Justin Fairfax

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Justin Edward Fairfax (born February 17, 1979) is an American attorney and politician serving as the 41st Lieutenant Governor of Virginia since 2018. A Democrat, he defeated Republican nominee state senator Jill Vogel in the 2017 general election. He is the second African American elected statewide in Virginia, following Douglas Wilder, who was elected Governor in 1989.

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Early life and career

Fairfax moved with his family from Pittsburgh to northeast Washington, D.C. when he was five years old. One of four children, Fairfax graduated from DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, where he was senior class president. Fairfax graduated from Duke University in 2000, with a degree in public policy. He was a briefing coordinator for Tipper Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign of Al Gore, in the campaign's Nashville, Tennessee office. Fairfax was also a staffer for Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, in the senator's Washington office.

He served on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee for two years before attending Columbia Law School, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review. Fairfax then served as law clerk to Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in 2005. He worked in the Washington office of the law firm WilmerHale before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia in 2010. Fairfax worked for two years as a federal prosecutor in Alexandria, Virginia. He served as deputy coordinator of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force during this time.

Fairfax ran for public office for the first time in 2013, seeking the Democratic nomination for state attorney general. He lost to Mark Herring, but surprised party insiders with his strong performance in the primary. Herring defeated Fairfax by about 4,500 votes out of 141,600 cast in a closer-than-expected race. The Washington Post praised both candidates during the primary, but endorsed Fairfax, writing that he had displayed "an agile and impressive command of the issues with a prosecutor's passion for justice."

After the race, Fairfax co-chaired the 2014 re-election campaign of Virginia Senator Mark Warner. The following year, he was recruited to work at the law firm of Venable LLP, in the firm's Tysons, Virginia office.

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Lieutenant Governor of Virginia (2018-present)

In 2017, Fairfax ran for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. In the Democratic primaries, he faced Gene Rossi, a federal prosecutor, who had trained Fairfax when they worked together in Alexandria's Eastern District federal court, and Susan Platt, a political lobbyist and consultant, who had served as chief of staff to Joe Biden in the 1990s (Platt had also run Virginia Senator Chuck Robb's 1994 re-election campaign and Don Beyer's unsuccessful bid in 1997 to be governor of Virginia). Citing their unease with Dominion Energy's planned construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, all three candidates in the Democratic primary pledged to refuse campaign contributions from Dominion Energy, despite the company being the largest contributor to Virginia political campaigns for both Republicans and Democrats. Although early polling showed Platt in the lead, Fairfax significantly outraised both of his opponents and proved victorious in the primary election, carrying about 49% of the vote.

Fairfax then faced Republican nominee Jill Vogel, a state senator from Fauquier County in the general election. Fairfax and Vogel raised comparable amounts of money for their campaigns--$3.9 million and $3.7 million, respectively. A forum between Fairfax and Vogel was held at Piedmont Community College on August 9, 2017 and a debate between the two candidates was held at the University of Richmond on October 5.

Noting that Fairfax had been largely unknown when he ran for Attorney General four years earlier, the Washington Post wrote that Fairfax had transitioned from "party crasher" to "party insider" in the time since, having "methodically done the work necessary to raise his profile and pay dues." The Washington Post went onto endorse Fairfax in the race, calling him "bright, competent, well-versed" and "the much better choice".

Fairfax's opposition to the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines led to him being omitted from a small number of campaign flyers that were distributed by the campaign for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ralph Northam. These flyers were released at the request of Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), which supports the pipeline - LIUNA had endorsed Northam (and Northam's running mate for Attorney General, Mark Herring, who was included on the flyer), but not Fairfax. As Fairfax is black, while Northam and Herring are both white, some activists criticized the Northam campaign's decision to accommodate LIUNA's request. Fairfax responded to the controversy by saying, "This should not have happened, and it should not happen again, and there needs to be robust investment in making sure that we are communicating with African American voters and we are engaging our base." The Fairfax campaign later remarked that the Democratic ticket was "working well together", adding "One piece of literature does not change that." All houses that received the LIUNA flyers also received standard campaign flyers including Fairfax.

In the final days of the campaign, former Virginia governor Douglas Wilder weighed in on the flyer controversy, saying that Fairfax had not "been dealt a good hand". Wilder endorsed Fairfax, but never endorsed Northam. As the election drew to a close, Fairfax and Vogel aired attack ads against each other.

Fairfax won the election by 5.5%. He is only the second African-American in Virginia history to be elected to statewide office (the first being Douglas Wilder, who served as governor, as well as lieutenant governor).

The lieutenant governor's position is part-time; Fairfax initially planned to continue his law practice while in office, but announced in December 2017 that he will be leaving his firm.

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Political positions

On economic issues, Fairfax supports policies such as a $15 minimum wage, action on student loan debt, and more job training and apprenticeships for skilled trades such as electrician, welder, and machine operator. Fairfax supports investment in transportation and infrastructure, and implementation of Governor Terry McAuliffe's Virginia Clean Power Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to combat climate change. Fairfax favors promotion of renewable energy such as wind and solar.

Fairfax supports the Affordable Care Act and an expansion of Medicaid to low-income Virginians. He supports caps on campaign contributions.

On social issues, Fairfax supports abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He is supportive of gun control measures such as universal background checks, a ban on high-capacity magazines, and an assault weapons ban. He supports criminal justice reform, and supports former Governor McAuliffe's restoration of voting rights to felons who have completed probation and parole terms. Fairfax favors additional action to combat the opioid crisis, and supports the decriminalization of the possession of limited amounts of marijuana for personal use.