Photo courtesy of candidate
New City Council Member Elizabeth Bennett-Parker will become vice mayor of Alexandria, after getting the most votes Tuesday.
Elizabeth-Bennett Parker is the Democratic nominee for the state Senate seat recently vacated by Adam Ebbin. She will face Republican nominee Julie Lineberry in a special election Feb. 10.
Images courtesy of VPAP
Candidates for the Democratic nominee for Senate District 39.
Bennett-Parker won the firehouse primary Jan. 13 against three other contenders.
The vote breakdown for the Democratic firehouse primary was:
- Elizabeth Bennett-Parker: 3,281 or 70.60%
- Mark Levine: 807 votes or 1737%
- Charles Sumpter: 321 votes or 6.91%
- Amy Jackson: 238 votes or 5.12%
Photo courtesy of nominee
GOP nominee for Senate District 30 Julie Lineberry
Bennett-Parker will face GOP nominee Lineberry, an Alexandria realtor and community volunteer, on the ballot in a special election Feb. 10.
The Alexandria Republican City Committee noted:
In accordance with the Official Call of the Special Party Canvass announced on Saturday, the January 13, 2026 canvass scheduled to take place at our party headquarters in Old Town has been cancelled.
I am pleased to announce that local realtor and community volunteer Julie Robben Lineberry will be our Republican nominee for the February 10, 2026 Special Election in Virginia State Senate District 39. The seat is currently held by Adam Ebbin, who resigned effective February 18 to accept a position in Governor Abigail Spanberger’s administration.
Julie knows the district well. She is a long-time Alexandria resident and has helped others find their homes in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax for more than 40 years. Her extensive community involvement includes leadership roles with the Girl Scouts, service with TWIG (Inova Alexandria Hospital Auxiliary), participation in civic associations, and ten years of service on the Alexandria Electoral Board.
—
Chris Howell
Chairman, Alexandria Republican City Committee
About Bennett-Parker:
Born in Alexandria to two Naval officers, Elizabeth is dedicated to serving her community. As the fifth member of the House of Delegates to give birth while in office (in its then 405-year history), she is deeply committed to supporting children and families, championing causes like accessible childcare, school meals for all, and affordable housing.
In her two terms in the House of Delegates, she has led on disability and voting rights, passing a proposed constitutional amendment to automatically restore voting rights after incarceration and strengthening voting rights protections for individuals with disabilities.
Elizabeth has also passed bills to better protect survivors of domestic violence and stalking, enact common-sense gun safety policies, and improve access to participation in government through virtual meetings and remote participation.
She serves in leadership on the House Finance and Counties, Cities & Towns Committees and is also a member of the General Laws Committee. In her first term, she passed the most bills of any Democratic freshman and has consistently ranked at the top of legislators for her percentage of bills passed.
Elizabeth has also been named a Legislative Champion by the Virginia Education Association, received a 100% score from the Virginia Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters, and earned an A+ from ReproRising (formerly NARAL Virginia).
She previously served as the Vice Mayor of Alexandria and as the Chair of the Operation Board of the Virginia Railway Express. She was selected as one of Alexandria’s 40 under 40 in 2017. She has served on Alexandria's Community Criminal Justice Board and the Commission on Employment, as well as the boards of the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, Agenda:Alexandria, and the United Way Regional Council for Alexandria. She is a graduate of Emerge Virginia and the Alexandria City Academy.
Elizabeth is a former co-leader of Together We Bake, a non-profit job training and personal development program for underserved women. She also understands the pressures of being a small business owner. She founded Fruitcycle, a social enterprise fighting the tragic paradox that, while one in six Americans experience food-insecurity on a daily basis, 40% of our food is thrown into landfills.
Elizabeth served as a Fulbright Fellow, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University, and earned a Master's from the University of London.
She and her husband live in Alexandria with their toddler, and their rescue dog and cat.
Here's a look at her priorities:
Economic Opportunity for All
Our economy needs to work for small businesses, families, and individual workers.
Paid Leave: 55 percent of working adults in Virginia are not eligible for even unpaid leave to care for themselves or a loved one. These policies disproportionately affect people of color, especially women. Elizabeth believes every worker deserves paid family and medical leave to care for themselves, a loved one, or a new family member. As Delegate, Elizabeth has co-patroned legislation to establish a state-run paid family and medical leave program and to require health care providers and grocery stores to provide paid sick leave.
Tax Justice: Elizabeth is working to ensure that big corporations and the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share. She passed a bill to sunset a tax credit for multimillionaires; this law will return around $5 million annually to the Commonwealth for better uses. She has also co-patroned legislation to create a higher tax bracket for the ultra-wealthy, as billionaires currently pay the same income tax rate as someone earning $17,001. She was also the chief co-patron on legislation to create a refundable state child tax credit and a co-patron on legislation to make the earned income tax credit for low-income taxpayers fully refundable.
Small Business: Small businesses are a crucial part of our economy, and Elizabeth knows we have to invest in small business owners, especially during times of crisis. She works to ensure Virginia is a welcoming place to start and grow a small business and co-patroned legislation to establish the Retail Small Business Grant Program and Fund to support our small businesses.
Protecting Our Rights
Reproductive Justice: Elizabeth believes that personal health care decisions are best made by individuals, their families, and their doctors. She is committed to protecting the right to safe and accessible abortions, and as Delegate, she has supported a constitutional amendment to affirm this right in Virginia’s constitution. She has also supported legislation to require insurers to cover prescription contraceptives without a co-pay.
LGBTQ+ Rights: Elizabeth wants Virginia to be a safe, welcoming, and equal place for LGBTQ+ individuals and their families. She has co-patroned a constitutional amendment to remove the Marshall-Newman amendment and its ban on same-sex marriage from our state Constitution. She opposed the Youngkin Administration's proposed harmful policy on the treatment of transgender and non-binary youth in our schools. As a member of City Council, she supported updating Alexandria's Human Rights Code to include gender identity and transgender status as protected classes. She will continue to work to make sure that all individuals feel safe, protected, and accepted.
Disability Rights: Elizabeth believes that Virginians with disabilities deserve respect, fair treatment, and economic security. As Delegate, she has championed disability rights, passing legislation to expand curbside voting to people with non-physical disabilities that affect their ability to enter a polling place, and was the chief co-patron on legislation to prohibit employers from paying individuals with disabilities subminimum wages.
Voting Rights: Elizabeth understands that the right to vote is unalienable, and she is proud to work to protect and expand that right. She has passed a proposed constitutional amendment to automatically restore voting rights to those with felony convictions upon their release from incarceration. (This amendment must pass again in the 2026 session before it can head to voters.) She has also co-patroned legislation to protect against voter purges, to extend the voter registration period, and to protect the rights of voters with disabilities.
Education
We must provide a high-quality education for all our children, starting at birth.
Early Childhood: The first three years of a child’s life are crucial for brain development and we must make sure every child has access to a quality and affordable early childhood education starting from birth. This is critical not only for the future success of our children, but to support working families given the unsustainable costs of childcare in Northern Virginia. On City Council, Elizabeth expanded access to early childhood education through additional funding and supporting zoning changes to help increase supply. She continues to work to expand early care and education in our communities as Delegate. During the 2023 legislative session, she introduced a budget amendment to increase funding for early childhood education and co-patroned legislation to create a Commission on Early Childhood Care and Education and provide recommendations and to track progress on the financing of a comprehensive birth-to-five early childhood care and education system.
Equity-Focused K-12 Education: All of our students deserve a quality public education. We need to set all students up equally for success, including students with disabilities. Elizabeth has supported increased state funding so that our schools have the resources necessary to educate our children, including safe buildings, new books, and small classroom sizes. Students must also have access to apprenticeships and vocational programs that provide alternative pathways to middle-class jobs. As Delegate, Elizabeth has co-patroned several pieces of legislation to support our public school students by improving how we teach our students to read, ensuring underrepresented students are represented on the STEM Advisory Board, and strengthening environmental education offerings.
Teacher Pay & Training: A quality education starts with our teachers. It is unacceptable that Virginia ranks last in average teacher pay compared to the average pay of citizens. We must invest in teacher training and ensure our teachers are paid good salaries. Elizabeth strongly supported the 10% raises for teachers that were included in the 2022-2023 biennial budget, and believes they deserve competitive salaries of at least the national average.
Childhood Hunger: Children cannot learn if they are hungry. Elizabeth supports expanding universal school meal programs and increasing the nutritional quality of meals served. Elizabeth has co-patroned legislation to provide free school meals for all students. On City Council, she expanded outreach to residents regarding SNAP benefits and personally managed the preparation and distribution of free school meals during COVID. No resident should go hungry and Elizabeth has also introduced budget amendments in 2022 and 2023 to increase SNAP benefits by $25/month for seniors to help prevent food insecurity in one of the most vulnerable populations in our community.
Racial and Social Justice
Our Commonwealth’s legacy of racial oppression and inequitable practices and policies have created unjust disparities for Black and Brown members of our community across all measures of well-being, including health and wealth.
Systemic racism has pervaded our institutions since Virginia’s founding and we have significant work to do to dismantle white supremacy. We need to make sure our government is providing equitable opportunities and access to healthcare, education, housing, transportation, and economic opportunity, and that our work to fight climate change is environmentally just.
With her colleagues on City Council, Elizabeth hired Alexandria’s first Racial and Social Equity Officer, established a behavioral health co-response program, supported the creation of a strong Citizen Police Review Board, increased the supply of affordable housing, and made Alexandria's public bus system free for all riders.
In her work with Together We Bake, Elizabeth worked directly with women returning from the criminal justice system and recognizes that while the General Assembly has made significant steps towards reform, much more is needed. She will continue to work to abolish mandatory minimums, end cash bail, reform pre-trial detention, increase funding for public defenders, and ensure voting rights.
During the 2023 legislative session, Elizabeth introduced legislation to expand employment options for those with felony convictions, and it passed both the House and Senate. In 2024, 2025 and 2026. she was chief patron of the constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to those convicted of felony convictions upon release. She has also co-patroned legislation to ensure perinatal health care providers complete implicit bias training and to create the Virginia Black, Indigenous and People of Color Historic Preservation Fund.
Resilient Infrastructure
Too many of us feel the impacts of outdated or insufficient infrastructure in our day-to-day lives. We must modernize and expand our infrastructure, including transportation, sewers, and housing.
Transportation: Elizabeth knows we need to modernize our transportation infrastructure and invest in public transportation. As the former chair of the Virginia Railway Express, she led one of the largest commuter rail systems in the country, which effectively removes one lane of traffic from both 1-66 and 1-95/1-395 during rush hour. In Richmond, she continues to work to improve transportation options and mobility for all Northern Virginians.
Housing: Northern Virginia has a housing shortage and affordable housing crisis. On City Council, Elizabeth increased funding for affordable housing and expanded the number of affordable units created. However, Richmond limits local authority regarding what can be required of new housing projects. As Delegate, Elizabeth has introduced legislation to provide localities additional authority, tools, and funding to preserve and expand affordable housing. She has also introduced legislation to help Alexandrians remain housed and prevent evictions by requiring large landlords to offer payment plans before filing for eviction when the amount due is less than one month of rent. She also co-patroned legislation to increase the “pay or quit” period from 5 days to 14, before large landlords could file for eviction.
Flooding: The combination of outdated sewer infrastructure and climate change with increasingly more intense and frequent storms has had disastrous consequences for too many residents. As Delegate, Elizabeth has supported additional funding for the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund and introduced legislation to expand the scope of the state Coastal Resilience Technical Advisory Committee to include other types of flooding, like those experienced by Alexandria. She also worked with Senator Ebbin to pass legislation that expands the Joint Subcommittee on Recurrent Flooding to include members with experience of inland and stormwater flooding. As Vice Mayor, Elizabeth accelerated stormwater capacity projects to reduce flooding and advocated for increased federal funding.
Climate Crisis
Climate change is not only a national emergency, but is also a state and local emergency.
Elizabeth supports Virginia's continued participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which has provided significant environmental benefits and funding towards projects to mitigate flooding in our community.
On City Council, Elizabeth was one of the Co-Chairs of the Eco-City Steering Committee, sponsored a Council-passed resolution declaring a climate emergency, and amended the revised Green Building Policy to ensure that all new buildings built by the City will be net-zero in carbon emissions. She also supported the development of a local commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) program, a tool that helps encourage commercial property owners to make energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements on commercial property. Elizabeth will continue to work to ensure a just transition towards 100% renewable energy. She does not accept campaign contributions from any public utility companies. As Delegate, she has passed legislation to better prepare our infrastructure for electric vehicles, and she plans to continue this work.
