Jennifer Caroll Foy is a graduate of VMI. That alone is news. She is one of the first African-American women to graduate from the Virginia Military Institute. Graduating from VMI is a demonstration of her courage and persistence, qualities she continues to demonstrate in her work. A public defender in Arlington, she has started a Foundation to support children in foster care. No small challenge for her, VA 02 is a 95% white district. She does have one surprise advantage. Although the recount forced her to have a late start in the general election, her Republican opponent had a later start. He is a substitute, required because the original Republican candidate falsified his educational credentials.

Hala Alaya is a risk taker. She is a candidate for Virginia’s House of Delegates District 51. Moved by her experience in the Women's March on Washington, she resigned from her federal job and submitted papers as a candidate. A local of minority-majority eastern Prince William County. She still lives there. Her father had both Salvadorian and North-African roots. Her mother was Irish and Lebanese. She began her working life as a single mother -- in service jobs; living without health insurance. She was eligible for Medicaid. “Medicaid saved my son’s life." Hala Ayala's way out was to join the Coast Guard. She joined in 2008. She was on a trajectory. She enrolled in an online program at the University of Phoenix and completed the requirements in two years. She earned promotions to become an INFORSEC Specialist (IT Security). She persisted and became a cyber specialist program analyst with the Department of Homeland Security. She quit that job to run for Delegate.

Kathy Tran and her parents fled Vietnam as boat refugees when she was just seven months old.* Although many other countries offered them asylum, they waited 13 months for the United States to accept their application. For Kathy’s family, this country has always represented hope, opportunity and freedom. She has devoted her career to ensuring that all Americans have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream. She began her civil service career at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration as a Presidential Management Fellow in 2003. During her 12 years of service, she served in numerous leadership positions. She went on to work at the National Immigration Forum, one of the nation’s leading immigration advocacy organizations. There, she advocated for policies that prepare immigrants in the workforce to reach their full career potential.

Virginia Guzman came to this country from Peru as a single mother looking for a better future for her daughter. She found exactly that. Her story is an American immigrant success story. If elected she would be the first Hispanic woman in the Virginia House of Delegates. Initially, she worked three jobs. With enough English to pass as bilingual, she moved on to private and public sector jobs requiring both languages. She earned a Bachelor's Degree and a Master's Degree and became Division Chief for the Department of Community Human Services in Alexandria. She became involved in politics, devoting herself to changing the public perception and legislators and law enforcement's perception of immigrants.

Eight or twelve years ago, Danica Roem would have been an impossible candidate -- not just because of the way Virginia's voting habits have changed, but even more profoundly because she is transgendered. She would be the first transgendered person elected who was open about her status. A former journalist, she won awards from the Virginia Press Association seven times for her writing in two small newspapers. She describes two former Prince William representatives, one a Democrat, the other a Republican as her ideal of how legislators should do their work: You didn't have to agree with them on every issue to see that they worked hard to build consensus, govern with a results-oriented approach and reach across the aisle to build a better Manassas.. .