Democrat James Walkinshaw won Tuesday’s special election to represent Virginia’s 11th district in Congress, filling the seat of his former boss, the late Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly.
Walkinshaw, a Fairfax County supervisor, served for over a decade as the chief of staff for Rep. Connolly, who died in May after a battle with esophageal cancer. Walkinshaw has pledged to continue the work of Rep. Connolly, including as it relates to federal IT modernization.
Walkinshaw defeated Republican candidate Stewart Whitson, with Walkinshaw earning roughly 75% of the vote compared to Whitson’s 25%.
“This is the beginning of a new chapter, because tomorrow morning, I’ll wake up and head to the Capitol and start fighting for our community,” Walkinshaw said during a victory speech Tuesday evening.
Walkinshaw is planning to push forward with Rep. Connolly’s forceful advocacy on behalf of the federal government’s workforce. He is also planning to follow in his former boss’s footsteps as a federal IT champion.
“I’ve been a passionate advocate for modernizing technology because I believe very much in the power of government to improve people’s lives,” Walkinshaw told MeriTalk during an interview in June.
“As a Democrat, if we believe government can do things to improve people’s lives, we should want the best, most effective, most modern technology inside the government, helping us to improve people’s lives more effectively and more efficiently. And we have to advocate for that,” he said.
Specifically, Walkinshaw said he is eager to carry on Conolly’s work on the FITARA Scorecard. The scorecard grades the 24 largest Federal agencies on their progress across a range of IT-related categories.
As of September 2024, the implementation of FITARA has resulted in $31.4 billion in cost savings across the federal government.
“In the DOGE era, FITARA gives us a perfect example of how we make government more efficient, how we save money, and how we do it the right way, rather than the chainsaw approach we see with DOGE,” Walkinshaw told MeriTalk.
“I think it’s a great time to be talking about FITARA as a model for future initiatives,” he said, adding, “I would like to see a new iteration of FITARA oversight, perhaps even broader.”
“I would hope that Republicans in the House, especially having seen the success of FITARA in that model, would be open to conversations about finding a way to continue it or build on it, and I would engage in those conversations immediately if I’m successful in this election,” he pledged back in June.
Also on the federal IT front, Walkinshaw gave a strong endorsement of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), which Connolly shepherded into law and championed as a vehicle to jumpstart IT modernization projects.
Walkinshaw said that the TMF “has incredible potential” to help agencies retire legacy systems, “but it’s never been funded at a level that really allowed that to happen at scale.”
“Whether it’s through TMF or another mechanism, I’m going to advocate for us to take a long-term view and find a way to make the investments today that can save us money and make us more effective tomorrow and for many tomorrows into the future,” he said.
As for other priorities, Walkinshaw pledged to advocate for federal employees, many of whom reside in his Northern Virginia district.
“During the 11 years that I was chief of staff, I was by Gerry’s side as we advocated for federal employees and defended federal employees from the attacks that they faced during the first Trump administration,” Walkinshaw said. “And as a member of Congress myself, I would continue to communicate that federal service is a noble endeavor and that we should be honoring the work that federal employees do.”
Walkinshaw said he expects to be sworn in on Wednesday. There have been two special elections so far this year, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., swore in both winners the following day.