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Elections aside, Richmond leaders agree McEachin will be hard to replace [1]
['Michael Martz Richmond Times-Dispatch', 'Michael Martz', 'Bob Brown', 'The Times-Dispatch', 'Daniel Sangjib Min Times-Dispatc', 'Bob Brown Times-Dispatch']
Date: 2022-11
When Henrico Supervisor Tyrone Nelson’s father died in August, Rep. Donald McEachin, D-4th, took an inconspicuous seat on the back pew at Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Jackson Ward, where Nelson is pastor.
“That was his way of saying, ‘I’m here for you,’” Nelson said Tuesday.
McEachin’s death on Monday was a personal blow to members of the Black community in the Richmond area, who long had looked to him as a political leader and mentor.
“I don’t know if you can replace someone like Donald McEachin,” said Nelson, who was first elected to the Henrico Board of Supervisors in 2011 with the future congressman's help.
Still, once the mourning subsides, Virginia Democrats and Republicans will begin preparing to compete for the 4th District seat that McEachin had held for six years, with a new two-year term set to begin in early January after his victory early this month.
“Until a new representative is elected, our office will remain open and continue to serve our constituents," Tara Rountree, the congressman's chief of staff, said in a statement announcing McEachin's death on Monday night.
'A day to really focus on the congressman'
Gov. Glenn Youngkin will set the date for a special election, but he said Tuesday that now is not the time for politics.
"We will make decisions with regards to the special election," Youngkin said in remarks after dedication of toll lanes on Interstate 66 in Northern Virginia. "Today, we're really focused on remembering the great contributions that [McEachin] made."
"There are folks that I'm going to want to listen to as to the best time in order to call this," the governor added. "I want to make sure that Virginians are represented ... but today's a day to really focus on the congressman."
Rich Anderson, chair of the Republican Party of Virginia, said he expects party organizations to determine the method for selecting nominees through their 4th District committees.
"I'm sure the two parties, in the interest of speed, will do their own processes," Anderson said Tuesday.
Leon Benjamin, a South Richmond pastor whom McEachin had beaten twice by wide margins, has not indicated whether he would seek the Republican nomination for the seat a third time.
“We’ll keep our options open,” Benjamin said in an interview on Tuesday, while offering prayers for McEachin’s family.
In a statement on Facebook on Monday night, he said McEachin’s “accomplishments and achievements will be remembered and cherished in Virginia and around this Nation,” and commended him for his long fight against cancer and its effects.
“He will be remembered as a hero who stood his ground in that hard fought battle,” Benjamin said.
On the Democratic side, McEachin was chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus when Susan Swecker became state party chair in 2015. She had known him from political campaigns before he won public office, so she was focused more on his memory than his congressional seat on Tuesday.
"When you have someone who has been such a big part of your life for such a long time ... the impact of the loss is really hard to absorb in less than 24 hours," Swecker said.
"As the good book says, for everything there is a season, and this will be a season to mourn and share your remembrances of good times and great accomplishments in the legacy of Donald McEachin," she added.
Del. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, is a potential Democratic candidate to run for McEachin’s seat, but he didn’t want to talk about politics on Tuesday as he coped with the death of someone he described as "beyond a mentor."
Instead, Bagby remembered how McEachin “always encouraged me and pushed me to get married.”
“I’m grateful he made it to my wedding” in late October, he said.
Like Nelson, Bagby owes his start in politics to McEachin, who was the first to endorse him in his bid for Henrico County School Board in 2007.
“No one knew who Lamont Bagby was, period, and I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said, “but he coached me through it.”
“He did a lot for me, but I’m sure he did the same for others,” Bagby said. “It inspires me to help people along the way.”
'Everyone saw him fighting'
McEachin, Bagby and Nelson share common ancestry in Gravel Hill, a community in eastern Henrico that formed from the emancipation of slaves before the Civil War.
Bagby, first elected to the House of Delegates in 2015, is now chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, now with 21 members from both chambers. In early October, McEachin arranged for him to chair a panel discussion with the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington.
“He was a little weak, so he sat in the front row and just listened,” he said.
McEachin’s long struggle with the effects of cancer treatment was no secret, although he kept the details of his health private and never let it stop him from focusing on his work, both in Congress and the community.
“Everyone saw him fighting,” Bagby said. “He kept telling me, ‘Don’t count me out.’”
Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, who holds McEachin's old seat in the Virginia Senate, last saw him at the dedication of the Skipjack Solar Power Center in Charles City County.
"He seemed much stronger than the last time I'd seen him," she said. "I think everyone thought he had beat it."
McClellan also is a potential Democratic candidate in the 4th District, although her Senate seat will be crucial to a Democratic firewall in the impending General Assembly session against legislation to ban or restrict abortion.
She wouldn't talk about politics on Tuesday. "That's something I just can't think about today," she said in an interview. "I'm just remembering my friend."
McClellan first knew McEachin when she was a young lawyer and then as leader of the Metro Richmond Area Young Democrats, which she founded the year after he entered the House of Delegates for the first time in 1996.
She was chair of the Democratic Third District Committee when McEachin ran for attorney general in 2001 - the first African American to receive a major party nomination for the office in Virginia. He lost, but returned to the House in 2006, with McClellan in the same class of newly elected delegates.
"He was almost like a lion," she recalled. "When he felt anyone was discriminated against ... he would get up and roar."
At the same time, McClellan said, "He was also the gentle giant, who had a great sense of humor."
Whether it was fighting for money to combat climate change in the Inflation Reduction Act, getting federal money to restore the Ettrick train station or expand high-speed internet in Charles City, "they were equally important to him," McClellan said.
"He didn't take himself too seriously, but he definitely took the job seriously and helping people seriously," she said.
When McEachin was elected to Congress in 2016, McClellan won his seat in the Virginia Senate.
"I succeeded him," she said, "but I could never replace him."
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[1] Url:
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