McClellan defeated fellow state Sen. Joe Morrissey and two different candidates in Tuesday’s “firehouse primary,” which was performed by get together officers throughout a handful of pop-up voting areas within the Richmond-area district. She took 85% of the vote to Morrissey’s 14%, in line with the Virginia Democratic Party news launch. McClellan enters the February 21 particular election in opposition to Republican Leon Benjamin as the favourite for a safely Democratic seat that President Joe Biden would have carried by 36 factors in 2020.
“Tuesday’s party-run process saw historic turnout with 27,900 votes cast, making it the largest party-run nomination process in the history of the Democratic Party of Virginia” the discharge said. “Voter turnout even exceeded the last state-run primary in VA-04, when 15,728 votes were cast.”
At a news convention Thursday with Virginia Democratic Party officers, McClellan stated she was prepared “to bring a new perspective to the Virginia delegation that has never had a Black woman sitting at the table.”
She paid tribute to McEachin, whom she known as a buddy and mentor, and recalled voting obstacles her relations beforehand confronted – together with the ballot tax her father and grandfather needed to pay to have the ability to vote, the literacy take a look at her great-grandfather needed to take, and “the fact that the women in my family did not vote until after 1965. I stand on their shoulders today.”
“I stand on the shoulders of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress. I stand on the shoulders of John Mercer Langston, the first Black man sent to Congress from Virginia in the 4th Congressional District,” she added.
McClellan, who completed third within the 2021 Democratic main for governor, had the assist of get together leaders and teams starting from the political arm of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to the moderate-backing Democratic Majority for Israel PAC. Democratic members of the commonwealth’s congressional delegation had endorsed her, as did Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and different native officers.
Morrissey’s feuds with the Virginia Democratic Party institution could have been a part of his enchantment amongst some disenchanted partisans, however he was dogged by his controversial historical past, together with his resignation from the state House in 2014 after a misdemeanor conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor – a 17-year-old part-time staffer at his legislation workplace with whom he had intercourse and exchanged nude pictures. He was in his mid-50s on the time, however has argued, in line with a neighborhood report, that he believed the girl was 18. (Morrissey has since married the girl and so they have a number of kids.) Morrissey has additionally been stripped of his legislation license – twice – and stays disbarred following a 2019 state Supreme Court resolution to uphold its revocation.
Benjamin, a Navy veteran and pastor, gained the GOP nomination at a celebration canvass on Saturday. This is his third bid for the seat, after dropping to McEachin final month and in 2020.
This story has been up to date with further response.