Ronnie Campbell Obituary, Death – According to an announcement made on Tuesday by House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, Virginia Delegate Ronnie Campbell, a Republican who had served in the House of Delegates since 2019, passed away due to cancer. Campbell had served in the legislature since 2019. Gilbert spoke to Campbell as “a decent man and dedicated public worker” in a press release that he issued. “Anecdotally, during one of my final talks with Ronnie, he mentioned something that really struck me as telling about the kind of man he was. The sickness that was assaulting his body was not his primary concern, nor was there any anxiety for the future, according to Gilbert.
“No, Ronnie was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to make it to Richmond to do his job, to be the voice for his voters that they elected him to be. In other words, he was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to fulfill the mandate that his residents gave him. Just hours before he passed away, he was trying to make sure that the legislation he had drafted for the upcoming session wouldn’t be lost in the shuffle if for some reason he couldn’t be with us.”
Campbell, a native of Augusta County and a former member of the Virginia State Police, served as the representative for a district in western Virginia that encompassed Rockbridge and Bath counties, the cities of Lexington and Buena Vista, and portions of Amherst and Augusta counties. He had previously held positions on the Board of Supervisors and the Rockbridge County School Board. Campbell’s demise comes just one month before the start of the 2023 session of the General Assembly, which means that there will likely be another special election added to what was already an extremely crowded election schedule for the beginning of the new year.
On January 10, there are currently plans in place to hold two special elections for the General Assembly, one of which will be held to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of veteran Northern Virginia delegate Mark Keam. The second objective is to fill the seat left vacant by Senator Jen Kiggins, a Republican from Virginia Beach who emerged victorious in her race against the incumbent Democratic Representative Elaine Luria in the midterm elections held a month ago.
A special election has been scheduled for February 21 to fill the seat left vacant in the 4th Congressional District by former Representative Donald McEachin, who passed away recently. This seat represents the greater Richmond area. A number of Democrats now serving in the General Assembly are vying for the opportunity to fill that seat.
