Democrat Jennifer McClellan is projected to win the U.S. House special election in Virginia for the seat left open after the death of Rep. Donald McEachin (D-VA) last year.

Multiple news outlets made the call Tuesday evening less than an hour after the polls closed. With 86% of precincts reporting, McClellan led with about 73% of the vote over Republican Leon Benjamin with roughly 27%.

McClellan’s march to victory is being touted as historic because she is poised to become the first black woman to represent Congress from Virginia.

✅ @JennMcClellanVA has won her race for the U.S. Congress in VA-04!

She is the first Black congresswoman to be elected in the Commonwealth of Virginia. pic.twitter.com/hiZrjY83Je

— Virginia Democrats (@vademocrats) February 22, 2023

“On the day that would have been John Lewis’ 83rd birthday, Virginia voters elected the first black woman to Congress. Congratulations to my new colleague, Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan,” tweeted Ritchie Torres (D-NY), referring to the late civil rights leader and U.S. congressman John Lewis.

McClellan is a corporate lawyer who has served as a member of the Virginia state legislature since 2006. She ran for governor in 2021, but got third place in the Democratic primary. Terry McAuliffe, a former governor, won that primary but lost the general election to Glenn Youngkin.

McEachin, a U.S. congressman since 2017, died at the age of 61 in November from complications stemming from his years-long battle with cancer weeks after winning re-election.

In this year’s race to win the Richmond-area district, pre-special election reports showed McClellan out-raised and outspent Benjamin, a Navy veteran and pastor, according to CNN.

McClellan boasts a “record of results, championing the passage of major progressive laws and fighting on behalf of her constituents in greater Richmond for the past 17 years,” according to her website. In addition to listing McClellan’s legislative accomplishments, the website says the Democrat has worked with a “commitment for progress, equity, and justice in the Commonwealth.”

The race will not change the power dynamic in the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority. Democrats control the Senate and the White House.

The Biden administration proposed a new restriction on asylum seekers that closely resembles a policy from the Trump administration.

The new rule would prevent migrants who do not use already available legal pathways to asylum and do not seek asylum in a third country from applying for asylum in the U.S. Biden Administration officials said the rule was proposed in response to the end of Title 42 immigration restrictions. It also closely resembles a Trump administration policy which similarly banned asylum seekers who did not first seek asylum in another country.

“The proposed rule would encourage migrants to avail themselves of lawful, safe, and orderly pathways into the United States, or otherwise to seek asylum or other protection in countries through which they travel, thereby reducing reliance on human smuggling networks that exploit migrants for financial gain,” the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice wrote in a notice of proposed rulemaking Tuesday. “It would do so by introducing a rebuttable presumption of asylum ineligibility for certain noncitizens who neither avail themselves of a lawful, safe, and orderly pathway to the United States nor seek asylum or other protection in a country through which they travel.”

“In the absence of such a measure, which would be implemented on a temporary basis, the number of migrants expected to travel without authorization to the United States is expected to increase significantly, to a level that risks undermining the Departments’ continued ability to safely, effectively, and humanely enforce and administer U.S. immigration law, including the asylum system, in the face of exceptionally challenging circumstances,” the two departments continued.

The DOJ and DHS expressed optimism that the new restriction would lead to a reduction in migrants crossing the southern border; and thereby reducing the power of human smuggling networks and helping to decrease the numbers of migrants in already overcrowded border facilities. This reduction in numbers would ensure that migrant processing “is done in an effective, humane, and efficient manner,” the departments wrote.

After a public comment period, the new restrictions will go into effect on May 11th, the same day that the Biden administration intends to end the COVID-19 national and public health emergencies. Title 42 restrictions, which allow authorities to turn migrants away due to public health concerns, are also scheduled to end then.

The new restrictions closely resemble a similar asylum ban implemented by the Trump administration. Those restrictions, referred to as both “asylum bans” and “transit bans,” were highly controversial and bitterly fought over in the courts from the beginning of former President Trump’s term. The Trump-era bans were blocked by the courts in 2018 and 2020; the final rule was implemented on Trump’s last full day in office, but a judge struck that down as well.

Democrats and immigration advocates decried the new rules because of the similarities to Trump policies. But the Biden administration dismissed those criticisms, and noted that they have provided alternative pathways for migrants to seek asylum. In January, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas rejected the comparisons, saying that his plan was based on “a rebuttable presumption of ineligibility. And there’s a marked difference between the two,” he said, via The Hill.