Virginia elects its first African American congresswoman, Jennifer McClellan
By Jennifer McClellan
RICHMOND, VA – Congresswoman-elect Jennifer McClellan delivered the following speech (video here) after winning the 4th Congressional District special election:
“I cannot start without first paying tribute to our dear friend Donald McEachin. I want to thank him for his service and thank Colette for sharing him with us and for giving me her blessing to embark on this journey to continue his legacy. He is with us in this room.
“Thank you to the best campaign staff in Virginia. Thank you to the volunteers that turned out the week before Christmas and in the middle of Hanukkah. Thank you to my family for coming with me in this next chapter, it started out pretty crazy. Thank you to my current colleagues and my past colleagues in the General Assembly, my fellow senators. I was working today; I passed two bills today!
“Thank you to the Virginia Young Democrats where I got my start. Thank you to the Virginia Democratic delegation: Bobby, Abigail, Tim, Mark, Gerry, Don and Jennifer. To the congressional leadership. I look forward to voting – hopefully only once – for Hakeem Jeffries as Democratic Speaker of the House. Thank you to the former Congressional Black Caucus chair and my soror Joyce Beatty and the current chair Steven Horsford. To everyone who had a part in this moment, thank you: from my great grandparents, grandparents, and my parents, to Shirley Chisholm, to John Mercer Langston, to Donald McEachin. You helped us make history.
“This district, over 100 years ago, sent John Mercer Langston to Congress, the first African-American member of Congress from Virginia. This city helped send the second African-American to Congress from Virginia, Bobby Scott — and then the third, Donald McEachin. I look forward to building on that legacy.
“I look forward to taking my 18 years of servant leadership to Washington. We’ve done a lot of good here in Richmond in the state house. Whether it was passing the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, passing the Virginia Clean Economy Act, passing the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights – all of that work needs to be done in Washington. Just as I worked to carry those across the finish line, I will work to do the same in Congress.
“I will work to help people. I started this journey sitting at my parents’ feet. I started this journey listening to them tell their stories of growing up during the Depression and in the segregated South. I was raised on the best of government in the New Deal. My dad told me stories of listening to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s fireside chats and believing the only thing he had to fear was fear itself; until he left his house and realized he had a lot to fear in Jim Crow. My parents taught me that, at its best, government is a force for solving problems and helping people and at its worst it’s a force of oppression.
“I’ve dedicated my life right here in Richmond to serving the community. I was raised on servant leadership and I took that legacy and the legacy of my parents and I decided that I wanted to work to make this country, this Commonwealth, this city a better place. Together, we can prove that when we come together and we care more about doing the work and solving problems than the sound bites, we can help people. We will make this Commonwealth and this country a better place.
“I am ready to get to work. I have a little more work to do down the street, but I’m ready to fight for you in Congress for as long as you’ll have me.”