By Eva Surovell and Ben Hitchcock
On June 8, Democrats will decide who will represent their party in three key November statewide elections. Get to know the candidates below.
Governor
Terry McAuliffe
Previous experience: Governor of Virginia, 2014-2018
Key endorsement: Hillary Clinton
McAuliffe has thrown his hat in the ring for a second non-consecutive term as governor, and the former executive’s name recognition and piles of money have made him the front-runner in the race.
McAuliffe spent most of his first term vetoing bills from the Republican-controlled legislature. This time around, the Macker is running on a more proactive platform, with his stated goals including increasing teacher pay, investing in broadband internet, raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2024, and declining any campaign contributions from Dominion Energy. In his first term, McAuliffe allowed three executions to take place, but now says he supports the state legislature’s recent decision to repeal the death penalty.
Virginia has shifted blue over the last few years, but the state hasn’t really embraced progressive candidates, with moderates Ralph Northam and Joe Biden easily dispatching challengers from the left in past statewide races. McAuliffe and his backers hope to keep that trend going.
Jennifer Carroll Foy
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Prince William County, 2018-2020
Key endorsement: Gloria Steinem
Carroll Foy is a VMI graduate and former public defender who has positioned herself as a progressive challenger to candidates like McAuliffe and Jennifer McClellan, who have more legislative experience. She flipped a Republican House district in 2017 while pregnant, and then sponsored Virginia’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment during her second term, before resigning in 2020 to devote herself to the governor’s race.
Carroll Foy wants to end qualified immunity for police officers, lower health insurance premiums, and create a permanent vote-by-mail system. She’s a gifted public speaker who won the endorsement (and the $500,000 campaign contribution) of Charlottesville-based Democratic megadonor Michael Bills and his anti-corruption advocacy group Clean Virginia.
Jennifer McClellan
Previous experience: Virginia House and Senate member from Richmond, 2006-present
Key endorsement: Former U.S. Representative Leslie Byrne
McClellan has more legislative experience than any candidate in the race, having worked in the state government for a decade and a half. She passed the Clean Economy Act, the Reproductive Health Protection Act, the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, and more. As governor, she would work to eliminate open carry gun laws, end felony disenfranchisement, and strengthen Virginia’s hate crime penalties.
Self-proclaimed outsiders are in vogue in politics these days—meanwhile, Tim Kaine officiated McClellan’s wedding. By day, she’s a corporate lawyer with Verizon. Also of note around here: McClellan picked up her law degree at UVA, making her the only Hoo in the governor’s race.
Lee Carter
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Manassas, 2018-present
Key endorsement: Marianne Williamson
Carter has carved out a niche for himself as the Virginia legislature’s garrulous socialist. The former Marine, electronics repairman, and Lyft driver was a Virginia co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign. He made headlines last year when he spearheaded a bill to cap insulin prices at $50 per month, and he’s introduced bills to ban corporate campaign contributions and repeal the right to work law, which limits union activity. He plans to lobby for universal health care, and says in the meantime he’ll create a state office to directly reimburse some out-of-pocket medical expenses. Carter faces an uphill battle in a state with a fondness for moderate Democrats.
Justin Fairfax
Previous experience: Lieutenant Governor, 2018-present
Key endorsement: Fairfax has not picked up any endorsements from American elected officials, but he has been endorsed by conservative British politician Nicholas Fairfax, the 14th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. The two became acquainted after genealogical research revealed that Nicholas’ ancestor enslaved and subsequently freed Justin’s great-great-great grandfather.
Fairfax was seen as a rising star in Virginia politics after running a close attorney general primary against Mark Herring in 2013 and winning the LG race in 2017. In 2019, however, two women accused him of sexual assault. Fairfax denies the accusations and has not bowed to pressure to resign, though he did part ways with the law firm he worked for, and he left his post on the board of Duke University’s public policy school. His gubernatorial campaign has failed to gain any real steam.
Lieutenant Governor
Sam Rasoul
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Roanoke, 2014-present
Key endorsement: Senator Elizabeth Warren
Focused on the three core values of “truth, love and grit,” Rasoul’s People’s Platform emphasizes his desire to give constituents the power to advocate for their needs, as well as clear up misconceptions and confusion about the legislative process. Specifically, Rasoul aims to identify and mentor potential Democratic candidates early and streamline the party’s resources. Rasoul also supports early childhood education, uplifting working families, and expanding voting rights, among other priorities. If he wins the primary, he would become the first Muslim candidate to run statewide in the South.
Hala Ayala
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Prince William, 2018-present
Key endorsement: Governor Ralph Northam
As the House Democratic Whip, Ayala has helped spearhead some of the Democratic Party’s recent successes, such as abolishing the death penalty and expanding Medicaid access. If elected, Ayala would build bridges between the commonwealth’s government and its constituents. More specifically, her campaign centers on stopping gun violence, affordable health care, criminal justice reform, the environment, and the economy. Ayala—who already made history as the first Afro-Latina elected to the Virginia state legislature—would become the first woman of color elected to a statewide office.
Mark Levine
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Alexandria, 2018-present
Key endorsement: Falls Church News-Press
Propelled into policymaking by the murder of his sister in 1996, Levine has been passionate about fighting on behalf of survivors of domestic and sexual violence throughout his political career. An early advocate for marriage equality in the United States (he co-founded Marriage Equality California and wrote the bill that became D.C.’s marriage law for same-sex couples), Levine would also ensure reproductive rights and promote transparency within the state government. He would be the first full-time lieutenant governor in Virginia’s history, as well as the first Jewish and openly gay candidate elected statewide.
Andria McClellan
Previous experience: Norfolk City Council member
Key endorsement: Representative Elaine Luria
McClellan—who has characterized herself as a “pragmatic progressive”—served as the vice chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia from 2014 to 2015. She has also advocated to improve Norfolk’s flood mitigation, public transit, and civic engagement, among other initiatives. Her campaign prioritizes addressing the climate crisis, expanding access to high-speed internet, and supporting small business owners.
Sean Perryman
Previous experience: President of the Fairfax County NAACP
Key endorsement: Democrats Work for America
The youngest-ever president of the Fairfax County NAACP, Perryman has led the charge to address issues of racism within public schools—including renaming Fairfax’s Robert E. Lee High School. His campaign reimagines policing and criminal justice through defelonizing all drugs and ending mandatory minimum sentences. He also backs a Virginia Green New Deal, which would decarbonize the state’s economy and create green jobs. In addition, Perryman proposes ending all cooperation between the commonwealth and ICE, eliminating state taxes for feminine hygiene products and diapers, and banning private prisons.
Xavier Warren
Previous experience: Sports agent
Key endorsement: Arlington Circuit Court Clerk Paul Ferguson
Warren has spent much of his life working as a businessman, so it comes as no surprise that his top priority is jobs. (His website declares that his “focus is JOBS!”) He promises to create a livable wage for everyone in the state, as well as invest in early childhood education and strengthen relationships with career and technical centers, community colleges, and HBCUs.
Attorney General
Mark Herring
Previous experience: Attorney General, 2014-present
Key endorsement: The Washington Post
Editorial Board
If reelected for a third term, Herring promises to continue to promote economic development, defend women’s rights, and reduce gun violence. The incumbent attorney general has garnered support from many Democratic leaders across the commonwealth, including Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn and Democratic Majority Leader Charniele Herring, and the Post editorial board writes that “No Virginia attorney general in recent memory has made such a positive difference in the lives of ordinary people.” Herring’s tenure in Richmond has not been without controversy, though—less than a week after Virginia’s Democratic Party was thrown into turmoil following the discovery of a racist photograph on Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page, Herring admitted that he had worn blackface as an undergraduate student.
Jay Jones
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Norfolk, 2018-present
Key endorsement: Governor Ralph Northam
Jones has characterized himself as a “voice to progressive energy.” Throughout his time in the House of Delegates, he has worked to deconcentrate poverty in urban areas and create an earned income tax credit for Virginians. As attorney general, Jones would end inequalities within the commonwealth’s judicial system and work to improve policing and end police brutality. Additionally, he has called on Herring to support a repeal of qualified immunity, and worked to abolish the death penalty earlier this year. Notably, Jones has gained the support of Governor Northam, a fellow resident of Norfolk. If elected, Jones would become Virginia’s first Black attorney general.
