James Walkinshaw, the Fairfax County, Va., supervisor and former chief of staff to Rep. Gerry Connolly, is pledging strong efforts to support the Federal workforce and improve oversight of government IT operations as he campaigns to succeed his former boss to represent the 11th district of Virginia in Congress.
In the midst of a whirlwind campaign to succeed Rep. Connolly, who passed away on May 21, Walkinshaw took a few minutes off the trail to tell MeriTalk where he stands on those key issues and the work he plans to undertake if elected.
Voters will head to the polls on June 28 for the Democratic primary, followed by a special election on Sept. 9 to decide who will go to Congress. The 11th district leans Democratic, making the June 28 primary contest the one to watch.
Federal Workforce Protection
First and foremost, Walkinshaw is planning to push forward with his former boss’s forceful advocacy on behalf of the Federal government’s workforce, and its operation under merit-based principles.
Those principles are under siege by the Trump administration’s aims to create a new Schedule F classification for as many as 50,000 Feds deemed to be in policy-making positions – making it easier to fire them and replace them with people who support the White House agenda.
“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.”
“What can a Democratic member in the House of Representatives do about that right now? I put the strategy into three categories,” he said.
“The first is to investigate any violations of law and corruption that may be taking place within the administration from recent Federal worker firings and then work with independent inspectors general and the Government Accountability Office to show just how bad some of the things the Trump administration is doing,” he said. “The key there, I think, is connecting those actions to real impacts on the American public because of the attacks on the Federal workforce.”
“The second is to litigate,” he said, explaining that while members of Congress typically lack legal standing to sue the administration, they can sign onto briefs in suits brought by others. “I would be looking to do that, especially for those suits that have to do with the Federal workforce and the Federal government, and I would be looking to get the voices and stories of my constituents into those courtrooms via those briefs.”
“Third is to mobilize,” Walkinshaw said. “I think it’s really important right now for members of Congress to be there side by side with Federal employees and members of the community who are protesting and rallying and organizing broad-based resistance to what the Trump administration is doing to the Federal government and the Federal workforce.”
“And for Schedule F and maintaining the nonpartisan civil service, we have to get out there and communicate to the American people why it would be such a terrible thing to see a completely politicized Federal civil service,” he said.
“We had that 100-plus years ago and the results were corruption, incompetence, and failure to accomplish the missions that agencies are supposed to accomplish,” he said. “We can’t go back to that.”
Federal IT Oversight
While there are no guarantees, it’s a fair bet that Walkinshaw would be in line to fill the vacancy left by Connolly on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, where the former congressman was a prime mover on government IT legislation and oversight.
“My intention would be to continue on with Gerry’s work on the Oversight committee, and I would hope to serve on that committee for a long time advocating for Federal employees and for issues related to Federal contracting, government, technology, and IT procurement,” Walkinshaw said. “I would intend to dig in and do that unglamorous work for many years.”
On the continuing need to improve Federal technology, Walkinshaw tied in that imperative with the need to improve citizen service.
“I’ve been a passionate advocate for modernizing technology because I believe very much in the power of government to improve people’s lives,” he said.
“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,” Walkinshaw said. “For me, it is a core responsibility of the Federal government, and it’s an area where we know the Federal government can do a much, much better job. Getting high-quality commercial technology that we know is working into the Federal government so it can work on behalf of the American people will be a top priority.”
Walkinshaw also said he is eager to carry on Conolly’s work on the FITARA Scorecard that has measured Federal agency improvements since 2015, and perhaps to expand its scope.
He cited estimates that the FITARA statute and oversight efforts since then have saved taxpayers more than $30 billion, and said, “I think 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.”
“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.
Also on the Federal IT front, Walkinshaw gave a strong endorsement of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), which Connolly shepherded into law and championed every after as a vehicle to jumpstart IT modernization projects.
“The hardest thing in government is to take a long-term view and retiring legacy systems and implementing modern systems costs money upfront, but we know – and TMF has proven it – that there are long-term savings when we do that,” Walkinshaw said. “We need more voices in government advocating for a long-term view, and I recognize that for a lot of agencies, they just don’t have the upfront budget to retire legacy systems. TMF has incredible potential to help do that, but it’s never been funded at a level that really allowed that to happen at scale.”
“So, 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.
Local IT Impact
Finally, Walkinshaw pointed to the fruits of investing in modern IT capabilities during his service on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors that began in 2020.
“When I was elected, we still had in the basement of our Government Center building rooms and rooms full of servers,” he said. “We’ve now made an almost wholesale transition to the cloud, which has saved us a lot of money and it’s much more efficient for us. We are in the middle of implementing an AI-powered chatbot tool to help citizens and residents access services and information from the county government. So, we are full speed ahead on modernizing Fairfax County government and leading the nation in local government technology adoption that improves how the government works for citizens.”
“One of the most tangible benefits from all of that is a significant improvement in our tax administration website, so residents can now have one log-in where you can go online to view your real estate taxes, your personal property taxes, any other taxes you might need to pay to Fairfax County, and you can pay them all through one portal at the same time if you wish,” he said. “That has significantly reduced the volume of people who need to show up at our government center and pay their taxes in person, and the whole process works so much better than it did just five years ago.”