{"id":47233,"date":"2025-09-10T23:08:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T04:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=47233"},"modified":"2025-09-11T01:31:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:31:05","slug":"virginia-democrat-sworn-into-house-narrowing-johnsons-razor-thin-margin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=47233","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Democrat sworn into House, narrowing Johnson\u2019s razor-thin margin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw (D) on Wednesday was sworn in to the House, further narrowing House Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-La.) razor-thin majority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHonored to be sworn in today to represent VA-11 in Congress. Fairfax families will always come first. Grateful to my wife Yvette and our son Mateo for their love and support every step of the way,\u201d Walkinshaw said<\/u><\/a> Wednesday in a post on social platform X. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Walkinshaw, the former chief of staff of the late Rep. Gerry Connolly\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D), sworn in, Johnson\u2019s majority has narrowed to 219-213, meaning he can only afford to lose two GOP votes on any party-line bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three vacant seats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walkinshaw is the newest member of the lower chamber. He comfortably defeated<\/u><\/a> Republican Stewart Whitson, a former FBI agent, in a special election to become the next lawmaker to represent Virginia\u2019s 11th Congressional District. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ratio between Democrats and Republicans has changed numerous times since the 119th Congress began, due to vacancies resulting from the resignations or deaths of lawmakers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson has had some breathing room when passing major legislation this year. The House passed<\/u><\/a> President Trump\u2002<\/u><\/a>massive tax and spending cuts legislation earlier this year, which was ultimately signed into law<\/u><\/a> by the president, with Johnson losing two GOP votes on the final passage \u2013 Reps. Thomas Massie\u2002<\/u><\/a>(Ky.) and Brian Fitzpatrick\u2002<\/u><\/a>(Pa.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next major legislative battle will be over government funding, with the deadline set for the end of this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw (D) on Wednesday was sworn in to the House, further narrowing House Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s\u2002(R-La.) razor-thin majority.  \u201cHonored to be sworn in today to represent VA-11 in Congress. Fairfax families will always come first. Grateful to my wife Yvette and our son Mateo for their love and support every step of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":47234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2277,21502,1878,1514],"class_list":["post-47233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-democrat","tag-house","tag-johnson","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47235,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47233\/revisions\/47235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}