Rep. Donald McEachin, a Virginia Democrat just lately elected to a fourth time period in Congress, died Monday after almost a decade with most cancers. He was 61.
McEachin was recognized with colorectal most cancers in 2013, his chief of employees, Tara Rountree, stated in a press release Monday.
“We’re all devastated on the passing of our boss and buddy, Congressman Donald McEachin,” Rountree stated. “Valiantly, for years now, we’ve got watched him struggle and overcome the secondary results of his colorectal most cancers from 2013. Tonight, he misplaced that battle, and the individuals of Virginia’s Fourth Congressional District misplaced a hero who all the time, all the time fought for them and put them first.”
McEachin’s loss of life comes as lawmakers on each side of the aisle are anticipated to depend on securing each vote doable within the subsequent Congress, when Republicans will management the Home by a slim margin.
On the time of his loss of life, McEachin was a member of the Vitality and Commerce Committee, the Choose Committee on the Local weather Disaster and the Pure Sources Committee.
He represented a district that included Richmond, Chesapeake and Hampton Roads. Earlier than he was first elected to Congress in 2016, he labored as a lawyer and a state lawmaker.
He gained re-election in November by almost 30 proportion factors, underscoring the Democratic leanings of the deep blue district.
Rising up, McEachin was an Military brat who spent the primary a number of years of his life in Europe earlier than his household moved to Richmond when he was within the third grade, in line with a profile revealed by the College of Virginia, the place he graduated from legislation college in 1986.
McEachin additionally earned a grasp of divinity diploma from Virginia Union College, in 2008.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who stated he first met McEachin in 1985, recalled him Monday as a “light large, a compassionate champion for underdogs, a local weather warrior, a Christian instance, an understanding dad, a proud husband, a loyal brother.”
“Train us how quick our life is, in order that we might turn into sensible,” Kaine stated, citing a verse from the Ebook of Psalms.
Zoë Richards contributed.
