Jennifer McClellan is poised to make history in Virginia after winning Democratic nomination to succeed late Rep. Donald McEachin

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 Social gathering introduced early Thursday morning in a information launch, placing her in prime place to develop into the primary Black lady to symbolize the Outdated Dominion in Congress.

McEachin died in November simply weeks after profitable reelection.

McClellan, a state senator, defeated Joe Morrissey in Tuesday’s “firehouse main,” which was carried out by social gathering officers throughout a handful of pop-up voting places within the Richmond-area district. She 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.

Benjamin, a Navy veteran and pastor, gained the GOP nomination at a celebration canvass on Saturday. That is his third bid for the seat, after dropping to McEachin final month and in 2020.

“Tuesday’s party-run course of noticed historic turnout with 27,900 votes forged, making it the biggest party-run nomination course of within the historical past of the Democratic Social gathering of Virginia” the discharge said. “Voter turnout even exceeded the final state-run main in VA-04, when 15,728 votes had been forged.”

McClellan, who completed third within the 2021 Democratic main for governor, had the help of social gathering 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 Social gathering institution might 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 Home in 2014 after a misdemeanor conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor – a 17-year-old part-time staffer at his regulation workplace with whom he had intercourse and exchanged nude pictures. He was in his mid-50s on the time, however has argued, in keeping with an area report, that he believed the lady was 18. (Morrissey has since married the lady they usually have a number of youngsters.) Morrissey has additionally been stripped of his regulation license – twice – and stays disbarred following a 2019 state Supreme Courtroom determination to uphold its revocation.

Benjamin, a Navy veteran and pastor, gained the GOP nomination at a celebration canvass on Saturday. That is his third bid for the seat, after dropping to McEachin final month and in 2020.