Summary
Meet Your Candidates night will feature Fairfax County state Senate and House of Delegate candidates up for election on November 7, 2023. This event will occur on Tuesday October 24 between 4pm and 8pm on the Fairfax campus of George Mason University at Dewberry South and Lobby in Johnson Center.
- Each candidate will participate in a town hall giving a short speech followed by a 20 minute Q&A with the audience. Most of the candidates will have tables in the Dewberry Lobby where you can talk with their volunteers and pick up their literature. The town halls are intended to be a conversation with the candidates to educate voters on their policy positions and relevant experience.
- Democratic and Republican Party leaders will close the night with town halls at 7:00 and 7:30 with a short speech about the candidates and how the audience can volunteer, intern, and donate money to support their party organizations and candidates, after which they will take questions from the audience.
- Additional table hosts in the Dewberry Lobby will focus on voting, university programs and student groups, and party affiliated organizations.
Democracy onAir, a nonpartisan 501c3 nonprofit managed by GMU alumni, is coordinating Meet Your Candidates night. Democracy onAir will be coordinating a similar event at GMU on October 22, 2024 for the 2024 congressional and presidential races.
The Fairfax County Republican Committee and the Fairfax County Democratic Committee have assisted with organizing the candidates for this event..
For more information about the town halls, contact our student coordinator Sophie Wagner at sophie.wagner@onair.cc.
For more information about the tables in the Dewberry Lobby and Democracy onAir, contact Scott Joy at scott.joy@onair.cc.
About
All 140 seats are up for grabs in November. An enormous opportunity for change is coming to the Virginia General Assembly. Currently, the Senate Democrats have 22 seats and Republicans have 18 seats. In the House of Delegates, Republicans have 50 seats and Democrats have 46 seats (4 vacant seats). You’re invited to learn about what these people who will represent you stand for … As well, for the first time, you will also have a direct channel to them – beyond the event. You can easily inform them about what’s most important to you … and they can respond to you directly as well. To learn more about your current representatives, select the “Representatives” tab in the site header, then select “Who Represents Me” and enter your street address.
- The candidate town halls will focus on the open Senate seats (Districts 33, 36, and 37) and open House of Delegate seat (Districts 15) contiguous to the Fairfax campus. We will also have town halls with the candidates for Senate (District 35) and House (District 11) representing the Mason Fairfax campus. Go here for more information on the candidates.
- Bryan Graham, Fairfax County Democratic Committee Chair, will be leading the 7:00 Town Hall featuring Democratic organizations in Fairfax and Steven Knotts, Fairfax County Republican Committee Chair, will be leading the 7:30 Republican Town Hall. Go here for more information.
- A number of stakeholder organizations will also host tables in the Dewberry Hall lobby. Go here for more information.
If you are unable to attend Meet Your Candidates night in person, we will be recording the town halls and interviews with table hosts. Check out this post and onAir candidate profile posts for videos that we will provide by Oct. 31.
Event Schedule
Below you will find information on the Meet Your Candidates night schedule. To learn more about the candidates who have confirmed their participation, scroll down or select (only on large screens) a specific candidate from the Table of Contents at the right.
| 4:00 | Del. David Bulova (D) | House 11 |
| Almira Mohammed (R) | House 11 | |
| 4:30 | Stella Pekarsky (D) | Senate 36 |
| Julie Perry (R) | Senate 36 | |
| 5:00 | Jennifer Carroll Foy (D) | Senate 33 |
| Mike Van Meter (R) | Senate 33 | |
| 5:30 | Sen. Dave Marsden (D) | Senate 35 |
| Mark Vafiades (R) | Senate 35 | |
| 6:00 | Marcus Evans (R) | House 15 |
| 6:30 | Saddam Azlan Salim (D) | Senate 37 |
| Ken Reid (R) | Senate 37 | |
| 7:00 | Fairfax Democratic Organizations | |
| 7:30 | Fairfax Republican Organizations |
Location and Parking
Meet Your Candidates night will take place in Dewberry South and Lobby. The event is at the ground level of Johnson Center on the George Mason University Fairfax Campus. Here is a link to the Google map for directions
See Mason Parking Map for location of indoor parking lots.
- The closest indoor parking to Johnson Center is the Pond Parking Deck (41 on the Mason map) next to the Center for the Arts.. More available indoor parking is at Sandy Creek Parking Deck (42) and Rappahannock Parking Deck (43). Paid parking is $5 for the first hour and $18 for all day.
Candidate Districts
See below for more detailed maps of each district
Senate Districts
House Districts
Issues Survey
Flyer for Printing and Media
This PDF can be printed in color or black and white (refresh page if images does not appear).
Social media outreach
Below is a overview paragraph for social media outreach:
Meet Your Candidates night on Tuesday October 24, 2023 will feature 11 Fairfax County state Senate and House candidates up for election this year as well as Republican and Democratic leaders from party organizations. Town halls and hosted tables will take place between 4 and 8pm in Dewberry Hall and Lobby on GMU’s Fairfax campus. The public is invited including interested high school students. See link above for more information on the event and participants.
Here is a PDF with images for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts.
Senate Candidates
Below are summaries of the Virginia Senate candidates participating in Meet Your Candidates night.
Starting October, we will begin inviting GMU students, faculty, staff and alumni to attend Meet Your Candidates night. At the same time, we will be reaching out to Fairfax County voters as well as Northern Virginia congressional, state, county and city representatives and bureaucrats as well as print, TV, and social media to attend Meet Your Candidates town halls.
House of Delegate Candidates
Below are summaries of the Virginia House of Delegates candidates participating in Meet Your Candidates night.
Fairfax Party Organizations
Short summaries of the leaders of the Fairfax Democratic Party Town Hall at 7:00 and the Fairfax Republican Party Town Hall at 7:30 are below. Followed by short summaries of key Democratic and Republican organizations in Virginia and Fairfax.
Bryan Graham
Chair, Fairfax County Democratic Committee (FCDC)
Bryan Graham chairs the FCDC Steering Committee which is the central organization that coordinates the work of the County, District and Standing Committees. Steering Committee meets once per month on the second Tuesday.
The Steering Committee is made up of all elected officers of the County Committee, the Chairs of the nine District Committees, the Chairs of the Standing Committees and caucuses, the highest ranking officers of the three Congressional District Democratic Committees with boundaries inside Fairfax County (8th, 10th, 11th), a representative from the Fairfax Young Democrats, the immediate past Chair of FCDC, and any member of the State Central Committee that is also an FCDC Member.
Bryan Graham is Senior Solution Architect and Chief Technologist at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Steve Knotts
Chair, Fairfax County Republican Committee
The FCRC is the only organization dedicated exclusively to organizing and administering the day-to-day grassroots operations for the Republican Party here in Fairfax County.
The FCRC Chairman is elected every even-numbered year at the County Convention. The Chairman oversees the FCRC’s entire scope of operations including fundraising, membership relations, volunteer recruitment, and Election Day operations. He sets priorities for the organization, with the help of the Executive Committee. He also sets the agenda for membership meetings and runs those meetings.
Steve Knotts is Senior Director, Dark Fiber and Right-of-Way at Cogent Communications.
Patricia Bast “Patti” Lyman
National Committeewoman, Republican Party of Virginia
Patti Lyman is a born and raised native Virginian and lifelong Republican. A committed conservative activist, she joined the pro-life movement in 1991 and soon left her business career for law school to become a pro-life attorney with the American Center for Law & Justice. After 9/11, Patti entered immigration law to specialize in asylum for persecuted Christians escaping Islamic countries.
Patti holds a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia, an MBA in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and a Juris Doctor from Regent University School of Law.
Patti and her husband of 30 years, Frank, live in Fairfax with their multiple cats and are blessed to enjoy their many godchildren, official and otherwise.
