Rep. Donald McEachin has died, his office announced on Monday.
The Virginia Democrat had been battling cancer since 2013, his chief of staff, Tara Rountree, said in a statement. He was 61.
“Valiantly for years now, we have watched him fight and triumph over the secondary effects of his colorectal cancer from 2013,” Rountree said. “Tonight, he lost that battle.”
McEachin, whose district was based in Richmond, the state capital, was reelected earlier this month with 64 percent of the vote against Republican challenger Leon Benjamin. He had been first elected to Congress in 2016 after serving in both the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates.
“We don’t do this for glory or fame, we do this because we like service,” McEachin said on election night earlier this month.
