Progressive Voters Guide

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Kathleen Murphy has been a member of the House of Delegates since 2015. She is a member of the House Finance, Privileges and Elections, and Transportation Committees. Murphy is the mother of four children and two step-children. She and her husband, Bill Sudow, are long-time McLean residents. When the House of Delegates is not in session, Murphy serves as President of Johnson, Murphy, and Associates, a consulting firm. Before becoming a member of the House of Delegates, Murphy served as senior staff to Congressman Charlie Wilson, and she was once a co-writer and producer for Nickelodeon Television. She graduated magna cum laude from American University .

Delegate Murphy is a strong advocate for progressive values. She supports abortion access, believing that people should make decisions for themselves. Delegate Murphy is also a strong advocate for gun violence prevention. She was personally impacted by the issue when her brother was shot and killed by two gunmen. As a Northern Virginia resident, Delegate Murphy wants to come up with transportation solutions but does not support adding tolls to I-66. Delegate Murphy supports equitable education, including funding for pre-K programs and freezing tuition hikes at Virginia’s public colleges and universities. She also supports equal pay for women.

Running against Delegate Murphy is Republican Gary Pan. He is a business owner who supports reducing government regulations that keep us safe and healthy. Pan has chosen to remain silent on important issues like abortion access, gun violence prevention, paid family leave, and raising the minimum wage.

Delegate Murphy is the more progressive choice in this race because of her support of abortion access and increasing teacher pay.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Mark Keam became the first Asian-born immigrant and the first Korean-American elected to any state-level office in Virginia when he was elected in 2009. Delegate Keam is an attorney who served as in-house counsel for a Fortune 15 tech company. Delegate Keam and his wife reside in Vienna where their two children attend public schools.

During his time as a Delegate, he has sponsored dozens of state laws to improve public education and healthcare, create green jobs, support military veterans and public safety, reform tax codes and business regulations, and provide more government transparency, accountability, and efficiency. He voted for Medicaid expansion, which allowed an additional 300,000 Virginians to get access to affordable health care. Delegate Keam also co-sponsored a bill that required feminine hygiene products be provided to incarcerated people who need them free of charge.

Running unopposed, Delegate Keam is the more progressive choice for this race.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Ken Plum was elected to the House of Delegates in 1982 and currently serves as Chair of the House Democratic Caucus. He is a retired teacher and school administrator. Plum and his wife, Jane, are the parents of four children. He graduated with a BA from Old Dominion University and earned his Masters of Education from the University of Virginia.

Plum supports many progressive priorities like increasing the minimum wage, reforms to make voting more accessible for everyone, gun violence prevention, and driving privileges for undocumented immigrants. He wants increased job opportunities, better funding for schools and teacher salaries, and to ensure the safety of his constituents.

Running unopposed, Delegate Plum is the more progressive choice for this race.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate David Bulova was elected to the House of Delegates in 2006. He currently serves on the General Laws, Education, and Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources committees. Delegate Bulova and his family live in the Middleridge community of Fairfax. He and his wife have three children.

Delegate Bulova supports increased transportation funding with investments for expanding Metro to Centreville, bike paths, and walking trails. He also supports giving local governments the power to require sidewalks when new developments are proposed. Delegate Bulova is a strong advocate for the environment. He sponsored a solar energy bill and supports investments in clean, renewable energy. He also supports fair redistricting reform so that voters can choose their representatives, not the other way around. Delegate Bulova voted for Medicaid expansion so an additional 300,000 Virginians can access affordable health care.

Delegate Bulova is running unopposed and is the more progressive choice for this race.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Kaye Kory has been a member of the House of Delegates since 2010. She has been an active leader in many community groups such as the Annandale Chamber of Commerce, the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, the NAACP, and the Fairfax County Democratic Committee.

Delegate Kory is a strong supporter of reproductive rights, including abortion access. She successfully sponsored legislation to require prisons to provide menstrual products to incarcerated women at no charge. She also supports ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.

Delegate Kory was a strong proponent of Medicaid Expansion to ensure that everyone can get the health care they need without worrying about the bill coming afterwards. She also supports increasing teacher pay, investing in our schools, gun violence prevention, and employment and housing non-discrimination for the LGBTQIA+ community.

She is running unopposed and she is the more progressive choice in this race.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Vivian Watts was first elected to the House of Delegates in 1981, but left in 1986 to serve as the Virginia Secretary of Transportation and Public Safety. She was again elected to the House of Delegates in 1996 and has served ever since. She is married and has two children and six grandchildren. Watts has been involved in many community groups and served as the Executive Director of Fairfax CASA.

As Delegate, she serves on the Courts of Justice, House Finance, and Science & Technology committees. Delegate Watts is a strong supporter of education and supports reducing class sizes and increasing teacher pay. She also supports access to reproductive health care, including access to birth control and abortion. In addition, Delegate Watts voted for Medicaid expansion and supports increasing access to mental health services for all Virginians.

Delegate Watts is being challenged by Republican candidate Nick Bell. He decided to run because of his opposition to abortion access, which is the only issue he talks about on his website.

Due to her support of reproductive rights, Medicaid expansion, and increased funding for our schools, Delegate Watts is the more progressive choice in this race.

Democratic candidate Dan Helmer is running against incumbent Republican Delegate Tim Hugo. Helmer is a combat veteran. His wife, Karen, is a public school teacher in Fairfax County. They live in Fairfax with their children.

Helmer is in favor of increasing teacher pay and investing in public schools. He supports Medicaid expansion and other solutions to increase access to affordable health care. He also supports abortion access and believes abortion is health care. As a progressive, Helmer also supports increasing the minimum wage, gun violence prevention, clean energy, and fair redistricting reform.

Delegate Tim Hugo was elected to the House of Delegates in 2003. He voted against Medicaid expansion. In 2012, he voted in favor of legislation that required people seeking an abortion to undergo a mandatory, medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound. He also has a record of making it harder to be an immigrant in Virginia by voting to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving in-state tuition at Virginia colleges and universities.

Dan Helmer is the more progressive choice in this race because of his support of increasing the minimum wage and health care access.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn has served in the House of Delegates since 2010. She is currently the Minority Leader, the first woman to hold that role. Delegate Filler-Corn is a member of the Rules, Finance, and Commerce & Labor Committees. Prior to her election as Minority Leader, she served as Vice Chair for Outreach of the House Democratic Caucus and the House Democratic Whip.

Delegate Filler-Corn is an advocate for abortion access and has supported bills that would increase birth control access and promote consent-based sex education. She supports gun violence prevention and she sponsored a bill that would have eliminated sales tax from gun sales under $1,000. She also sponsored a bill that would have increased the felony threshold to $1000, ensuring that people who make a one-time mistake aren’t branded a felon for the rest of their lives. Delegate Filler-Corn also supports increasing the minimum wage so that all Virginians can afford to live with dignity. She was a strong supporter of Medicaid expansion.

Delegate Filler-Corn is being challenged by Rachel Mace, a Libertarian, and John Wolfe, an Independent. Mace is against gun violence prevention. She also is opposed to meals taxes that help fund important projects like affordable housing. Additionally, she opposes the elimination of student debt, but offers no solutions to the student loan debt crisis. Little information is available on Wolfe’s positions on key issues.

Delegate Filler-Corn is the more progressive choice in this race because of her support of abortion access, criminal justice reform, and Medicaid expansion.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Kathy Tran was elected to the House of Delegates in 2017. She is one of the 15 progressive candidates who were elected that year. Tran and her parents came to the United States as refugees from Vietnam when she was a child. Delegate Tran and her husband, Matt, live in West Springfield with their four children, Daven, Charlotte, Quinn, and Elise.

Tran is a strong progressive champion who supports access to abortion, gun violence prevention, immigrant rights, clean renewable energy, and investments in public education. She sponsored a bill to ban assault weapons in the commonwealth.

Republican candidate Steve Adragna is running against Delegate Tran. He believes the government should be as small as possible and that taxes should not be used to create a safety net for the most vulnerable members of our communities. Adragna does not support access to abortion. He would not have supported expanding Medicaid and does not believe that the government should be responsible for finding solutions to our health care crisis.

Delegate Tran has been a strong champion for Virginia families and is the progressive choice in this race.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Mark Sickles has served in the House of Delegates since 2004. He currently sits on several committees centering the environment, including the House committees on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources, and the Energy and Environment Commission. He also sits on the Appropriations committee and the Privileges and Elections committee.

Delegate Sickles is a member of the LGBTQ community and co-sponsored a bill that would criminalize discrimination based on sexual or gender identity. He also voted against a bill that would allow adoption agencies to discriminate based on sexual or gender identity. Delegate Sickles has voted against requiring specific, state issued photo IDs for voting, a bill that made it harder for some people to make their voices heard in our democracy. He is a supporter of the immigrant community and voted against legislation that prohibited sanctuary cities in Virginia. Delegate Sickles also supports access to abortion and affordable health care access for everyone. He voted for Medicaid expansion, which allowed an additional 300,000 Virginians to see a doctor when they need to.

Delegate Sickles is running against Independent G. Gail Parker. Parker’s primary stance as a member of the Green Party is mandated clean energy and usage of renewable resources.

Delegate Sickles is the more progressive choice in this race because of his positions on health care access, equality, and voting rights.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Paul Krizek was elected to the House of Delegates in 2015. He is a strong supporter of gun violence prevention. He has sponsored several bills, including one that would mandate universal background checks that would have ensured community safety. Delegate Krizek also supports increasing the minimum wage and raising teacher pay. He is a strong supporter of immigrant rights and has fought against prohibiting sanctuary cities in Virginia. He supports expanded access to affordable health care and voted for Medicaid expansion.

Delegate Krizek’s Republican opponent, Richard Hayden, doesn’t support abortion access and believes that politicians should be able to make medical decisions for people who are pregnant. He doesn’t take firm stances on other issues on his website.

Delegate Krizek is the more progressive choice in this race because of his support of gun violence prevention, increasing the minimum wage, and raising teacher pay.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Mark Levine was elected to the House of Delegates in 2015. He co-founded the Virginia Transparency Caucus, which is dedicated to ensuring committee and subcommittee meetings in the General Assembly are accessible to the public.

He is one of only a few openly gay members of the House of Delegates and a supporter of equality. In a previous role, he helped to craft the D.C. marriage-equality law with Councilman Phil Mendelson and successfully defended the law in court.

Delegate Levine is an advocate for those who are survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Levine supports reproductive rights, investing in public schools, increasing teacher pay, and raising the minimum wage. He supports clean energy, unions, and criminal justice reform. He also supports expanded health care access and voted for Medicaid expansion so an additional 300,000 Virginians can see a doctor when they need to.

Delegate Levine is running unopposed and is the more progressive choice in this race.
 

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Patrick Hope was elected to the House of Delegates in 2009. When not serving in the House of Delegates, Hope is a health care attorney. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Arlington.

Delegate Hope is a strong proponent of affordable health care access and supported Medicaid expansion. He also supports increased funding for public schools and transportation. Additionally, Delegate Hope pushes for clean energy and tax credits for constituents who purchase energy-efficient appliances.

Delegate Hope is running unopposed and is the progressive choice in this race.
 

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Rip Sullivan was elected to the House of Delegates in a special election in 2014. He is an attorney who graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as the President of Legal Services of Northern Virginia, which helps low-income people access legal services in the region. Delegate Sullivan and his wife, Beth, have 4 children and recently welcomed their first grandchild.

As a Delegate, Sullivan has supported increased funding for education, transportation, and affordable health care access. He is an advocate for equality by backing the Equal Rights Amendment and reproductive rights. He opposes discrimination against the LGBTQ community and believes in fair housing.

Delegate Sullivan is running unopposed and is the progressive choice in this race.
 

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Alfonso Lopez was elected to the House of Delegates in 2011. During his time in office, Lopez has been a strong supporter of workers and families, passing legislation like the Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund, fighting to strengthen protections for tenants against retaliatory evictions, working with the labor community to protect Project Labor Agreements, and fighting to save funding for Child Advocacy Centers.

Delegate Lopez is a strong supporter of increasing the minimum wage and organized legislators in Northern Virginia to successfully push the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) to increase the minimum wage for contract employees at our local airports. He is a reliable pro-choice vote. He supports the LGBTQ community, opposes any discriminatory laws, and supports clean energy.

Delegate Lopez’s opponent is Terry Modglin. Modglin is anti-choice. He wants to raise the minimum wage, increase education funding, and supports Medicaid expansion. He also wants to increase gun violence prevention and to protect the environment.
 

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Marcus Simon was elected to the House of Delegates in 2013. He attended law school at American University's Washington College of Law. After graduating, Simon joined the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps as a Captain, where he handled officer misconduct and criminal cases. In 2008, he co-founded the Law Firm of Leggett, Simon, Freemyers & Lyon and Ekko.

Delegate Simon has been outspoken about the need to pass commonsense gun laws like universal background checks. He has also been a champion for student loan borrowers and has proposed a bill that would protect borrowers by creating a Borrower’s Bill of Rights to ensure that predatory lenders can’t take advantage of students. He also supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Delegate Simon is running opposed and is the progressive choice in this race due to his support of increasing the minimum wage and combating the student loan debt crisis.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Karrie Delaney is dedicated to bringing innovative economic growth, world-class education, and healthcare for all to Northern Virginia. She is a mother of two and former Communications Director for Shared Hope International, a non-profit working to end sex trafficking.

A Delegate since 2017, Delaney has been fighting for Fairfax as an advocate for women and children. She sponsored a bill that would invalidate settlement agreements and NDA clauses when a sexual harassment victim is not represented by counsel.

Delegate Delaney is running unopposed and is the progressive choice for this seat.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Ibraheem Samirah was born in Chicago. He’s a second-generation Palestinian-American whose parents were refugees. On February 20, 2019, he became the second Muslim elected to the Virginia General Assembly.

Delegate Samirah’s priorities are healthcare, transportation, education, and the environment.He believes that healthcare should and must be a right for all Americans. He voted to expand programs in the Virginia Department of Health and fights to preserve Medicaid expansion. He is also a strong advocate of expanding access to public transportation and decreasing the cost of tolls in the busy I-66 corridor. He defends school funding and advocates for universal pre-k. One of his top priorities is preserving the environment and Virginia’s natural beauty. Delegate Samirah promises to fight climate change, expand renewable energy sources, and vows to never accept money from Dominion Energy.

Delegate Samirah is running unopposed and is the progressive choice in this race.

Democratic candidate Suhas Subramanyam served on Capitol Hill as a health care and veteran’s policy aide. In that role, he worked to draft legislation to increase job opportunities and funding for veterans. He later earned his law degree with honors at Northwestern University School of Law, volunteering at the Center for Wrongful Convictions. Subramanyam also clerked for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where he helped re-introduce the DREAM Act and worked on criminal justice reforms.

Subramanyam’s platform includes increased healthcare access, increased education funding, and common sense gun reform. He also wants to pass equality legislation such as anti-housing discrimination, anti-hate crime, and equal rights laws.

His Republican opponent, Bill Drennan, is an Air Force combat veteran and former presidential military aide to President Ronald Reagan. Drennan is campaigning on his desire to limit reproductive rights in Virginia. He also opposes common sense gun violence prevention legislation and raising the minimum wage.

Subramanyam is the more progressive choice in this race.