City of Alexandria

Delegate Lopez has represented the 49th District since 2012 and has advocated for progressive causes his entire career. The son of an undocumented father from Venezuela, Lopez attended Vassar College and Tulane University Law School. He served as an appointee in the Obama administration and in Senator Tim Kaine’s office. In the House of Delegates, he serves as the Minority Whip of the Virginia House Democratic Caucus. He currently lives with his wife and two sons in Arlington.

As the founder and co-chair of the Virginia Latino Caucus, Delegate Lopez is a dedicated advocate for immigrant rights. He was critical to the passage of a bill to expandin-state college tuition and financial aid to all Virginia students, regardless of immigration status. He also helped pass legislation allowing undocumented Virginians to receive IDs and driver privilege cards. During the 2021 legislative session, Lopez carried legislation to expand emergency Medicaid to undocumented immigrants so that they could receive testing, treatment, and vaccination for COVID-19.

Lopez also fights to ensure Virginia remains affordable for people to live in and a great place to work. He created the Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which has been critical to preventing evictions and providing rental assistance for families, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. He voted for legislation strengthening the rights of tenants and to increase Virginia’s minimum wage. He supports protecting workers’ rights by repealing Virginia’s right-to-work laws, which undermine the strength of unions, and voted for collective bargaining rights for Virginia public employees.

Lopez works to expand environmental protections and options for renewable energy in Virginia, serving as the founder and co-chair of the Virginia Environment and Renewable Energy Caucus. He helped pass the Virginia Clean Economy Act and the Solar Freedom Act, which are critical to moving the Commonwealth to 100% clean energy. He helped pass the Virginia Green Jobs Tax Credit, incentivizing job creation in renewable energy and electric vehicles. He worked to increase funding for the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund and the Agricultural Best Management Practices program which work to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.

Del. Lopez also advocates for making the promise of democracy real for us all by expanding voting access to all Virginia voters. He voted for the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, which prohibits discrimination at the polls. He helped expand access to absentee voting and passed legislation that allows 16 and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote. He voted to extend early voting in Virginia and remove the requirement for an excuse to cast an absentee ballot. He supports voting rights restoration for returning citizens.

Delegate Lopez is running against conservative Independent Mike Webb. Though not much is available on his actual stance on the issues, we were able to find out that Webb, is a native of Jersey City, New Jersey, graduated from Washington & Lee University in 1988. With experience as a conservative advocate, he served in the United States Army from 1990 to 2010. Webb is associated with organizations such as the Army and Navy Club and the 75th Ranger Regiment Association.

Due to his support of immigrants, working families, the environment, and voting rights, Delegate Lopez is the most progressive choice in this race. Close Window

Incumbent Delegate Charniele Herring was first elected to the House of Delegates in 2009 and was elected as chair of the House Democratic Caucus in 2015. In 2020, she was elected as House majority leader, becoming the first woman and first African American to hold the post. Herring overcame homelessness as a child and went on to attend George Mason University and Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law. Herring has lived in Alexandria for over 30 years.

Herring is a strong advocate for underserved communities in the House of Delegates. She helped create the Virginia Legislative Reproductive Health Caucus, which is dedicated to protecting women’s healthcare issues, including access to reproductive healthcare and abortion. In 2020, she sponsored the Reproductive Health Protection Act, which repealed unnecessary regulations on abortion providers. In 2021, she patroned a bill to extend health insurance coverage to include abortions. She also carried legislation to establish a task force to tackle the crisis of maternal mortality in the Commonwealth the same year.

Herring is chair of the House Courts of Justice Committee, overseeing many progressive reforms to Virginia’s criminal justice system. In 2021, she was chief co-patron of the bill to abolish the death penalty. She helped pass the Virginia Clean Slate Act, which helps expunge certain individuals’ criminal records to give them better access to housing, education, and jobs. She also sponsored the House bill for marijuana legalization and the constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to returning citizens in the Commonwealth.

After experiencing homelessness as a child, Herring was critical to getting full funding for the Homeless Intervention Protection Act. She has also advocated for affordable housing and voted for protections for renters to stay in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic She has fought to address the rising cost of rent and housing shortages in the district to ensure that teachers, firefighters, nurses, and other critical community members are all able to afford to live in the 46th District.

When Herring was thirteen, she testified before a White House committee about the critical need to improve healthcare benefits for children in military families. Since then, she has remained an advocate for the importance of quality, affordable healthcare. She has worked to lower drug costs and voted to cap the price of insulin in 2020. She also voted to expand Medicaid to 750,000 Virginians in 2018 and supported establishing a state-run health insurance marketplace, which helps uninsured or underinsured residents who aren’t covered by an employer-provided health plan to get affordable coverage.

Herring is running unopposed for this seat. Due to her support of abortion access, criminal justice reform, working families and access to affordable healthcare, Delegate Charniele Herring is the most progressive choice for Virginia’s 4th District. Close Window

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker served as the vice mayor of Alexandria and was the youngest woman elected to Alexandria’s city council before becoming a Delegate. She attended Cornell University and the University of London. She served on Alexandria’s Community Criminal Justice Board and Commission on Employment. She also runs a small business that targets food insecurity and co-leads a nonprofit job training and personal development program for underserved women. She and her husband live in Alexandria with their two rescue pets.

As a Delegate, Bennett-Parker expanded access to early childhood education by securing additional funding and supporting zoning changes to increase the number of education facilities in the city. She co-patroned policies to improve school education, such as HB1423 which lays down the duties and principles of the Commission on Early Childhood Care and Education. She also copatroned HB1526, which sets up literary measures for students performance with provisions and protocols to aid students who are below standard. Delegate Bennett-Parker supports raising teacher pay and advancing universal school meal programs that deliver healthy food to Virginia students.

Delegate Bennett-Parker helps to boost Virginia working families by voting for paid family and medical leave so that people don’t have to choose between a paycheck or taking care of a loved one or themselves if they are sick. She aims to raise revenue for the Commonwealth by making sure that the huge corporations, millionaires,and billionaires that have benefited from our community are paying their fair share too. She also wants to ensure that minorities and women are prioritized in opportunities for new businesses. Del. Bennett-Parker patroned HB1924 requiring employers to pay their employees with disabilities at least minimum wage as well as supported a retail and small business owner grant program with her sponsorship of HB476. Del. Bennett-Parker shows dedication to the workforce making her an ideal candidate.

Delegate Bennett-Parker understands the urgency of the climate crisis and sponsored a resolution on the Alexandria City Council calling the climate crisis an emergency. She worked to ensure that all new construction in the city has zero carbon emissions and that property owners have access to tools to make energy improvements. She co-patroned HB1742, a policy that will equip students with the environmental literacy needed to help keep our community safe. Delegate Bennett-Parker also co-patroned HB1510, a policy that incentivises the preservation and restoration of urban green spaces. Additionally, she co-patroned HB1721, which created a policy for the study of microplastics found in our drinking water.

As chair of the Virginia Railway Express, Delegate Bennett-Paker is aware of the region’s transportation needs. Bennet-Parker wants to modernize and expand transportation infrastructure in Northern Virginia so that people have more options and mobility. With this in mind, Delegate Bennett-Parker co-patroned the Transit RIdership Incentive program a policy instrunting the Commonwealth Transportation Board to set aside money to improve transportation in Virginia. She also recognizes that the district suffers from an affordable housing crisis. As a Delegate, she voted to increase funding for affordable housing and expand the number of affordable housing units as well as supporting various policies to protect tennent rights. Climate change has made flooding issues worse for her district and Del. Bennett-Parker’s chief co-patron of HB602 detailed her plan to work with the General Assembly to secure more funding for stormwater infrastructure in the district.

Delegate Bennett-Parker is running unopposed, and due to her support of public education, the environment, Virginia working families, and improved transportation infrastructure, Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker is the most progressive choice in this race.
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Incumbent Delegate Vivian Watts is the longest serving woman in the Virginia House and has held the 39th District seat since 1996. A dedicated public servant, Watts’ career includes serving as the Virginia Secretary of Transportation and working at the U.S. Advisory for Intergovernmental Relations. She has received numerous accolades and awards for her service. She’s a member of the House of Delegates Finance, Rules, Courts of Justice, and Transportation committees. She and her husband, Dave, have two children.

Twenty five years into her career as a delegate, Watts continues to fight for quality education for Virginia children. She voted for a 5% pay raise for Virginia teachers in 2021 to retain qualified teachers in the Commonwealth. The delegate also supports making secondary education more affordable by increasing state funding for institutions of higher learning. In 2020, she voted to freeze tuition at Virginia’s public universities and colleges. She also believes that Virginians saddled with student loan debt need more protections and voted for the Borrowers’ Bill of Rights in 2020, which requires more oversight of student loan servicers.

Watts supports legislation that protects the environment and invests in clean energy. She wants to modernize the state’s power grid with solar energy and offshore wind power infrastructure. She also believes that boosting public transit options will get cars off the road and help reduce air pollution. In 2020, she was given a 100% score by the Virginia League of Conservation Voters. Watts voted for the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which commits the state to 100% renewable energy by 2050.

Watts wants to increase access to affordable healthcare while protecting access to abortion in the Commonwealth. She voted for Medicaid expansion in 2018, which granted nearly 750,000Virginians access to affordable health coverage. She supported capping the cost of insulin to $50. She also voted to repeal medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion providers in 2020 and supported making abortion coverage available on the state’s health insurance exchange. She voted to boost the state’s capacity to administer the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021.

As a member of the House Transportation Committee, Watts understands the transportation needs of her district and worked throughout her career to address them. She supports raising state revenue to increase transportation funding to Northern Virginia to build better and safer roads, decrease traffic congestion, and boost public transit options. She wants to make roads more friendly to pedestrians and cyclists and have a guaranteed source of revenue for Northern Virginia’s transportation needs.

Watts is facing a challenge from Republican candidate Curtis Wells about which not much is known.

Due to her support of public education, the environment, access to affordable healthcare, and funding of Virginia’s transportation system, Delegate Vivian Watts is the most progressive choice in this election. Close Window

Incumbent Delegate Paul Krizek has represented the 44th District since 2016 and was born in Mount Vernon. Krizek holds degrees from the University of Virginia and the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University. He was a staff member of former Congressman Jim Moran and worked on several Democratic campaigns. When not in session, Krizek serves as the executive director of a nonprofit organization that helps Native American youth. Krizek and his family reside in Mount Vernon.

Krizek understands the urgency of tackling the climate crisis in the Commonwealth. He advocates funding renewable energy grant programs and incentives that will help develop greener businesses and technology. He supported Virginia joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an initiative aimed at reducing carbon emissions. He successfully sponsored legislation that increases the transparency and efficiency of Virginia Land Conservation Projects. He voted for the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which commits Virginia to 100% clean energy by 2050.


Krizek supports making healthcare affordable and accessible to all Virginians, and voted to expand Medicaid in 2018. He also voted for legislation to establish a state-run health insurance marketplace, which helps uninsured or underinsured residents who aren’t covered by an employer-provided health plan to get affordable coverage. He voted to cap the price of insulin at $50 and supported making abortion coverage available on health insurance plans offered on the state marketplace. The delegate also worked on legislation that would remove the age cap on autism spectrum-related health insurance coverage, allowing more families access to autism care.

Krizek supports Virginia’s public education system and wants to increase funding for our schools. He voted for a 5% raise for Virginia teachers and increased funding so schools can safely reopen during the pandemic. He also voted to freeze tuition at Virginia public colleges and universities. Krizek successfully carried legislation creating the Grow Your Own Teacher Pilot Program to provide scholarships to low-income high school seniors willing to teach in high-need public schools for at least four years.

Krizek supports policies that make Virginia welcoming and inclusive for all of its residents and voted for the 2020 Virginia Values Act, which made Virginia the first state in the South to prohibit discrimination against the LGBTQ community in housing, employment, public spaces, and credit applications. He also voted to repeal Virginia’s constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Krizek is not facing a challenge from any opponent and is the most progressive choice in this race due to his support of the environment, public education, access to affordable healthcare, and equality. Close Window

The son of a longtime federal worker, incumbent Delegate Mark Sickles was born in Arlington and has represented the 43rd District since 2004. From 2011 to 2014, he served as the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University and two master’s degrees from Georgia Tech. Delegate Sickles has worked in government relations for 27 years, specializing in congressional affairs. Del. Sickles is an openly gay member of the House and currently lives in Franconia.

Del. Sickles supports policies that make Virginia welcoming and inclusive for all of its residents and voted for the 2020 Virginia Values Act, which made Virginia the first state in the South to prohibit discrimination against the LGBTQ community in housing, employment, public spaces, and credit applications. He carried legislation to expand the Virginia Values Act to protect people with disabilities. He also voted to repeal Virginia’s constitutional ban on gay marriage and advocated for efforts to help workers find accountability when experiencing workplace harassment and sexual harassment.

Del. Sickles supports making healthcare affordable and accessible to all Virginians and voted to expand Medicaid in 2018. He successfully sponsored legislation to establish a state-run health insurance marketplace, which helps uninsured or underinsured residents who aren’t covered by an employer-provided health plan to get affordable coverage. He voted to cap the price of insulin at $50 and fought to make abortion coverage available on health insurance plans offered on the state marketplace.

Del. Sickles wants to make the promise of democracy real for us all by expanding voter access to the ballot box. In 2020, he voted to extend early voting in Virginia and establish no-excuse absentee voting. He voted to keep people safe and healthy at the polls during the pandemic by removing the requirement for a witness signature on absentee ballots during an emergency and establishing dropbox voting locations in localities. He also supported the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, which prohibits voter discrimination at the polls.

Del. Sickles is an advocate for criminal justice reform. In 2021, he voted to abolish the death penalty in Virginia, making it the first state in the South to do so. The delegate supported a bill that authorizes the expungement of criminal records for certain convictions. Del. Sickles voted to legalize marijuana and wants to hold police accountable for the violence they inflict on communities by banning qualified immunity, a practice that shields police officers from civil lawsuits for violating people’s civil rights.

Del. Sickles is facing a challenge from Republican candidate Richard Mereu though no information could be found on his politics.

Due to his support of Virginia’s LGBTQ community, access to affordable healthcare, criminal justice reform, and voting access, Delegate Mark Sickles is the most progressive choice in this race. Close Window

Incumbent Delegate Tran was first elected in 2017. She was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the U.S. following the Vietnam War. Tran graduated from Duke University and obtained her Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan. She worked for 12 years at the U.S Department of Labor. She and her husband live in West Springfield with their five children. Since her election in 2017, Delegate Tran has had 29 of her bills passed into law.

As the mother of five and president of her local Parent and Teachers’ Association, Tran understands the challenges facing Virginia’s public education system and wants to improve funding for schools. She supports universal pre-K. In 2021, she voted for a 5% raise for teachers so that Virginia can retain a talented workforce, address teacher shortages, and prevent turnover. She also voted for increased funding so that schools can reopen safely during the pandemic.

Tran supports abortion access and reproductive rights. She believes that medical decisions should be made by a person and their doctor, not politicians. She voted to repeal medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion providers in 2020 and provide abortion coverage on the state health insurance exchange in 2021. She supported offering a 12 month supply of birth control under state Medicaid plans.

Tran’s parents were able to seek asylum in the United States when she was a young child and she understands many issues faced by immigrants and refugees today. In 2020, Tran successfully sponsored legislation to allow undocumented people to get driver privilege cards in the Commonwealth and carried legislation to protect the private information of undocumented drivers the following year. She also voted to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students in 2020 and expand eligibility for state financial aid for undocumented students in 2021.

Tran believes the state legislature must take urgent action to address climate change in Virginia. She opposes fracking and offshore oil drilling and wants to update our power grid so that it depends more on solar power and offshore wind energy. She voted for the Virginia Clean Economy Act in 2020, which commits the Commonwealth to 100% clean energy by 2050. She sponsored legislation this year to hold polluting utilities accountable by making sure they are charging customers fair prices.

Tran is facing a challenge from the same opponent she faced in the last election, Republican Ed McGovern. He is a retired federal employee. McGovern supports using taxpayer money to fund private education opportunities like school voucher programs and opposes holding police accountable for the violence they inflict on communities. He is also against government efforts to keep our communities safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to her support of public education, immigrant rights, abortion access, and the environment, Delegate Kathy Tran is the most progressive choice in this race. Close Window

Rozia Henson, a successful federal contractor and program manager, is running for the Virginia House of Delegates District 19 to be a voice for the underrepresented and marginalized. Raised to serve and with a passion for democracy, Henson has been involved in various leadership roles within the Prince William County Democratic Party. He aims to protect democracy and represent the new 19th House of Delegates District, advocating for constituents' voices and addressing disparities faced by people of color.

Henson, a passionate advocate for safer communities, will address gun safety concerns when elected. Inspired by the tragic case of Brendon Mackey, Henson worked with former State Senator Henry Marsh to champion Brendon's Law, elevating celebratory gunfire resulting in injury to a felony offense. With a track record of bipartisanship and community engagement, Henson aims to ban ghost guns, remove firearms from dangerous individuals, and invest in violence intervention programs. His commitment has earned him the Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate Distinction.

Henson, a strong advocate for reproductive rights, is committed to fighting for abortion access and bodily autonomy. As Senior Vice Chair for the Prince William County Democrats, Henson engaged the community on reproductive healthcare. He actively worked with the Women's Caucus to advocate for a special session to codify autonomy and choice in Virginia. As Delegate, Henson will continue to champion abortion access, address the maternal mortality rate, and expand medical access to underserved communities, ensuring equal opportunities for quality healthcare.

As the son and grandson of union members, Henson is deeply committed to supporting working families and unions. He fought for collective bargaining for firefighters, police, government employees, and schoolteachers when the legislation passed in the Virginia General Assembly. As Delegate, he will work to strengthen laws against wage theft, repeal the "right-to-work" law, and introduce legislation for Paid Family and Medical Leave. He will also advocate for small businesses by creating a "set-aside" and prioritizing Virginia-run businesses for services provided to the Commonwealth Government.

As a committed advocate for climate action and environmental justice, Henson will prioritize addressing the ongoing climate crisis and its impact on marginalized communities. He has actively worked to remove coal ash ponds, keep Virginia in RGGI, and halt offshore pipelines. As Delegate, Henson will fight for a transition to clean energy, push for a moratorium on fossil-fuel projects, and strive to achieve 100% clean renewable energy by 2035. He will also work to strengthen energy efficiency goals in the state to create a sustainable future for all.

Henson is running unopposed and is a progressive choice in this race. Close Window