Congratulations to Stewart Whitson, the 11th District GOP’s nominee in the 11th District special election for Congress. On top of the statewide and delegate races, we will also be working on this congressional special election. We have a lot to do and now is a great time to get involved with one of the campaigns. We’ll be sure to have all the opportunities for getting involved here in the newsletter, starting with tonight’s statewide ticket rally in Vienna!
This week’s updates from around the district:
Visit the 11th District’s website at 11cdgop.org for all information updates.
NEWSLETTER ANNOUNCEMENT REMINDER: If you’d like to have an announcement in the newsletter, please email Mike Ginsberg at mikeforscc@gmail.com. The 11CD Newsletter goes out on Tuesday mornings, so please try to have your announcement requests in by Monday at 12 noon.
The Democrats’ nomination of Zohran Mamdani, a hard left member of the Democratic Socialists of America, for mayor of New York City should be front-and-center in every Republican campaign in Virginia’s 2025 elections.
It is now crystal clear: the center of gravity of the Democratic party is the radical Left. Abigail Spanberger can play moderate all she likes, but the radicals run her Democratic Party. Because alongside Spanberger, Virginia Democrats also nominated Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, with her history of anti-Israel activism and opposition to merit-based admissions to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, for lieutenant governor.
Mamdani and the progressive Leftist engine now powering the Democratic Party are fundamentally at war with the West and Western values, mores, and social compacts.
For all his posturing as being uniquely representative of and attuned to non-Western cultures and values, Mamdani, like AOC and Barack Obama before him, is the banal bourgeois product of elite Western education. He grew up the son of a Columbia professor and Hollywood filmmaker and attended elite private secondary schools, Bronx Science, and Bowdoin. Despite his elite education, like AOC and Obama, he was chronically underemployed before running for office.
Mamdani’s redistributionist war on billionaires and batty anti-capitalist ideas like rent freezes and government-owned grocery stores are warmed-over 70s socialism popular with over-credentialed but under-educated and callow progressive Democrats. Mamdani and his ilk cannot create value, so they must obtain what they believe is their due through force.
But Mamdani is, at heart, an identity politics entrepreneur, leveraging his largely ancestral ties to non-Western nations to gain political power. He may hate capitalism, but he knows that being anti-Western is good for business.
Like so much of the anti-Western left, he is institutionally antisemitic, refusing to condemn explicitly genocidal slogans like “globalize the intifada” and energetically supporting the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. For progressive Democrats, Israel—plucky, tiny, Western-oriented survivor of genocidal wars waged by non-Western regimes, whose achievements in just 77 years of existence are a standing rebuke to failed Third World states—is simply the most active front in a wider war on the West.
Progressive Democrats will never criticize Islamist massacres of Christians in Nigeria, Chinese genocide of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, or the violent persecution of minorities in Iran, because to do so would be to criticize non-Westerners. Progressive Democrats will never take sides against the family.
Hashmi is cut from the same cloth as Mamdani. As a state senator, she blocked Northern Virginia education advocate Suparna Dutta’s nomination to the State Board of Education. Dutta’s championing of returning to merit-based admissions to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology was unacceptable to Hashmi—just as Mamdani wants to do away with merit-based testing for New York’s magnet schools. And Dutta’s advocacy of the Constitution—one of the canonical documents of Western civilization—in Board of Education meetings was a bridge too far for Hashmi and her comrade, VBOE member Anne Holton (wife of Sen. Tim Kaine).
Hashmi’s history of anti-Israel activism is well-known. She supported the post-October 7 anti-Israel protests on Virginia campuses, claiming the protesters were simply people who cared “deeply about human rights.” And as chair of the Senate Committee on Education and Health, she held a hearing “to investigate the events on Virginia university campuses following October 7, 2023” without notifying any Jewish community organizations, Jewish campus organizations, or law enforcement agencies of the hearing in advance and or allowing committee members to ask questions. Republican Sen. Tara Durant bluntly called the hearings “a sham.”
Make no mistake, Mamdani, not Spanberger, embodies the modern Democratic Party. Spanberger is part of a breed of weak-kneed Democrats that don’t know how to handle the progressive radicalism in their midst and, in due course, will bow to it or be swept away by it. It’s up to our statewide candidates and RPV to remind voters of this at every turn.
Mike Ginsberg
former 11th District Chairman
Last Saturday at Fairfax High School, Stewart Whitson became the Republican nominee for the 11th Congressional District Special Election that will take place on September 9.
It’s been a whirlwind for our candidate, but Stewart has hit the ground running. Yesterday morning, less than 40 hours after winning the nomination, he was on WMAL with Larry O’Connor and Julie Gunlock. He came out strong, including challenging his Democrat opponent, James Walkinshaw, to a debate – anytime and anywhere. Listen to the WMAL interview here: Monday Morning with Larry O’Connor. It’s great!
Learn more about Stewart on his website at https://www.whitsonforcongress.com/, donate if you can, and join Team Whitson! The Democrats will be pulling in dollars from across the U.S., because they desperately want to hang onto Gerry Connolly’s seat, as much as we want to flip it. What is Walkinshaw’s platform? Fighting President Trump every step of the way, of course, since he is Gerry Connolly’s protege and handpicked successor.
You can also learn more about Stewart in this writeup from the Daily Signal, the online newsletter of the Heritage Foundation.
Meanwhile, our nominee is 100% America First, Virginia First, and 11th District First! Let’s see if a career politician like James Walkinshaw has the courage to debate a real fighter – former combat veteran and FBI Special Agent Stewart Whitson. Stay tuned!
This past Saturday, 11th District Republicans nominated Stewart Whitson as our candidate in the special election for Congress in 11CD. Many thanks to those who attended various events to hear from the candidates; the voters who participated in the canvass; and the many volunteers who worked tirelessly last Friday and Saturday to make sure everything ran smoothly.
A special thank you to all of the excellent candidates who ran for the nomination: Stewart Whitson, Karina Lipsman, Mike Van Meter, Lucas Rand, Sam Wong, Nathan Headrick, and Arthur Purves. We were fortunate to have seven highly-qualified candidates. The willingness of seven Republicans to step into the ring is a clear indication that we believe we can finally flip this seat in September, after 16 long years of Democrat control in the 11th District. Everyone has gotten behind Stewart in our quest to end the 16-year stranglehold the Democrats have had on the 11th Congressional District.
Come on out to Vienna TONIGHT, Tuesday, July 1, for the first event of this campaign season featuring our statewide ticket – Winsome Sears, John Reid, Jason Miyares – along with special guest, Governor Glenn Youngkin. Also on hand and making his first speech as the Republican nominee for the 11th Congressional District will be Stewart Whitson. You don’t want to miss it!
The rally will be held at the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department, 400 Center St. S., Vienna 22180. Doors open at 6:30pm. There is still time to register! Space is limited, so RSVP now here or at the information in the graphic.
Come march with our 2025 candidates in the Fourth of July parades this Friday, July 4! There are two big parades in the 11CD, one in the City of Fairfax and one in Great Falls. We want a big crowd to show GOP strength here in the 11CD!
Fairfax City July 4th Parade
Our nominees for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, Winsome Sears and John Reid, will be participating in the Fairfax City July 4th Parade from 10:00am-12 noon on Friday. If you want to march in the parade, please RSVP to Ana Renner, Chair of the Fairfax City GOP, at FairfaxCityGOP@gmail.com. The deadline to register is Thursday, July 3, and you will receive details when you RSVP.
Great Falls July 4th Parade
Stewart Whitson, our newly chosen 11th Congressional District Republican nominee and Kristin Hoffman, running in the 6th House of Delegates District, will be marching with the Fairfax GOP in the Great Falls July 4th Parade. If you would like to join us and carry a candidate sign, please email info@fairfaxgop.org. You can also come to watch the parade and then join us on the Village Green, where the Fairfax GOP will be hosting a table. Don’t miss this very special “hometown” and fun celebration for the whole family.
Schedule of Events for the Great Falls Parade and July 4 Celebration
8:00-9:00am: TrailBlazers 5K Fun Run/Walk
8:30-9:30am: Little Patriots Parade
10-10:45am: Main Parade
10:45 AM-12:30 PM: Festivities, Food & Fun
This Friday, July 4, join the Leadership Institute for the 52nd National Fourth of July Conservative Soirée! Enjoy BBQ, patriotic speeches, and fun for the whole family! From live music performances to exciting games and activities, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Bring your picnic blankets and lawn chairs, and get ready to enjoy this FREE event! Register here for the Soiree.
Don’t miss out on this unforgettable community gathering as we come together to honor our nation’s independence!
Location: Occoquan Regional Park, 9751 Ox Road, Lorton 22079.
Join the Braddock and Springfield District GOPs for their regular Saturday breakfasts on Saturday, July 12. It will be held at the Kings Park Shopping Center community room, 8944 Burke Lake Road, in Springfield. Doors open at 8:30am and the event starts at 9:00am. Tickets are $10–please bring cash only and pay at the door. Speakers to be announced–watch this space. RSVP for the breakfast here.
Join the Mason District GOP for its regular Saturday breakfasts on Saturday, July 12, at Glory Days Grill, Barcroft Plaza Shopping Center, 6341 Columbia Pike, Falls Church 22041. The guest speaker will be John Malcolm of the Institute for Constitutional Government at the Heritage Foundation, who will discuss recent Supreme Court rulings. Social period begins at 8:30am, breakfast will be served at 9:00am, and the meeting will begin at 9:30am. Tickets are $15 (whether you eat breakfast or not).
Come connect with GOP candidate for governor Winsome Sears and Republican women from across Northern Virginia on Tuesday, July 15 from 4:00-5:30pm. There will be no charge to attend, though donations are encouraged.
Meet at the VFW Post 8241, 1051 Spring Hill Road, McLean. RSVP link coming soon!
The next Fairfax GOP membership meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 15, starting at 7:00pm at Fairfax High School, 3501 Lion Run 22030.
The Northern Virginia Republican Women’s Clubs invite you to a fundraiser in support of GOP LG candidate John Reid on Saturday, July 19, from 4:30-7:00pm at DC Prime Steaks, 20120 Lakeview Center Plaza, Ashburn 20147. RSVP by contacting Janet Haley-Varre at janet.varre@gmail.com or 703-378-2519.
You are invited to a fundraiser in support of Winsome Sears for governor with special guest Michael Whatley, RNC Chairman, on Thursday, July 24, at 6:00pm in Clifton (address provided upon RSVP). RSVP to Gretchen Moss at Gretchen@gretchenmoss.com or 703-201-7776.
