Trump’s policies dominate Virginia 11th District Congressional Race

Fairfax, go – He is not on the ballot, but President Donald Trump is slammed in the middle of the special elections of Tuesday congress in the suburbs of North Virginia in Washington, DC

The federal job discounts implemented by the Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government of Trump (DOGE), crime and immigration, transgender policies and even pressure to publish the files of the Ministry of Justice on the sexual offender sentenced to the end Jeffrey Epstein are also under the spotlight while the voters have made ballots in the district anchored of Fairfax.

James Walkinshaw, the candidate of the Democratic Party, told Fox News Digital that the scanning and controversial agenda that Trump had pushed during his first eight months to the White House will have a “real impact” on the special elections in the 11th district of the left congress in Virginia.

Republican candidate Stewart Whitson also says that Trump was under the spotlight because of “many large policies he defended”.

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The winner will succeed the late Democratic representative of a longtime democrat Gerry Connolly, who died in June after a battle against cancer.

The Republicans are currently controlling Chamber 219-212, with three seats controlled by vacant democrats, as well as that held by the GOP. And if Walkinshaw at the head of Whitson in a district, the Republicans have not won for almost two decades, it will reduce the fragile majority of the GOP.

In a district that houses tens of thousands of federal workers and entrepreneurs, many voters have been affected by the supports and layoffs implemented by DOGE.

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“The people of northern Virginia and Fairfax feel the impact of Trump’s policies. And I like to say that we are in a way at the forefront of the Trump economy here. Everyone in Fairfax knows someone, probably someone on their street, perhaps the parent of their child’s football team, who lost their jobs because of Doge or Trump policies”

Walkinshaw, a member of the Board of Directors of the County of Fairfax who previously was chief of staff of Connolly, argued that “if Trump’s policies continue, the prices, the so-called major bill, would be the case everywhere in the country. I therefore think that we are to the advantage.

The campaign panels for Republican Stewart Whitson and Democrat James Walkinshaw are seen on September 8, 2025 in Fairfax, Virginia, on the eve of a special election in the 11th district of the Virginia Congress. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)

Whitson, an army veteran and former FBI special agent who supervises federal affairs for a conservative reflection group, told Fox News Digital that “the inhabitants of our district who have lost their jobs or who fear losing their jobs, they do not need empathy. They need solutions”.

He said that Walkinshaw “claims that he will fight President Trump and fight the administration. And my argument for the voters of our district is: that will help? Will it help improve the situation? The answer is no.”

“We need someone to represent the inhabitants of our district who can work with any administration, whether republican or democrat,” said Whitson.

Powering federal workers and entrepreneurs who have lost their jobs, he said: “I want to find a way to bring them back. I also want to find other economic opportunities for them too.”

Although Trump is not very popular in the district – the president won only 31% of the votes in his re -election of the White House last year – Whitson said that Trump’s policies “focus on … common sense”.

President Donald Trump, seen in the oval office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Thursday, August 14, 2025, is not on the ballot in the special elections of the Tuesday congress in Virginia, but his program dominates discussions on the campaign track. (Will Oliver / EPA / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

And targeting the Democrats, he argued: “The people of our district realize that the radical left has just moved away from common sense … The radical policies they push to our children in camera, the imprudent policies on crime that make us less safe. These are problems that are important for our voters.”

Whitson, highlighting the current battle allowing transgender children to use public school bathrooms in certain schools in Fairfax, targeted Walkinshaw.

“My opponent thinks that it is a civilian right for men who identify like girls or women to go to our girls’ locker rooms and watch them change. I think all of this is upside down,” accused Whitson. “I think it is a civil law for girls and women when they see a bathroom sign in a bathroom they know that they can go there and be safe. And again, it comes back to common sense. I am a father with five children. Three of these children are girls.”

Walkinshaw accused that Whitson was “really obsessed with the way 1% of the children in our schools use the bathrooms, and what I mean from our community, and what I am focusing on is how 100% of our children can succeed in classrooms. Threats to draw federal funding, dismantling of the education department, threatens the performance of our children and I am focused. “

Whitson also tried to link Walkinshaw to Zohran Mamdani, the socialist candidate who rocked the political world in June by winning the appointment of the Democratic Party in New York.

Lubricating the Walkinshaw file and its proposals, Whitson billed: “It is someone who has a story to support a large part of the same type of policies that Mamdani supports. And I will therefore leave the voters … make the comparison.”

Asked about the comparison, Walkinshaw declared during his four months on the campaign track this summer, “not a single voter asked me questions about the election of the mayor of New York. I don’t care what’s going on during the election of the mayor of New York. I care what happens to people here in the 11th district.”

The candidate of the Republican Congress Stewart Whitson links the Democrat James Walkinshaw, his opponent in Tuesday’s special elections, to the candidate of the mayor of the Democratic Party, Zohran Mamdani, in New York (Photo). (Lev Radin / Pacific Press / Lightrocket via Getty Images)

But what Walkinshaw says he heard about the campaign track is the push of the Democrats and the Republicans so that the Ministry of Justice discloses files related to the Federal Epstein investigation, who died in prison six years ago while waiting for federal charges related to sex traffic.

“One of these things that I hear from democrats, self -employed and many republicans and conservatives who believed Donald Trump when he said that there was a concealment of the files during the administration of Biden. They took him, and now they wonder if they were lying.

And if he won the elections on Tuesday, Walkinshaw said he would immediately sign a discharge petition from the Ro Khanna Democratic representative of California and the republican representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky. The petition, which is currently only a few shy voices to pass, calls on the Chamber to vote to urge the Ministry of Justice to publish the files.

“I will absolutely sign it,” he said. “I think the American people deserves to know. I want to know what the Trump administration, if necessary, covers. And at the moment, the discharge petition is the vehicle to do so.”

Whitson argued that “my opponent is really late for the game on this subject” and that there are “months, I called for a complete disclosure of all the recordings of Epstein files”.

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Whitson underlined his years as a federal officer responsible for the application of laws in declassing documents and accused that Walkinshaw uses the problem as a political weapon.

“How long has this matter has been going on, and now he finally wants to reach these files. And so what does that mean?

Fox News Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.