2023 Candidates

James DeVita was born and raised in Massachusetts. In 1976, He graduated 25th out of 600 students at Chelmsford High School where he was Captain of the Debate Team and co-author of a history of his hometown. James graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1976, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, (Class Rank 8/2000), (3.96/4.00). He graduated from Georgetown Law School in 1982.

After graduating from Georgetown Law School, James clerked for two federal judges and then started his own law firm. Between 1990 and 1998, James worked for the D.C. Attorney General’s Office where he handled multi-million-dollar personal injury lawsuits and cases involving police brutality and employment discrimination. Between 1998 and 2000, James worked for the U.S. Department of Justice helping to clean up toxic waste sites. Since 2000, James has worked for himself and for private law firms.

From 2018 to the present, James has worked for himself in his own law firm, where he handles immigration, bankruptcy, employment, criminal, divorce, and traffic cases. James is a member of the Bar in good standing in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia where he represents clients in every federal and local court in the D.C. Metropolitan area. James is currently representing seven Black Lives Matter protesters in a lawsuit pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. He announced his candidacy for the Virginia State Senate in January 2023.

Senator Favola is a whip in the Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus. She chairs the Virginia Senate’s Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee, as well as serving on the Local Government Committee, Transportation Committee, Rules Committee, and Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources Committee. She is a member and former Chair of the Virginia Advisory Committee for Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, Chair of the Senate Women's Health Care Caucus, and a member and former Chair of Virginia’s Commission on Youth.

She served on Governor McAuliffe’s Climate Change and Resiliency Update Commission and served on the Disability Commission and the Joint Committee to Study the Future of Public Education. Senator Favola serves on the Advisory Board of Virginia Tech's School of Public and International Affairs and is a former member of the Board of the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind.

Prior to her election as a State Senator, Barbara Favola served on the Arlington County Board for fourteen years (1997-2011) and chaired that body three times. During her service with the County, Senator Favola was the Board's leading advocate for children, youth, and families, and her contributions to the community include establishing mental health services in the public schools.

State Senator Adam Ebbin has represented Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax in Richmond since 2004, taking office in January 2012 after serving for eight years in the House of Delegates.

Adam has been a leader in the General Assembly in advancing progressive priorities including preventing gun violence, standing up against LGBT discrimination, and protecting the right to vote. He has been a steadfast champion for increased access to early childhood education, criminal justice reform, and workers’ rights.

Adam chairs the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee and serves on five other Senate committees: Commerce and Labor; Privileges and Elections; Transportation; Rules; as well as Finance and Appropriations.

He is a member of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, the Cannabis Oversight Commission (which he chairs), the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission, and co-chairs the General Assembly’s Gun Violence Prevention Caucus.

A native of Commack, New York, Adam has resided in Alexandria since 1989 and is a 1985 graduate of American University. He was a Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute of Political Leadership in 2000 and at Harvard University’s Kennedy School program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government in 2012.

Delegate Patrick Hope has represented Arlington since 2010. He serves on the House Committees on Public Safety; Health, Welfare and Institutions; and Courts of Justice. He serves on several Commissions: Joint Commission on Health Care; Behavioral Health Commission; Substance Abuse Services Council; and Virginia Disability Commission.

Patrick was born in San Antonio, Texas. He received his BA from St. Mary's University in San Antonio ('93), his MA from Catholic University in Washington, DC ('96), and a JD from Catholic’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC ('01).

After several years on Capitol Hill, Patrick worked for various healthcare organizations. He’s currently the Executive Director of the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance. He also is an Adjunct Professor at Marymount University.

Patrick has a strong record of community leadership. He was founder/first president of the Buckingham Community Civic Association (2003-2009); chaired the Arlington Community Services Board (2005-2008); and Commissioner for the Arlington Commission on Aging (2002-2007).

Patrick belongs to numerous community organizations: Arlington Bar Association, Committee of 100, Leadership Arlington (2010), Arlington Kiwanis, South Arlington Kiwanis, and the Arlington Historical Society.

Patrick, his wife, Kristen, and their three children – Matteo, Patty, and Lilly – have lived in the Buckingham community since 2000.

Adele is the daughter of a resilient early childhood educator and a Filipino immigrant who served in the U.S. Army. Adele was raised on Richmond Highway in Northern Virginia where she experienced poverty and periodic homelessness not far from where she currently lives in Arlington, an experience that has made her a fierce advocate for vulnerable populations. Through the lens of her community activism and her many lived experiences, Adele has worked with advocates and members of the Virginia General Assembly to draft, pass, and implement legislation that breaks down systemic barriers, expands human rights, and improves access to services for people in Arlington and across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Adele’s lived experiences combined with her policy expertise and experience in the state legislative and executive branches make Adele ready to hit the ground running on the first day. She would serve as the first Black and Asian person to represent Arlington in the Virginia General Assembly.

Adele McClure is running to represent the needs of the people in Arlington and build upon the progress that we’ve made together.

Kevin Saucedo-Broach is a fourth-generation Arlingtonian and community organizer running to represent Arlington’s new 2nd District in the Virginia House of Delegates. An advocate for low-income, immigrant families like his own, he’s running for a progressive vision of government centered on expanding access to mental healthcare, affordable housing, and economic opportunities to all Virginians.

A former Congressional aide and field organizer for the 2017 Northam campaign, Kevin served as Chief of Staff to Delegate Alfonso Lopez in the Virginia General Assembly until 2022. There, he was involved in the creation of the Virginia legislative Latino Caucus and played an instrumental role in the passage of landmark progressive legislation—including laws expanding access to in-state college tuition and financial aid to undocumented students and establishing the first statewide LGBTQ+ governmental advisory body in the South.

In 2021, Kevin was appointed by Governor Northam to the Virginia Board for Contractors—the first Latino to serve in its near century-long history. He is a former Chair of the Arlington Democrats Latino Caucus and volunteer docent with the Arlington Historical Museum.  A renter in Arlington Ridge, if elected, Kevin would be the first openly LGBTQ+ Virginian of color to win a seat in the General Assembly.

Delegate Alfonso Lopez is a lifelong Democrat and activist with over 30 years of federal and Virginia legislative experience on issues critical to the people of Arlington County, Alexandria City, and Fairfax County. He has served as an Obama Administration political appointee, Kaine Administration cabinet-level appointee, and a six-term member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing the people of the 49th District. Delegate Lopez has been the Patron, Co-Patron, or the Chief Co-Patron of over 150 bills that have been signed into law. These bills have addressed a wide array of issues, including the environment, renewable energy, small business, criminal justice reform, immigration, sensible gun violence prevention, and protecting the social safety net. As the former Majority Whip of the House Democratic Caucus, Delegate Lopez also worked to, among other things, increase teacher salaries by 5%, secure a dedicated source of revenue for METRO, ban the death penalty in Virginia, create the first State Voting Rights Act in the South, and, perhaps most importantly, expand Medicaid and health protections to over 500,000 Virginians.