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RICHMOND — Former Virginia House speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) said Wednesday that she will run for Congress in the 10th District, where Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D) has decided not to seek reelection next year for health reasons.
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Filler-Corn had earlier decided not to run again this fall for the House of Delegates seat that she has occupied since 2010 and was intending to run for governor in 2025. But she said in announcing for Congress that Wexton’s decision, based on a diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy, had changed her thinking.
Rep. Wexton will not seek reelection as diagnosis changes
“First and foremost, I was truly devastated to learn of my friend Jennifer Wexton’s recent diagnosis,” Filler-Corn, 59, said in a news release. She added that recent world events, including the breakdown of leadership among Republicans in Congress and the eruption of war in Israel, had motivated her to get into the race.
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“As a Jewish American, I have deeply felt the tragedies of the past few weeks. Congress has been left rudderless at a time of global uncertainty. The American people and our allies abroad deserve better than this,” Filler-Corn said.
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Wexton, 55, had won a third term last year but announced last month that after coping with what she initially thought was Parkinson’s disease, her medical outlook had worsened and would interfere with her ability to run again next year. Wexton’s victory in the district in 2018 against Republican Barbara Comstock had ended 40 years of GOP control of the seat.
The Loudoun-based district is not considered reliably blue though, and the opening creates the potential for a highly competitive race. Several other Democrats have been mentioned as possible contenders, including delegates Dan Helmer (Fairfax) and David A. Reid (Loudoun).
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No Republican has yet announced for the race.
A 400-year first: Filler-Corn breaks many barriers as new Democratic leader in Virginia’s House
In 2019, Filler-Corn became the first woman and first Jewish person to serve as speaker in the 400-plus-year history of Virginia’s House. Her two years in that role came as a historic blue surge gave Democrats full control of the General Assembly and the governor’s mansion for the first time in a generation.
While she was speaker, the state shifted sharply to the left on a number of major issues, including abolishing the death penalty, legalizing small amounts of recreational marijuana, tightening gun restrictions and passing ambitious clean energy goals.
After Democrats lost their House of Delegates majority in the 2021 elections, though, Filler-Corn was unseated as the party’s floor leader, in part over accusations by some that she had not shared enough of her enormous campaign fundraising with other candidates. This year, even as she had announced plans to retire, Filler-Corn has kept up a rigorous schedule of fundraising and campaigning for other Democrats as they seek to win back the majority.
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