Virginia Democrats have nominated war veteran and Bronze Star recipient Philip Forgit to vie for the vacant seat in Congress created by the death last month of Representative Jo Ann Davis.

At the Democratic convention in Williamsburg, Forgit was selected over 62-year-old Ted Hontz of Stafford. Forgit, a 40-year-old documentary filmmaker from Williamsburg, was an elementary school teacher when his Navy Reserve unit activated him and he served in Iraq. A GOP delegation continued to meet Saturday evening to select a nominee.

The nominations set up a December 11th special election in a district that has voted consistently Republicans, but at a time when the GOP has encountered problems and Democrats have prospered.

The district stretches from the Peninsula in Hampton Roads into the outer suburbs of northern Virginia, spreading into the Northern Neck and taking in most of Fredericksburg.

The district had been firmly in Republican hands for 6½ years since Davis won it, and under Republican Herb Bateman before her.

But Forgit can expect robust financial support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and from the Democrats who have won the last three contested statewide elections: former Gov. Mark R. Warner, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and freshman U.S. Sen. Jim Webb.

Davis won the seat in 2000 and was re-elected three times after that without a serious challenge. She was diagnosed two years ago with breast cancer, never relinquishing her duties in the House. The disease returned this summer. She died at her Gloucester County home on Oct. 6.