WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin, D-Va., died Monday after a battle with colorectal cancer, his office said. He was 61.
Tara Rountree, McEachin's chief of staff, said in a statement late Monday: “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.”
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McEachin represented Virginia's 4th Congressional District, which includes part of Richmond and extends south to the North Carolina border. He was reelected to a fourth term earlier this month.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called her late colleague “a tireless champion for Virginia families and a force for economic opportunity and environmental justice.”
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., released a statement saying: “Up until the very end, Don was a fighter. Even though he battled cancer and faced other trials in recent years, he never lost his focus on social and environmental justice. Tonight, Virginia has lost a great leader and I have lost a great friend.”
Rep. Gerry Connelly, D-Va., called McEachin an “environmentalist, civil rights advocate, faithful public servant, and a man of consequence. There was no better ally to have.”
Aston Donald McEachin was born Oct. 10, 1961, in Nuremberg, Germany. His father was an Army veteran and his mother a school teacher.
He graduated from St. Christopher’s School in Richmond in 1979, then earned a bachelor’s degree at American University in 1982 and a law degree at the University of Virginia in 1986. He earned a master of divinity degree at Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University in 2008.
A lawyer in private practice during his career, he served in the House of Delegates from 1996-2002 and 2006-2008 and then the state Senate from 2008-2016. He was elected to his first term to the U.S. House in 2016.
McEachin and his wife, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin, raised three children, Mac, Briana and Alexandra.