Welcome to the twentieth edition of the 2023 Flip and Defend-A-District Series.
It’s almost here. Less than four days to Election Day. Over the last twenty weeks we have highlighted dozens of outstanding Democrats running throughout the Commonwealth, and emphasized the crucial issues that are at stake for Virginians.
But the importance of this election extends well beyond Virginia. The entire country—indeed, the world—is looking to Virginia’s election as a predictor of the outcome of the next presidential election. As a harbinger of where our country is headed.
The door knocking, the mail, the phone calls—the ubiquitous TV ads—are almost over. Tuesday will be a historic day, and Virginia's Democrats need to show up.
Work through the weekend. Knock those last doors. Make those last calls. And reach out to at least five friends or family members to make sure they have a plan to vote. If you are in Fairfax County you can find voting information here. For other voting information visit the Virginia Department of Elections website.
The candidates Project Blue Dominion has been pleased to feature in our Flip and Defend-A-District series are the Democrats—incumbents and challengers—who Virginians need to elect to gain the majority in the House of Delegates, hold the Senate, and continue to make progress at the local level.
Senate District 17
Meet the candidate: Delegate Clinton “Clint” Jenkins
*SD-17 is one of the most competitive districts and a must-win for Democrats to maintain control of the Senate.
Delegate Jenkins is currently representing House District 76. He was raised in Suffolk, in the heart of the now 17th Senate District. He graduated from John F. Kennedy High School, where he played football and tennis, and proudly served our country as a member of the U.S. Army. Upon returning home, he earned a BA at Saint Leo University and pursued graduate studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. His faith is the bedrock of his life, and he is proud of the ministry opportunities he has had with churches throughout his district. As for employment, Clint worked at BAE Systems Shipyard in Norfolk, and is now a family business owner, as the proud operator of a local real estate company with his daughter.
Clint is constantly looking for ways to serve and improve the community. As a Delegate, he focused on the issues that are most important to his constituents, such as advancing infrastructure, protecting reproductive rights, expanding access to healthcare, advocating for sensible gun ownership, and improving our public school education system. Now he is running for Senate in District 17 to continue his work on these issues.
He is a big believer in forging partnerships and working cooperatively to make things happen for Virginians. He believes when we all join together in the spirit of service, the sky is truly the limit.
About Senate District 17:
The new 17th District includes Suffolk, Franklin, Isle of Wight County, Southampton County, Brunswick County, Greensville County, Emporia and parts of Dinwiddie County and Portsmouth.
Who Clint is up against:
Clint's opponent is Republican candidate Emily Brewer. Brewer is using a misleading ad to distract voters from her views on abortion and healthcare.
Contact the campaign: here
Contribute: here
Senate District 36
Meet the candidate: Stella Pekarsky
Stella Pekarsky is a mother of 6, a former public school teacher, and a businesswoman who grew up in a working-class immigrant family. Stella learned English as a second language and spent part of her early years in Greece. She is running to represent Virginia’s 36th Senate district, where she has resided for over 20 years. Stella began her career as a public school ESOL teacher. While she eventually took a break from the full-time classroom to care for her children and start a small business with her husband, she never took a break from helping children and their families.
Stella's passion for ensuring every child has access to a high-quality public education and her years of teaching and advocacy eventually led to 2019, when she stepped up to serve as the Sully district representative on the Fairfax County School Board. Stella served as Chair of the Board during one of the most tumultuous times in public education, fighting against Youngkin’s misguided mask bans, transgender model policies, history curriculum revisions, book bans, and anti-equity proposals.
Stella is running because she believes that we are at a critical point in time for the future of our Commonwealth and the diverse experiences of our elected officials matter now more than ever. As a State Senator, Stella will fight to protect access to abortions and reproductive healthcare in Virginia, enact common sense gun violence prevention laws to protect our communities, fully fund our public schools and raise teacher pay, protect our environment, and fight for policies that support workers and families.
With her professional background and strong ties to her local community, Stella is ready to be the leader her community needs to represent them in the State Senate.
About Senate District 36:
Stella is running in Virginia’s newly redrawn 36th District. It includes Centreville, Chantilly, Clifton, Fair Oaks, and parts of Herndon and Fairfax Station.
Who Stella is up against:
Stella is running against Julie Perry, a Republican who previously ran for the House of Delegates and lost to Del. Irene Shin. Julie Perry opposes a woman’s right to choose, wants to increase Virginia’s fossil fuel production, and supports censoring content and banning books in our public schools. She has also publicly compared being a Republican teacher to being a Jew during the Holocaust and has expressed her support for Donald Trump and MAGA extremists, as a participant in the January 6th insurrection.
Contact the campaign: here
Contribute: here
Senate District 32
Meet the Candidate: Delegate Suhas Subramanyam
Delegate Suhas Subramanyam is currently running to represent SD-32 in the State Senate. He is running to lower health care costs, protect reproductive rights, and lower costs for businesses and working families in every corner of the Commonwealth.
Prior to his work in Richmond, Suhas served as a health care policy aide on Capitol Hill, assisting with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and later became a Policy Advisor in the Obama White House. Suhas also serves the community as a Member of the Virginia Small Business Commission, a volunteer EMT, and as a member of the Loudoun Health Council. First elected in 2019, Suhas is the first South Asian, Indian American, and Hindu candidate ever elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.
Suhas and his wife Miranda currently reside in Ashburn with their two daughters, Maya (3) and Nina (1).
About Senate District 32:
SD-32 covers Eastern Loudoun County, including Sterling, South Riding, and Ashburn.
Who Suhas is up against:
Suhas' opponent, Greg Moulthrop, has a history of opposing common sense gun safety measures, access to reproductive health care, and doesn't represent the values of Virginia's 32nd District.
Contact the campaign: here
Contribute: here
As a reminder, there will be candidates on the ballot who will not have a “D” or “R” next to their name, so it is important to take a sample ballot with you into the voting booth. Fairfax County voters can visit here to look up which down-ballot candidates are Democrats. If you are given a sample ballot, make sure it is coming from your local Democratic committee– Republicans are doing their best to mislead voters into thinking they are voting for Democrats.
In my home area of Dranesville, the candidates you want to vote for are Jennifer Boysko for Senate, Robin Lady for School Board, Jimmy Bierman for Board of Supervisors, Stacy Ann Kincaid for Sheriff, Jeff McKay for Chairman Board of Supervisors, and Steve Descano for Commonwealth's Attorney. For Member School Board at Large, you want to vote for Ilryong Moon, Robert "Kyle" McDaniel, and Ryan McElveen. For Soil and Water Conservation Director Northern Virginia District, you want to vote for Rhonda Bitterli, Chris Koerner, and Dana Barakat.
And we haven't yet highlighted our outstanding candidate for Clerk of Court, Chris Falcon. He will be a terrific Clerk, which is a crucial position in our justice system. Read about him below, and make sure to support him on your ballot.
Fairfax County Clerk of Court
Meet the candidate: Chris Falcon
Chris Falcon is the son of two immigrants, was born and raised here in Fairfax County, and is happy to be raising his own kids here too. He’s been a lawyer for the past 15 years and currently serves as the Deputy Clerk, Civil Division Supervisor, and Legal Counsel for the Arlington Circuit Court Clerk’s office. Chris has both the professional and lived experience to get the job done, and done well.
The Clerk of the Fairfax County Court serves as the liaison between the court system and constituents: maintaining records, helping the public access information, and ensuring court operations run well. It’s critical to elect someone in this role who prioritizes efficiency, transparency, and justice - and Chris plans to do just that. Chris is running for Clerk to modernize our court system to better serve our constituents, and to help people access public information and their personal records as easily as possible. He will make many court services available online, take public court information out from behind its current paywall, and increase language translation services for our multilingual county.
Chris is a countywide candidate in Fairfax County, which has a 2:1 Democrat to Republican advantage. However, the Fairfax Clerk of Court position has been held by a Republican for the past 40 years, and Chris is our best chance to fill this open seat with a Democrat who is ready to modernize the court system and push our justice system to be truly equitable. In addition, the Clerk of Court position on the ballot does not have party affiliation, so it’s critical in this final push for Chris to get his name out to voters and ensure they know he is the Democratic candidate for Clerk.
Who Chris is up against:
Chris is running against Gerarda Culipher, who is currently the Deputy Clerk of Court for the retiring Republican Fairfax Clerk. If elected, she will continue much of the same policies as the current Republican Clerk, keeping our court system in the past. She has been hesitant to publicly share her party affiliation, despite running in the Republican primary and being endorsed by the Fairfax County GOP. Gerarda has repeatedly disagreed with Chris’ plans to modernize the Fairfax court systems, trying to create a false choice between online access to records and security. Chris knows - as evidenced by the practices in other Virginia counties - that the Fairfax court system can securely provide online records, and that one does not have to come at the expense of another.
Contact the campaign: here
Contribute: here
That’s it. Twenty weeks of Flip and Defend-A-District Fridays. Thank you for supporting Democratic candidates across the state, and thank you for supporting Project Blue Dominion in our goal to take back the House, defend the Senate, and elect Democrats up and down the ballot all across Virginia.
Tuesday is a big day. Let's do this.