Wednesday, November 30, 2022

On Monday, United States Representative Donald McEachin died, according to a statement released by his office. McEachin, a Democrat and the third African American Virginia has ever sent to the US House, was 61.

Aston Donald McEachin, first elected to Congress in 2016, was born on October 10, 1961 in Nuremberg, West Germany, while his father was assigned there for the United States Army. McEachin attended American University, earning a bachelor’s degree in political history in 1982, before enrolling in the University of Virginia School of Law and earning a Juris Doctor there in 1986. He also received a Master of Divinity from Virginia Union University in 2008. After graduating from law school, McEachin was a private practice attorney.

McEachin was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1996 to 2002 and 2006 to 2008; he then served in the Virginia Senate from 2008 to 2016.

US Representative Bobby Scott, also a Virginia Democrat and the second African American the state elected to the US House, noted that McEachin was “the first African-American nominee of a major party for Virginia Attorney General.”

In 2016, McEachin was elected to the US House from Virginia’s 4th congressional district, which is centered around the state capital of Richmond. He was reelected to a fourth term in this November’s elections.

McEachin advocated for mitigating climate change, preserving civil rights, and reducing firearm violence during his time in Congress.

His office’s statement continued, “Valiantly for years now, we have watched him fight and triumph over the secondary effects of his colorectal cancer from 2013…Tonight, he lost that battle.”