Virginia's 38th House of Delegates district elects one of 100 seats in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

, the lower house of the state's

bicameral legislature Bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single ...

. District 38 represents part of

Fairfax County, Virginia Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. With a population of 1,150,309 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most p ...

. The district is currently represented by

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

Kaye Kory L. Kaye Kory (born April 18, 1947) is an American politician. She served in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing the 38th district in Fairfax County from 2010 to 2024. She served on the Fairfax County School Board 1999–2009. K ...

Electoral history

In the 1982, a general election was held for all Virginia House of Delegates seats following

redistricting Redistricting in the United States is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries. For the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures, redistricting occurs after each ten-year census. The U.S. Constitution in Art ...

(typically Virginia's state-level legislative elections are held on odd-number years). That year, Democrat Nora Anderson Squyres narrowly defeated Republican Gwendalyn F. Cody in the contest to represent the 38th district, winning by just 180 votes; however, another general election was held the following year and Cody defeated Squyres. Cody then served a two-year term before being defeated by Democrat

Leslie Byrne Leslie Larkin Byrne (née Beck; born October 27, 1946) is an American politician and businesswoman who served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Virginia's Virginia's 11th congressional district, 11th congres ...

in 1985. Byrne represented the seat for the next six years until her election to the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

in 1992, becoming the first woman ever elected to represent a Virginia district in the House of Delegates. In December 1992, Democrat Robert D. Hull won the special election to fill the vacated seat. He was subsequently reelected seven times consecutively, serving until he faced a primary challenge from Democrat

, who previously served on the

Fairfax County School Board The Fairfax County Public Schools system (FCPS) is a school division in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. It is a branch of the Fairfax County government, which administers public schools in Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax. FCPS's h ...

. Kory won the primary by a narrow margin and was elected to the seat in 2009, winning the general with just under 60% of the vote. Since then, Kory has been re-elected four times (2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017), generally earning about 75% of the vote. In 2019, Kory faced her first primary challenge, from Andres Jimenez.

District officeholders

References

{{navbox VAHseDist 38 Government in Fairfax County, Virginia