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Incumbent Del. Ibraheem Samirah (left) and challenger Irene Shin (right) are competing in the Democratic primary for the 86th District (Photos courtesy Ibraheem Samirah, Irene Shin)
Virginia’s political transformation over the past decade can be summed up by the arc of the 86th House District.
10 years ago, former Herndon mayor and Republican Tom Rust was reelected for a sixth term, running unopposed in both the primary and general elections. Two years later, Jennifer Boysko fell just 54 votes shy of ousting Rust, and in 2015, she turned the district blue after he opted not to seek reelection.
Jumping to 2021, the Town of Herndon and western Fairfax County down to Route 50 in Chantilly are represented in the House of Delegates by Del. Ibraheem Samirah, the Palestinian American grandson of refugees who succeeded Boysko in 2019 as part of a new wave of Democratic leaders that gave the party control of the General Assembly.
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Michael Pope reports
Monday, December 28th, is the final deadline for citizens to get their applications for the new redistricting commission into the Division of Legislative Services. According to data from the Virginia Public Access Project, applicants so far tend to be wealthy white people from Northern Virginia. I don t think anybody is surprised by the lack of diversity that we re seeing in the applicant pool, according to Irene Shin, executive director at the Virginia Civic Engagement Table. We re trying to figure out how do we ensure that we are encouraging as many diverse applicants whether it s racially diverse, gender-wise or geographically to apply and represent their communities on this commission.