Who's In the Race

Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) faces Republican Arthur Grahame Purves in the November 3 general election in Virginia's 11th District. ​

Walkinshaw, who is serving his first term in the U.S. House, previously worked more than a decade as chief of staff to Rep. Gerry Connolly and spent about five years on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, from 2020 to September 2025.

Purves is a retired computer programmer who says he worked in the profession for 40 years and has served as president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance for 29 years.

Both the Democratic and Republican primaries were uncontested.

What They Stand For

Walkinshaw has proposed expanding health coverage toward universal health care, including a public option in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces and lowering the Medicare eligibility age, according to his campaign website. He's also supported:

  • Protecting Social Security and Medicare from cuts, and requiring the wealthiest Americans to contribute more to strengthen Social Security rather than reducing middle-class benefits,
  • Voting-rights legislation, including the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and protections for election workers from intimidation,
  • Immigration-enforcement reforms including body cameras, visible agency identification, judicial warrants before home entry, and protections for sensitive locations; and
  • Requiring large energy users such as data centers to pay their fair share of electricity costs rather than shifting those costs to families and small businesses.

Purves has argued that federal deficits and spending can be reduced without cutting programs, proposing prevention of chronic disease through eating "real food," according to his campaign website. He's also supported:

  • Opposing policies he says raise fossil-fuel costs, arguing that climate policy has little effect on atmospheric carbon dioxide and is not warranted by a climate crisis,
  • Opposing mail-in ballots, which he says "enable election fraud,"
  • Vetting immigrants before entry, with emphasis on excluding drug and sex traffickers and gang members; and
  • Restricting abortion to rare cases to save the mother's life, along with school vouchers and placing the Ten Commandments in public schools.

Race Outlook: Ratings and Betting Markets

All three major race-rating services call this contest a safe hold for Democrats. Cook Political Report rated the race "Solid Democratic" as of Oct. 9; Sabato's Crystal Ball rated it "Solid Democratic" as of Oct. 11; and Inside Elections rated it "Solid Democratic" as of Oct. 2. On Kalshi, traders gave Democrats, whose nominee is Walkinshaw, a 97.97% chance of winning as of Oct. 15.

Democrat Gerald E. Connolly carried Virginia's 11th District with about 67% of the vote in both 2022 and 2024. Virginia's congressional delegation held steady at six Democrats and five Republicans in both 2022 and 2024. Democrat Kamala Harris carried Virginia in the 2024 presidential election with about 52% of the vote.

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