{"id":9858,"date":"2025-06-03T14:32:36","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T14:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/youngkin-sets-september-virginia-special-election-for-connollys-seat\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T14:32:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T14:32:36","slug":"youngkin-sets-september-virginia-special-election-for-connollys-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/youngkin-sets-september-virginia-special-election-for-connollys-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Youngkin sets September Virginia special election for Connolly\u2019s seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Virginians are set to vote for the late Rep. Gerry Connolly\u2019s successor in a special election on Sept. 9.<\/p>\n<p>Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday called for a special election to fill the northern Virginia seat left vacant after the longtime lawmaker\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/05\/21\/gerry-connolly-obituary-virginia-congress-oversight-00326209\" target=\"_blank\">passing on May 21<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Virginia\u2019s 11th district is deep blue and will almost assuredly elect another Democrat.<\/p>\n<p>The special election will be the third this fall to fill vacancies left by the passing of Democratic lawmakers. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2025\/04\/07\/congress\/texas-special-election-set-for-november-00277396\" target=\"_blank\">set a Nov. 4 special election<\/a> to replace Rep. Sylvester Turner in April, following consternation among statewide Democrats, who threatened to sue the governor over the monthlong delay in setting the date.<\/p>\n<p>Arizona voters will also wait to find a successor for Rep. Ra\u00fal Grijalva, with Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eenews.net\/articles\/arizona-sets-september-special-election-for-grijalvas-seat\/\" target=\"_blank\">setting a Sept. 23 special election date<\/a> after Grijalva\u2019s March 13 passing. Arizona state law generally requires a longer timeline for a special election than many other states.<\/p>\n<p>Connolly, who had battled with esophageal cancer, had announced on April 28 that he would not seek reelection to represent the heavily Democratic D.C. suburb in 2026. In early May, the Virginian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/05\/06\/gerry-connolly-former-chief-of-staff-seat-00332592\" target=\"_blank\">endorsed his former aide<\/a>, James Walkinshaw, for the job. But the field is already getting crowded, with <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Virginia%27s_11th_Congressional_District_election,_2026\" target=\"_blank\">five other Democrats and two Republicans<\/a> also tossing their hats in the ring.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virginians are set to vote for the late Rep. Gerry Connolly\u2019s successor in a special election on Sept. 9. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday called for a special election to fill the northern Virginia seat left vacant after the longtime lawmaker\u2019s passing on May 21. Virginia\u2019s 11th district is deep blue and will almost [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}