Fresh from her recent Democratic firehouse primary win, City Council candidate Sandy Marks says there’s a lot on the line in the upcoming special election.
Marks is facing independent candidates Frank Fannon and Alison O’Connell in the race, which is slated to coincide with a proposed constitutional amendment to redraw Virginia’s congressional districts.
“Republicans are going to come out to vote, and I think Alexandria is going to show its values,” Marks told ALXnow. “I think it’s going to show who we are by coming out and really boxing out some pretty unhelpful takes on American politics and then Alexandria politics.”
Marks is running on a platform to secure more state funding for public schools, increase the city’s supply of transit-adjacent housing, lower “heat vulnerability scores” in neighborhoods with high poverty rates and “resist authoritarianism” by taking measures to protect immigrants, LGBTQ+ community members and reproductive health care, according to her campaign website.
The candidate said she recently sat in on last week’s City Council, meeting where City Manager Jim Parajon unveiled a $977 million budget proposal.
“I would love to vote on this budget,” Marks said. “I did like a lot of the protective measures that the city manager presented, reserving a million dollars to counteract some of the terrible decisions that the federal government is going to make.”
Sitting with her campaign manager Erica Toler at St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub in Del Ray, Marks said she feels responsibility for Alexandria’s Democrats. Overall, she said the goal of her campaign is “to cede absolutely no ground.”
“This will be a very protective campaign, protecting Alexandria and protecting our immigrant neighbors, protecting our LGBTQ kids,” Marks said.
How it started
Marks, who lives in Del Ray, chaired the Alexandria Democratic Committee for four years until last December. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and biological anthropology from Florida State University, and has spent more than 20 years as a communications consultant and writer.
She said she was thinking about who would be the best fit for the available seat on Council when her 13-year-old son convinced her run.
“I was sort of sitting there, and I said to my 13-year-old, ‘I gotta go recruit someone,’ and he said, ‘Why don’t you just do it?'” Marks said.
In January, former State Sen. Adam Ebbin announced he was resigning to join Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration, resulting in a firehouse primary and special election for his 39th District seat. Then-Del. Bennett-Parker advanced to win the special election, triggering a second special election for her 5th District House seat. City Councilman R. Kirk McPike won the firehouse primary and special election, opening up a new vacancy on City Council.
Marks was the first candidate to join the Council race. She went on to face four firehouse primary challengers and won the Democratic nomination with nearly 40% of the votes cast.
“I would love to tell you that announcing first was some sort of, you know, very slick political strategy,” Marks said. “I would say a driving reason behind getting out first was I wanted anyone else who decided to run, I didn’t want them to doubt the authenticity of my enthusiasm and support for them in the past … I didn’t want to then come behind them and challenge them and have them doubt the authenticity of my support and enthusiasm for their path forward. So, I decided to get out first, and then they could decide if they wanted to challenge me.”
If she or O’Connell win, it would be Alexandria’s first time having a woman-majority City Council. Marks said she’s interested to see the impact this could have on the city’s governance.
“I think it will take more than a year-and-a-half for a female-led government to make an impact over time, but we have a lot more work to do in terms of gender equity and gender parity in local, statewide and federal government,” Marks said. “But we’ll get there.”
Marks said she and her team have taken a couple days to rest and recuperate. Leading up to the April 21 election, she said “[they] will take nothing for granted.”
