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 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. Fairfax works at the law firm of Venable LLP, in the firm's Tysons, Virginia office.

In 2017, Fairfax ran for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and was victorious, defeating Republican nominee Jill Vogel, a state senator from Fauquier County. Fairfax and Vogel raised comparable amounts of money for their campaigns--$3.9 million and $3.7 million, respectively. Fairfax is only the second African-American in Virginia history to be elected to statewide office (the first being Douglas Wilder, as governor). Fairfax received the endorsement of the Washington Post in the race. While the race between Fairfax and Vogel was not as high-profile as the gubernatorial election the same year between Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie, the candidates did feature attack ads in the campaign's closing days.

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 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.