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Nothing like Black history being made during Black History Month!
On Tuesday (February 21), Virginia Democratic state Senator Jennifer McClellan overwhelmingly won Tuesday's special election for Virginia's 4th Congressional District, making her the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress.
“It still blows my mind that we’re having firsts in 2023,” McClellan said in an interview, per NBC News, additionally noting that her new district was also the first in Virginia to send a Black man to Congress — John Mercer Langston to the House of Representatives in 1888. “My ancestors fought really hard to have a seat at that table, and now not only will I have a seat at the table in Congress; I’ll be able to bring that policymaking table into communities that never really had a voice before.”
McClellan, a corporate attorney for Verizon, defeated Republican pastor Leon Benjamin, narrowing the GOP majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The attorney will fill the seat of Democratic Representative Donald McEachin, who died of complications from cancer weeks after he won re-election in November.
McClellan will become the 30th Black woman to join the current House of Representatives.
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