Check back with WTOP for special election results on Tuesday night. WTOP will have election analysis and team coverage on air, online and on our social media platforms.
Voters in the City of Fairfax and Fairfax County, Virginia, are lining up Tuesday to cast their ballots and decide who will be the newest member of Congress in a special election to fill the U.S. House seat of Gerry Connolly, who died in May.
The two names on the ballot are Connolly’s former chief of staff, Democrat James Walkinshaw, and Republican Stewart Whitson, a former FBI special agent and Army veteran.
Walkinshaw is also a member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Before his death, Connolly endorsed Walkinshaw as his successor.
Whitson, who won a crowded GOP primary, aligns himself with President Donald Trump and efforts to combat crime, illegal immigration and make the government more efficient.
WTOP’s Scott Gelman reported live from McLean, where one voter told him the issues at the top of his mind include education and schooling and the local economy. The voter told him that rising prices and the increase of sales taxes have left residents frustrated with the current administration.
Another voter told Gelman he was planning to vote for the candidate that “respects the rule of law.” The man added that his decision was based less on local issues and more about the representation of the district in the House.
“This is our federal representative, and it’s more important for me to have a good representative in D.C. versus the local issues,” he said.
Before Connolly was elected in 2008, the district was represented for many years by a Republican, former Rep. Tom Davis. But the district, which includes the City of Fairfax and most of Fairfax County, has trended toward Democrats for more than a decade. Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Kamala Harris won 65% of the vote in the 2024 election.
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voters in line by 7 p.m. will still be able to vote.
As of noon on Tuesday, the county’s official elections office reported that 5.33% of registered voters cast ballots in person, and that 10.89% of voters cast ballots early or by absentee ballots.
Voters can verify their registration status before heading to the polls on the Virginia Department of Elections website. Voters can find their voting precinct on Fairfax County’s website. Anyone casting a ballot Tuesday should bring identification or be prepared to sign an ID confirmation statement.
Early voting ended Saturday. According to the latest count provided by the Fairfax County elections’ official X account, more than 45,000 ballots were cast as of Thursday afternoon.
There are more than 550,000 registered voters in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
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