James Robert Walkinshaw (born October 22, 1982) is an American politician and former congressional aide serving as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 11th congressional district since September 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors from the Braddock District from 2020 until his resignation in 2025.
A native of Northern Virginia, Walkinshaw began a political career in the late 2000s. From 2009 to 2019, he served as the chief of staff to U.S. Representative Gerry Connolly. In 2019, he was elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, and re-elected in 2023.
When Connolly announced his retirement from Congress in 2025, he endorsed Walkinshaw to succeed him. Connolly died from cancer shortly afterwards, and Walkinshaw became the party's nominee for the special election to finish his term. Walkinshaw won the special election on September 9, 2025, defeating Republican Stewart Whitson.
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Early life and education
Walkinshaw was born in 1982 in Arlington County, Virginia and grew up in Prince William County. He graduated from New York University in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in politics.
Early political career
Following his graduation from New York University, Walkinshaw became involved in Democratic politics in Northern Virginia, managing Gerry Connolly's 2007 campaign for Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Connolly's successful 2008 campaign for the United States House of Representatives. Walkinshaw served as Connolly's chief of staff from 2009 until 2019.
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
In 2019, Walkinshaw was elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, succeeding John C. Cook to represent the Braddock District. He chaired the Board's Legislative Committee and Environmental Committee, the VRE Operations Board, and the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board. He was re-elected in 2023.
During his tenure on the board, Walkinshaw pushed for Fairfax County to transition its vehicle fleet to electric or hybrid vehicles, supported a prohibition on firearms in county buildings, and helped advance the county's first collective-bargaining ordinance. He also worked to advance a long-delayed project to install solar panels at a county landfill in Lorton, including securing the state legislative approval required for the project.
Walkinshaw represented Fairfax County on the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board beginning in 2020. He served as the board's vice chair and as chair of its Access for All Advisory Committee in 2024, and was elected chair of the Transportation Planning Board for 2025.
U.S. House of Representatives (2025–present)
2025 U.S House campaign
In April 2025, Representative Gerry Connolly announced that he would not seek reelection in 2026 due to health concerns. Smitty Connolly, his wife, publicly shared that Connolly had asked to meet with Walkinshaw following his decision to not seek reelection, and asked him to consider running to succeed him. Smitty confirmed that Connolly had asked his long-time chief of staff to run for Congress after learning that his cancer had returned. Walkinshaw announced his candidacy later that week, and Connolly endorsed him. On May 21, 2025, Connolly died from esophageal cancer, and Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin announced a special election to fill the seat, set for September 9, 2025.
The Democratic Party selected its nominee in the race through a firehouse primary on June 28, 2025. The primary drew criticism from some candidates, including Stella Pekarsky and Irene Shin, who said that the compressed timeline and decision to not use ranked-choice voting gave Walkinshaw an unfair advantage. Despite criticism over the timing, the Fairfax County Democratic Committee (FCDC) pushed back, emphasizing that the election calendar and format was largely shaped by constraints set in motion by Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Under Virginia law, special elections must take place on a Tuesday and at least 55 days before a regularly scheduled primary or general election. With statewide elections for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general set for November 4, Youngkin selected the latest Tuesday available within that legal window for the special election.
The FCDC Chair acknowledged the challenges of holding a primary during the height of summer travel but expressed confidence that turnout would remain high. He pointed to the strong Democratic performance in the State-wide Democratic primary the previous Tuesday.
The VA-11 2025 Democratic firehouse primary was the most participated-in special primary in Virginia's history, with 37,264 votes.
In the final days before the Democratic primary, Connolly's official campaign and social media accounts, which had been inactive since his death, shared endorsements for Walkinshaw. The posts sparked additional criticism from commentators and rival campaigns who questioned the ethics of using Connolly's online persona for campaign purposes.
Tenure
Shortly after taking office in September 2025, Walkinshaw assumed lead sponsorship of four federal-workforce bills previously sponsored by his predecessor, Gerry Connolly. The measures included the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act, which proposed annual pay increases for federal employees; the Equal COLA Act, concerning cost-of-living adjustments for federal retirees; the Family Building FEHB Fairness Act, which would expand fertility-treatment coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program; and the Saving the Civil Service Act, which sought to restrict the creation of new federal job schedules that remove civil-service protections without congressional approval.
In February 2026, Walkinshaw, Representative Steny Hoyer, and Senator Chris Van Hollen launched the Federal Workforce Caucus, a bicameral caucus focused on federal workforce issues and the merit-based civil service.
Walkinshaw has also worked on federal information technology and cybersecurity oversight. In June 2026, he and Republican representative Don Bacon introduced legislation that would require the Department of Homeland Security to report to Congress on gaps preventing the department from fully meeting federal event-logging requirements. That month, Walkinshaw also outlined proposals to resume and modernize the FITARA scorecard, strengthen federal cybersecurity and technology oversight, and address the use of artificial intelligence in federal agencies.
Committee assignments
Walkinshaw's committee assignments for the 119th Congress include:
Committee on Homeland Security
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Caucus memberships
Congressional Equality Caucus
New Democrat Coalition
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
House Baltic Caucus
Rare Disease Caucus
Political positions
Economic issues
Walkinshaw opposes the tariff and trade policies of the second Trump administration. He has also criticized the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, saying that over 320,000 Virginians would lose healthcare access as a result of the bill and that he would work to repeal the bill.
Education
Walkinshaw says that curriculum decisions "are made and should be made at the local and to some degree state level" and has dismissed claims that the United States Department of Education determines curriculum in local school districts. He opposes President Donald Trump's efforts to "dismantle" the Department of Education.
Federal workers
Walkinshaw represents the 11th congressional district in Northern Virginia, which is home to a large number of federal workers.
Walkinshaw denounced Trump's cuts at federal agencies, saying federal workers are "under attack" by the administration. He believes Congress should launch aggressive investigations against the second Trump administration through independent inspectors general and the Government Accountability Office to uncover the extent of the damage done to the federal government and federal workforce.
Foreign policy
Walkinshaw supports providing aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia. He has criticized Trump's "on-again-off-again support" for Ukraine and called it beneficial to Russia and harmful to America's European allies.
Walkinshaw has described Israel as a "key U.S. ally strategically" and supports maintaining U.S. military assistance to the country. However, he has also called for a ceasefire to its war in Gaza and criticized the country for blocking humanitarian aid to the territory. In 2026, he voted against an amendment by Thomas Massie to a State Department appropriations bill to eliminate all regularly appropriated US aid to Israel, but stated that he supported conditioning military aid for Israel.
Walkinshaw believes that diplomacy is essential in preventing Iran from producing nuclear weapons. He called the Trump administration's military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites "unconstitutional".
Walkinshaw says Trump is "on the right path" when it comes to challenging China's economic power, but is not "addressing it in a strategic way." He objects to Trump's trade and tariff policies but agrees with his argument that China "has been operating unfairly within the global trade and economic regime for a long time".
Immigration
Walkinshaw opposes the immigration policy of the second Trump administration, saying that "Trump's agenda to terrorize and deport law-abiding families is a distraction from focusing on the small number who commit violent crimes". He supports comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship.
Abortion
Walkinshaw is pro-choice.
Personal life
Walkinshaw lives in Annandale, Virginia with his wife, Yvette Peña and their son.