Fairfax County Democrats to hold firehouse primary to select 11th District nominee

Three months from today, voters in Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax will have the final day of voting in a special election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Representative Gerry Connolly.

On June 28, the two Democratic Party committees that cover those two localities will hold a firehouse primary to choose a candidate. Locations are to be determined and there will be one day of early voting.

“An ‘Unassembled Caucus’ (also known as a ‘Firehouse Primary’) is a primary election run by a political party, not the state,” reads the website for the 11th Congressional District Committee.

The 11th Congressional District Republicans will hold a caucus on June 28 to select their nominee. The canvass will be held at Fairfax High School from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and more information about that can be found here.

According to the Virginia Public Access Project, there are eight Democrats in the race, three Republicans, and one independent.

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee used a firehouse primary to nominate three candidates for City Council in August 2011. Seven candidates participated and the results were decided through ranked-choice voting. According to this story from Charlottesville Tomorrow, the winners were Satyendra Huja, Kathleen Galvin, and Dede Smith.

Huja and Galvin qualified for a nomination on the first round of ballots but Smith needed until the fifth round to defeat Paul Beyer. All three nominees would go on to defeat five independents.

In the 2025 election, there are currently only three candidates in the race, and all are Democrats competing in the June 17 primary. They are Jen Fleisher, Brian Pinkston, and Juandiego Wade. Pinkston and Wade are incumbents.

This will be the first time that ranked choice will be used by the municipal government. As of June 4, 1,273 people have cast early ballots in Charlottesville.

Why are there so few candidates in 2025 compared to 2011? What changed? Does this pattern hold up across the nation?

Before you make your next click: This story about elections with a dash of history was posted in the June 9, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. This is a product of Town Crier Productions and if you would like to know more about how you can support the work, visit this page!