Jennifer McClellan

McClellan, a state senator, defeated Republican Leon Benjamin in Tuesday's special election in the 4th Congressional District. She will fill the seat of ...

[ touched on abortion rights](https://jennifermcclellan.com/issue/health-care-and-abortion-access/), which was a key issue for Democrats in last year's midterm elections. "I don't think my opponent has the compassion for all people, but I do." Voting officials tried to stop her great-grandfather from voting in Alabama because of his efforts as a Black community leader and teacher, she said. She pledged to support passage of a federal law to codify Roe v. She ran for governor in 2021, losing in a five-person primary to Terry McAuliffe, who ultimately lost to Republican Glenn Youngkin. "I've got to keep fighting those fights so my daughter doesn't have to." There are no Black women in the Senate. She also said her grandfather was forced to take a literacy test before he could vote. "It still blows my mind that we're having firsts in 2023," McClellan said in an interview. [Domestic Workers Bill of Rights](https://www.nbc29.com/2021/03/03/virginia-th-state-pass-domestic-worker-protections/) and [ has said](https://www.essence.com/news/virginia-jennifer-mcclellan-congress/) she plans to push for [similar legislation](https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/2112/text) in Congress, although such a bill be would likely to fail in the Republican-controlled House. She will fill the seat of Democratic Rep. [ won](https://www.cookpolitical.com/house/race/310926#race-id) 67.1% of the vote in 2020, and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated the House race as [ Solid Democrat](https://www.cookpolitical.com/house/race/310926).

McClellan won the seat left vacant by the death of Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin, who died of the secondary effects of colorectal cancer in November.

And so I will bring my expertise on those issues and continue to work on those issues in Congress," she said. The two did not meet for a debate, and McClellan largely focused her message on her legislative record rather than highlighting Benjamin's positions. She's been active in the state Democratic Party since she was in college and met her husband, David Mills, through politics. The contest between McClellan and Benjamin, a pastor and Navy veteran who as a commentator has espoused conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic and voter fraud, was not seen as competitive, though McClellan said she took nothing for granted. ... They saw the best of government through the New Deal and they saw the worst of government through Jim Crow. Had to be a part of it," voter Rashida Mitchell said of the ballot she cast for McClellan on Tuesday afternoon. That experience, McClellan said, helped her pivot quickly to this race and the high-speed December nominating contest that lasted just over a week. McClellan also followed in McEachin's footsteps when she moved up to the state Senate. "She's done great things for the city of Richmond, for the commonwealth as a whole." McClellan said breaking that barrier in Virginia carries extra weight because of her family's history in the Jim Crow South. "We will make this commonwealth and this country a better place for everyone," McClellan said in a victory speech at a party with supporters in Richmond. Donald McEachin, who died after a long fight with the secondary effects of colorectal cancer in November, weeks after winning election to a fourth term.

McClellan has been a leading proponent for state funding of school construction, which would mostly benefit rural Virginia.

McClellan certainly wasn’t the only one pushing the Clean Economy Act — it was very much a group enterprise, but her name was on the bill, so the rise of solar in Virginia is very much one of her legacies. In the late ’90s, it was Democrats who were the most insistent on school spending, because there were a lot of rural Democrats in those days (then-Del. (She took 6.3% of the vote in Russell County in the 2021 Democratic primary for governor, 8.8% in Wise County, both well below her statewide total of 11.7%.) Jim Gilmore was pushing his car tax plan (a tax cut plan), Democrats used their leverage to push for a modest infusion of state funding for school construction — and won a temporary infusion of $110 million. Jim Edmunds, R-Halifax County — who pushed unsuccessfully to add Prince Edward County to that list of localities that can vote on whether to tax themselves for school construction. With that shift, many Democrats seemed to lose their enthusiasm for state funding for school construction — it wasn’t their problem anymore. He and others in the Byrd Machine were forced into this by anti-Byrd crusader Francis Pickens Miller, who came close to upsetting Battle in the 1949 Democratic primary by running on a platform of state funding for school construction.) [In one famous exchange ](https://cardinalnews.org/2022/02/01/will-youngkin-get-serious-about-schools/)on the House floor in 1998, then-Del. A brief history is in order: The state has historically not gotten into the business of funding school construction, leaving that to localities. Augustine settlement in Florida in 1565), and a state that didn’t ratify the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote until 1952, some 32 years after it was already in effect. McClellan unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in 2021 (in hindsight, how many Democrats regret nominating Terry McAuliffe?) and was widely expected to seek the nomination again in 2025. With all but a few precincts reporting, McClellan was pulling 72% of the vote to just under 28% for Republican Leon Benjamin.