Government | Politics | Lobbying 2025: SCOTT A. SUROVELL

Surovell is part of the new Democratic leadership in the Virginia General Assembly after the 2023 retirement of several longtime leaders, including former majority leader Sen. Dick Saslaw, whom Surovell succeeded in 2024. In his leadership post, Surovell often acts as the voice of Senate Democrats in criticizing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s priorities.

In 2025, he carried a bill to add Fairfax County to the list of localities allowed to host a casino, a measure that failed in the House but passed in the Senate. It’s likely to return in 2026, Democratic leaders have said.

A trial lawyer, Surovell first won election to the House of Delegates in 2009 before winning his Senate seat in 2015, representing parts of Fairfax County, and before redistricting, parts of Prince William and Stafford counties.

Surovell is especially active in the areas of criminal justice reform and environmental issues and was a chief sponsor of 2021 legislation that abolished the death penalty in Virginia. He currently chairs the Senate Courts of Justice Committee and serves on the Commerce and Labor, Finance and Appropriations, Rehabilitation and Social Services, and Rules committees.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.