By Molly English, Ethan Cohen, CNN
(CNN) — Voters in northern Virginia will head to the polls on Tuesday for a special election that House Democrats hope will bolster their numbers in the chamber and cut down on an already slim Republican majority.
With a Democratic win Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson would only be able to afford to lose two Republicans on party-line votes as opposed to three.
The election in the 11th Congressional District is being held to fill longtime Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly’s seat. Connolly died from cancer in May.
Democrat James Walkinshaw, Connolly’s former chief of staff and a Fairfax County supervisor, is heavily favored. Walkinshaw faces Republican Stewart Whitson, a military veteran and former FBI special agent currently working as a lobbyist.
Situated in the suburbs of Washington, DC, the district includes a large swath of Fairfax County and is home to thousands of federal workers. It voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris over President Donald Trump by 34 percentage points in the 2024 election. Connolly sailed to reelection by that same margin.
House Democrats hope to add back to their ranks after a string of member deaths has given the GOP some breathing room with the party’s slim majority in the chamber. Connolly was the third House Democrat to die while in office this year after Reps. Sylvester Turner of Texas and Raul Grijalva of Arizona both died in March. Tennessee Republican Mark Green stepped down in July, putting the current House breakdown at 219 Republicans to 212 Democrats.
It’s possible all three of the Democratic vacancies will get filled before Green is replaced in December, putting more pressure on the narrow GOP majority. The election to replace Grijalva is set for September 23 and the special election in Turner’s district is scheduled for November 4: both seats are expected to stay in Democratic hands.
The arrival of those Democrats could mean a timely advantage for House members looking to force a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. The bipartisan discharge petition led by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna needs 218 signatures to move forward, and the congressmen maintain they have 216 signatures so far without the two likely Democratic members joining the chamber this month.
“We have the 218 votes. 216 already support it,” Khanna said in an interview with ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “There are two vacancies that haven’t been reported as much, but two Democrats are going to be joining, and they are both committed to signing it. That’s going to happen by the end of September.”
CNN’s Alison Main contributed to this report.
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