WAYNESBORO — Justin Fairfax is accustomed to high achievement.
He grew up in a family of four siblings, all of whom graduated from college thanks to their hard work and a mother and grandparents who nurtured their dreams in northeast Washington, D.C.
Fairfax graduated from Duke and earned law review while attending Columbia Law School. Now, the youthful 38-year-old former federal prosecutor is seeking to become lieutenant governor of Virginia, and if successful would be the first statewide black office-holder since Doug Wilder was elected the commonwealth's governor in 1989.
Fairfax nearly won the Democratic nomination for attorney general in 2013, garnering more than 49 percent of the vote before losing to current Attorney General Mark Herring.
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It's been a long but rewarding journey. While his mother worked as a pharmacist and bought a house near her parents in Washington, young Justin paid attention to his surroundings.
"There were drugs and a crack epidemic,'' he said of the area. Fairfax spent more time watching his mother, his grandfather, a 45-year postal employee, and his grandmother, who worked as a nurse at a D.C. hospital.
Prior to attending Duke, he went to high school in Maryland, where he earned all-state chorus honors. He never forgot the sacrifices others made for him and his family.
"If people had not opened doors for me and my siblings, there is no way I'm here today,'' Fairfax said.
Now he wants to pay back that "spiritual debt'' he accumulated from his supportive family.
Fairfax, a Democrat, is running to become the state's next lieutenant governor. The current occupant of that position, Democrat Ralph Northam, is running for governor.
"I want economic opportunity for all Virginians,'' he said during an interview at The News Virginian last week. Fairfax was in the area making several campaign stops up and down the Shenandoah Valley.
He said race or origin should not be a barrier to achievement.
"Excellence comes in all forms and in all communities,'' he explained.
Fairfax wants to offer students the chance to refinance student debt through the state. He also hopes to guide more young people toward a pathway of skilled worker jobs, 175,000 of which are available in Virginia now.
Those jobs include post-secondary training and certification at a community college, but not necessarily a four-year baccalaureate degree.
"These jobs pay three to four to five times the minimum wage,'' he said. Fairfax said universal kindergarten and pre-kindergarten education would help young people get a sense of direction early, to be followed by STEM education and arts training.
Fairfax's own children, ages 7 and 5, already are learning computer coding. His wife Cerina is a dentist in Northern Virginia and Fairfax practices for the Venable law firm, a firm with several big city offices. The family lives in Fairfax county.
In addition to his focus on jobs and economic development, Fairfax also is aware of Virginia's opioid crisis and the need for criminal justice reform.
As a former assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia's Eastern District for two and half years, he prosecuted drug, illegal immigration, and other crimes. He also helped run a Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force while a federal prosecutor.
Fairfax said young people need resources in schools to avoid the pitfalls of opioid and other drug addictions.
And if elected, he would convene a summit of stakeholders, including health professionals, judges, law enforcement and others, to deal with criminal justice reform.
"We spend $150,000 a year to house a juvenile,'' said Fairfax. He would prefer to have youthful offenders held in regional environments in closer proximity to their families. He said juveniles who have more exposure to their parents do better in rehabilitating from offenses. He also thinks it never makes sense to have a juvenile in solitary confinement.
"I want to look at medium and long-term fixes,''Â he said of criminal justice reform.
Fairfax is opposed by former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi and longtime Democratic activist Susan Platt in the June Democratic primary. The Republican side also has a three-way race, with Virginia Sens. Jill Holtzman Vogel and Bryce Reeves, and Del. Glenn Davis.
Fairfax has been running for lieutenant governor for nearly a year, and has garnered some impressive endorsements. Those include Virginia Senate Democratic leader Richard Saslaw and Northern Virginia Rep. Gerald Connolly. Fairfax also co-chaired Sen. Mark Warner's 2014 re-election campaign.
Fairfax has been steadily raising money for his campaign. On Tuesday, the campaign announced it had raised nearly $300,000 during the first quarter of 2017, with nearly two-thirds coming from donations of $100 or less.
The next seven weeks before the primary will be a grind, he said, but that is nothing new for Fairfax. He is focused "on education opportunity and security'' for Virginians, the same opportunity and security he received when growing up in Washington.