Jennifer McClellan makes history as the first Black woman elected to Congress in Virginia

Democrat Jennifer McClellan has made history as the first Black woman elected to signify Virginia in Congress, NBC Information projected Tuesday.McClellan, a state senator, defeated Republican Leon Benjamin in Tuesday’s particular election in the 4th Congressional District. She’s going to fill the seat of Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin, who died from most cancers shortly after he gained re-election in November. “It nonetheless blows my thoughts that we’re having firsts in 2023,” McClellan mentioned in an interview. “My ancestors fought actually arduous to have a seat at that desk, and not solely will I’ve a seat at the desk in Congress; I’ll find a way to convey that policymaking desk into communities that by no means actually had a voice earlier than.”McClellan was closely favored to win in the reliably blue district, which covers Richmond and reaches counties bordering North Carolina. President Joe Biden gained 67.1% of the vote in 2020, and the nonpartisan Cook dinner Political Report rated the Home race as Stable Democrat.McClellan will be part of 29 different Black girls in the Home. There aren’t any Black girls in the Senate.“I really feel a duty to guarantee I’m not the final,” she mentioned.The White Home mentioned Biden known as McClellan Tuesday night time “as she was headed to her historic win.” Biden “seems ahead to working with the Congresswoman-elect,” the White Home added.McClellan served 11 years in the Home of Delegates and has been a member of the state Senate since 2017. She ran for governor in 2021, shedding in a five-person main to Terry McAuliffe, who finally misplaced to Republican Glenn Youngkin.McClellan’s marketing campaign centered on her legislative victories, highlighting efforts to shield voting rights and home employees — points that resonated along with her household’s experiences and that she mentioned helped form her coverage views.She mentioned her dedication to voting rights stems in half from the challenges relations confronted in their efforts to vote. Voting officers tried to cease her great-grandfather from voting in Alabama due to his efforts as a Black group chief and trainer, she mentioned. She additionally mentioned her grandfather was pressured to take a literacy take a look at earlier than he might vote.“I introduced these experiences and people tales with me into the public coverage enviornment,” McClellan mentioned, including that her household’s wrestle enabled her to “be a voice that for a very long time was lacking in the halls of the Normal Meeting.”In 2021, as Republican-led states handed laws to prohibit voting rights, McClellan co-sponsored Virginia’s voting rights regulation to shield parts of the Voting Rights Act the Supreme Courtroom struck down in 2013.As a state senator, McClellan additionally helped cross the Home Employees Invoice of Rights and has mentioned she plans to push for related laws in Congress, though such a invoice be would doubtless to fail in the Republican-controlled Home.As she was campaigning, she highlighted a household background with roots as home employees, till her mom grew to become the first in her household to proceed her schooling past eighth grade.McClellan mentioned she sees her win as a continuation of that struggle.“I understand that in plenty of methods, I’m combating the identical struggle that my mother and my grandmother and my great-grandmother fought, and slightly than getting despondent over that or giving up, I dig deeper,” she mentioned. “I’ve acquired to hold combating these fights so my daughter doesn’t have to.” McClellan’s marketing campaign additionally touched on abortion rights, which was a key situation for Democrats in final 12 months’s midterm elections. She pledged to help passage of a federal regulation to codify Roe v. Wade.Benjamin, a pastor and Navy veteran who can also be Black, had painted himself as an advocate for non secular freedom and an anti-abortion candidate opposed to educating important race principle in lecture rooms.Benjamin, who twice misplaced to McEachin, refused to concede his election loss in 2020, citing election irregularities.Final month, Benjamin — who had campaigned on a message that division was destroying America — confronted backlash over a Fb submit from 2011 in which he promoted New Life Harvest Church, the place he’s a pastor, and urged individuals to convey their “sick, illness, homosexual, gay, lesbian, transvestite, bipolar, alcoholic, drug habit buddies and love ones.”MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart pressed Benjamin about the situation in an interview final month, asking him how he would ship on a marketing campaign promise to serve as a “bridge” in Congress in mild of his social media submit. “I believe that the LGBTQ and the homosexuals are coping with excessive fuel costs, inflation, the excessive crime, the schooling,” Benjamin mentioned. “I do not assume my opponent has the compassion for all individuals, however I do.”