Virginia Rep. Donald McEachin dies at 61

[JoeOtterbein]

Source: Politico

Rep. Donald McEachin has died, his office announced on Monday.

The Virginia Democrat had been battling cancer since 2013, his chief of staff, Tara Rountree, said in a statement. He was 61.

“Valiantly for years now, we have watched him fight and triumph over the secondary effects of his colorectal cancer from 2013,” Rountree said. “Tonight, he lost that battle.”

McEachin, whose district was based in Richmond, the state capital, was reelected earlier this month with 64 percent of the vote against Republican challenger Leon Benjamin. He had been first elected to Congress in 2016 after serving in both the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/28/virginia-democrat-donald-mceachin-dies-00071071

[yankee87]

1. Sad

Prayers to family

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

2. My congressman.

May his memory be a blessing.

[TigressDem]

3. With the R pickup Gov getting to appoint someone interm?

Youngkin?

[hedda_foil]

4. That's only for the Senate. Special elections are scheduled for House members.

However, the scheduling of said special election depends on the state.

[TigressDem]

12. Thank Goodness.

Appreciate the clarification.

[AverageOldGuy]

8. Special election

Code of Virginia 24.2-209 requires governor to call a special election in the case of a vacancy in the House of Representatives.

Rep. McEachin represented the Sixth Congressional district, which is a strong Democratic district.

McEachin was popular both in and outside his district.

The Republican who challenged him in November (and who lost big time) was "Bishop" Leon Benjamin who is the Exec Director of "Virginians For America First". VFAF is a shell organization, sponsored and paid for by the GOP's "America Project," whose focus is "election fraud" and whose activities are focused on "investigating" elections in Virginia and trying to place observers and poll workers in Virginia polling places -- didn't work.

[TigressDem]

13. Sounds hopeful.

America First - what a NAZI dog whistle phrase.

[49erCat]

16. There's a credit union in Vegas called America First

Maybe in other places, too. When I was looking to open a credit union account, I chose a different one because of that name.

[bottomofthehill]

5. He was a good man who fought a long battle.

[Grins]

6. He shouldn't have run for reelection.

Why he did I don’t know, but he shouldn’t have. He left a political problem.

[Sky Jewels]

7. Agree.

[aeromanKC]

10. Dems lost a vote for Speaker

Which also gives R's another vote to play around with against McCarthy.

[madville]

15. Doesn't change anything, they still need 218

McCarthy still has to get 218 votes regardless. Unless you meant the fantasy where 5 Republicans defected in order to elect someone of the Democrats’ choosing.

[Jose Garcia]

11. The same thing happened a year ago in FL

The Congressman ran for reelection despite having stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The Governor dragged his feet to call a special election. We went a whole year without any representation because of two selfish men.

[TigressDem]

14. Probably because he knew DEMs needed a win.

Let's not blame a cancer victim for having the courage to do the right thing even though it cost him his life.