Justin Fairfax

The second allegation caused a wave of calls for Fairfax to resign from politicians including many Democrats in the General Assembly; most of Virginia's Democratic members of Congress, including Tim Kaine; former Governor Terry McAuliffe; and multiple nationally prominent Democrats, including several running for president in 2020. Delegate Patrick Hope, also a Democrat, announced that he would introduce articles of impeachment against Fairfax within three days if Fairfax had not resigned. The Virginia legislature's Black Caucus asked Fairfax to resign. Hope backed off his plan to introduce articles of impeachment after fellow House Democrats said they were not prepared for the process, saying "additional conversations" were needed. Tyson's lawyer has reached out to the Suffolk County, Massachusetts district attorney to schedule a meeting to detail her allegations, while a spokesman for Fairfax said he would be willing to cooperate with any probe and to "explore all options with regard to filing his own criminal complaint in response to the filing of a false criminal complaint against him."

On January 19, 2019, Fairfax protested a tribute in the state Senate honoring Confederate General Robert E. Lee's birthday. "History repeats itself," Fairfax tweeted. "I will be stepping off the dais today in protest of the Virginia Senate honoring Robert E. Lee...I'll be thinking of this June 5, 1798 manumission document that freed my great-great-great grandfather Simon Fairfax from slavery in Virginia. #WeRiseTogether."

In early February 2019, Big League Politics reported that Fairfax had been accused by Vanessa C. Tyson, an associate professor at Scripps College and fellow at Stanford University, of sexual assault at a hotel at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Tyson said she had suppressed memories of the event but began telling close friends about it when she saw pictures of Fairfax running for lieutenant governor in 2017. Tyson had first approached The Washington Post with her allegation after Fairfax won election in November 2017, but the Post said that it decided not to run the story because it could not corroborate the story or find similar incidents in Fairfax's past. Tyson also approached a friend, Virginia Congressman Bobby Scott, with the allegation around the same time, but Scott declined to act on it. According to The New York Times, at least six friends of Tyson reported that she told them about the alleged assault between 2017 and 2018.

On February 8, 2019, a second woman, Meredith Watson, came forward with sexual assault allegations against Fairfax, alleging that he raped her in a "premeditated and aggressive" attack in 2000 when both were undergraduate students at Duke University. A college friend of Watson stated she remembered Watson telling her about the assault the day after it happened. Watson said she had been previously raped by a Duke basketball player, later identified as Corey Maggette, and brought the matter to the dean but was discouraged from pursuing the matter. Watson's attorney said that Watson had one interaction with Fairfax after the alleged assault outside a campus party, during which Watson said "Why did you do it?" and reported Fairfax replied, "I knew that because of what happened to you last year, you’d be too afraid to say anything." Watson's attorney said this showed Fairfax "used the prior rape of his 'friend' against her when he chose to rape her in a premeditated way." Fairfax denied the second accusation, issuing a statement saying,

Fairfax served as a Visitor of Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy from 2008 to 2014. He then returned in 2015. On February 8, 2019, the school's Dean, Judith Kelley, asked Fairfax to step down.

In 2017, Fairfax ran for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. In the Democratic primaries, he faced Gene Rossi, a federal prosecutor, who had trained Fairfax when they worked together in Alexandria's Eastern District federal court, and Susan Platt, a political lobbyist and consultant, who had served as chief of staff to Joe Biden in the 1990s (Platt had also run Virginia Senator Chuck Robb's 1994 re-election campaign and Don Beyer's unsuccessful 1997 gubernatorial campaign). Citing their unease with Dominion Energy's planned construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, all three candidates in the Democratic primary pledged to refuse campaign contributions from Dominion Energy, despite the company being the largest contributor to Virginia political campaigns for both Republicans and Democrats. Although early polling showed Platt in the lead, Fairfax significantly outraised both of his opponents and proved victorious in the primary election, carrying about 49% of the vote.

Fairfax then faced Republican nominee Jill Vogel, a state senator from Fauquier County, in the general election. Fairfax and Vogel raised comparable amounts of money for their campaigns—$3.9 million and $3.7 million, respectively. A forum between Fairfax and Vogel was held at Piedmont Community College on August 9, 2017 and a debate between the two candidates was held at the University of Richmond on October 5.

The lieutenant governor's position is part-time. Fairfax announced in December 2017 that he will be leaving his law firm, Venable. His law partner at Venable, Larry Roberts, served as his campaign chairman during the election and is currently serving as his chief of staff. In September 2018, Fairfax joined the law firm of Morrison & Foerster, continuing the historic practice of Virginia lieutenant governors maintaining employment while in office. Fairfax became the first head of the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association (DLGA), which was launched in August 2018.

After the race, Fairfax co-chaired the 2014 reelection campaign of U.S. Senator Mark Warner from Virginia. The following year, he was recruited to work at the law firm of Venable LLP, in the firm's Tysons, Virginia office. Fairfax then worked for Morrison & Foerster, a law firm which elevated him to the rank of Partner in September 2018. In July 2019, Fairfax announced that he was resigning from Morrison & Foerster, which had accepted his resignation.

Fairfax ran for public office for the first time in 2013, seeking the Democratic nomination for state attorney general. He lost to Mark Herring, but surprised party insiders with his strong performance in the primary. Herring defeated Fairfax by about 4,500 votes out of 141,600 cast in a closer-than-expected race. The Washington Post praised both candidates during the primary, but endorsed Fairfax, writing that he had displayed "an agile and impressive command of the issues with a prosecutor's passion for justice."

He then served as law clerk to Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in 2005. He worked in the Washington office of the law firm WilmerHale before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia in 2010. Fairfax worked for two years as a federal prosecutor in Alexandria, Virginia. He served as deputy coordinator of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force during this time.

After serving on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee for two years, Fairfax attended Columbia Law School, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review. Over the summer of 2004, he joined the John Kerry presidential campaign, as a body man for John Edwards.

Fairfax moved with his family from Pittsburgh to Northeast Washington, D.C. when he was five years old. One of four children, Fairfax graduated from DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, where he was senior class president. Fairfax then graduated from Duke University in 2000, with a degree in public policy. He was a briefing coordinator for Tipper Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign of Al Gore, in the campaign's Nashville, Tennessee office. Fairfax was also a staffer for Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, in the senator's Washington office.

Justin Edward Fairfax (born February 17, 1979) is an American politician and lawyer who has been serving since 2018 as the 41st Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the second African American elected statewide in Virginia, following Douglas Wilder.