Voters in Virginia’s 11th District sent a Democrat to Congress for the first time in 16 years on Tuesday, handing Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly a victory over a long-shot Republican challenger.
Connolly, a well-established name in Northern Virginia politics, will replace retiring Rep. Tom Davis, who opted not to seek an eighth term earlier this year after scuttling a bid for U.S. Senate. Much in the same way a Republican revolution swept Davis into office in 1994, Connolly’s win is part of a broader victory for Democrats fueled by national dissatisfaction with the sitting president’s party.
“They said enough, begone, you had your day, it’s time for a change,” Connolly said at an election night event in Tysons Corner.
Keith Fimian, a Republican businessman who was largely unknown when he entered the congressional race, had essentially matched Connolly in fundraising but lagged in name recognition. Connolly had already spent much of his war chest overcoming a vicious primary challenge from former Rep. Leslie Byrne, who held the seat for one term before Davis.
Fimian attacked Connolly for raising money from contractors and developers with business before the Board of Supervisors and presiding over a $500 million budget shortfall. Connolly seized, however, on Fimian’s arch-conservative Catholic ties to drive a wedge between him and the district’s increasingly left-leaning constituency.
It’s doubtful if any non-incumbent Republican could have won the 11th District this year, and several political experts had questioned whether Davis would have struggled in a re-election bid. The influential Republican has seen his margins of victory shrink in the two elections since 2002, and in 2006 he beat political newcomer Andrew Hurst by an unexpectedly tight margin. His wife — Jeannemarie Devolites Davis — lost her Virginia Senate seat to a Democrat a year later.
