Voting in Fairfax County's 2023 Democratic primary? Key issues on the ballot

Stacey Ann Kincaid, incumbent

Major endorsements: State Sen. Chap Petersen and Ed Nuttall, a primary candidate for Fairfax County commonwealth’s attorney.

More on her candidacy: Kincaid, 58, first came to the sheriff’s office in 1987 as a deputy, moving up through the ranks until she was elected sheriff in 2013. During her time as sheriff, Kincaid ended an agreement with federal authorities that kept people who potentially faced deportation in jail beyond the end of their criminal sentences. In 2016, she helped create Diversion First, a program to steer people with mental health disorders away from jail that the sheriff oversees. The effort was partly inspired by the 2015 death of a woman in a mental crisis who was restrained and Tasered at the county jail. If reelected, Kincaid said, she hopes to build on the office’s reentry programs for people leaving jail, aiming to create a reentry center in Fairfax County.

In 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled a transgender woman could sue the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office for violating the Americans With Disabilities Act by housing her with men during her time in jail. Court records show the sheriff’s office has since petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. Kincaid said she was limited in her ability to comment on the issue but added: “We treat people with dignity and respect, and we’re not there to make anybody feel less than.”

Kelvin Garcia

Major endorsements: None listed.

More on his candidacy: Garcia, a former D.C. police officer, is challenging Kincaid in the primary race. Garcia, who said he is a law clerk at the Virginia firm Liberty Legal, was an officer with the D.C. police department between 2008 and 2019. Garcia, 38, has previously said he launched his campaign over his concerns about Kincaid’s management of the county’s jail.

“Just because someone has been running an organization for 10 years doesn’t mean they have been running it well,” Garcia said previously of his opponent.

Referencing the sheriff’s office’s petition, Garcia said he would house transgender and other gender-nonconforming people in units based on how they identify rather than the sex assigned to them at birth, which diverges from the jail’s current policy. He also said he wanted to make incarcerated people’s first 30 minutes of calls to family members free.

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