Justin Fairfax of Annandale running for Virginia lieutenant governor

Justin Fairfax (center, with microphone) speaks to a crowd of supporters at P.J. Skidoo’s in Fairfax Jan. 7.

Annandale resident Justin Fairfax launched his Northern Virginia campaign for lieutenant governor at a packed gathering in Fairfax Jan. 7, although he’s been actively running for the position for the past eight months.

Fairfax is a former federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he focused on narcotics and human trafficking. He and his wife, Cerina, a dentist, live in Camelot with their two young children.

Fairfax told the Annandale Blog he is running “to create more economic security and opportunity for all Virginians. To make sure all people can get higher-paying jobs, that they can afford to buy and keep a home, to refinance their high student loan debt, and to access capital to start and run a small business.”

Another big priority for Fairfax is reform of the criminal justice system, including the juvenile justice system. “It is expensive; It’s broken in too many places; and we can do so much better,” he says.

“I want to make sure the American dream is alive and well,” Fairfax says. “So many people have economic anxiety about the circumstances they are now living in.” He wants to “rebuild and restore the tenets of the American dream, giving people upward mobility, giving them hope, and giving them a sense of security.”

Virginia’s primary election is June 13. The general election will be Nov. 7.

Fairfax faces two opponents in the Democratic primary: Gene Rossi of Alexandria, who also served as an assistant U.S. attorney, and Susan Platt of Great Falls, a political consultant who was Vice President Joe Biden’s chief of staff for two years when Biden was a senator in the 1990s.

So far, three Republican candidates will be on their party’s primary ballot: Glenn Davis, a member of the House of Delegates representing the Virginia Beach area; state Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (Fauquier County and surrounding areas); and state Sen. Bryce Reeves (Spotsylvania and Orange counties).

Fairfax ran for attorney general of Virginia in the 2013 Democratic primary, losing to Mark Herring, the current attorney general, who is seeking re-election.

Fairfax supports Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, the current lieutenant governor. Northam had been unopposed until last week, when Tom Perriello jumped in. Perriello represented the Charlottesville area in the U.S. House of Representatives for one term, 2009-11.

Four candidates are so far vying for governor in the Republican primary: Ed Gillespie, former chair of the Republican National Committee; distillery owner Denver Riggleman; Corey Stewart, chair of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors who was fired from his position as Virginia campaign chair for Trump; and state Sen. Frank Wagner of Virginia Beach.