Two new city council members will serve alongside a new mayor in Alexandria starting in January.
Democrat Alyia Gaskins ran unopposed in this year’s election, and she will replace retiring Mayor Justin Wilson in January. All four incumbent city council candidates retained their seats and two new city council members, Jacinta E. Greene and Abdel S. Elnoubi, join.
Gaskins served one term on City Council before running for mayor this year. She came in with big ideas for initiatives, but she has learned that it is often the small things that impact quality of life the most. Earlier this year, she told Alexandria Living Magazine, “I’m excited to really think about systems for being able to respond to the every-day quality of life issues that people face.”
Gaskins holds master’s degrees in both public health and urban planning, and she is a senior program manager for a charitable trust. She has lived in Alexandria since 2016. She is married and has two young boys.
In an interview earlier this year, Wilson said his successor should talk to people who are in their camp and outside of their camp.
“I have always had the feeling and the view that you talk to everybody,” he said. “Someone who’s against you on an issue today, might be with you on an issue tomorrow. So, you just constantly engage with people and over 14 years and six campaigns, I’ve had people who started out supporting me for my first few campaigns and stopped supporting me and I’ve had people who went the other way, who changed their minds and came on board.”
He’s able to see the bigger picture now, he said. “I used to get more spun up about little things and little criticisms and I’ve developed a thicker skin for sure.”
City Council Election Results
In addition to choosing a new mayor, voters were asked to select their top six choices out of nine candidates for city council.
Only four city council candidates were running for re-election on council, guaranteeing new faces would join. (Alyia Gaskins ran for mayor, which removed her from the at-large council election, and she defeated current Vice Mayor Amy Jackson, who could not simultaneously run to keep her council seat.)
The first six candidates for city council listed below won the election (incumbents are marked with an *):
- Sarah R. Bagley* - 14.65%
- John Taylor Chapman* - 14.48%
- Jacinta E. Greene – 13.94%
- Abdel S. Elnoubi – 12.69%
- Canek Aguirre* - 12.61%
- R. Kirk McPike* - 11.59%
- Roy R. Byrd – 6.93%
- Celianna R. Gunderson – 6.6%
- M. Mason Butler – 5.21%
- Write-in candidate – 1.31%
