Celianna Gunderson
An Alexandria Republican has announced a bid for city council.
Celianna Gunderson has been a resident of Del Ray for about 10 years and has worked as an educator in Alexandria City Public Schools. She is a single-mother to two children (one in high school, the other an adult) and is the daughter of a U.S. Air Force member. She lived abroad much of her life, but she now works for a law firm in Alexandria.
According to her campaign website, she intends to focus on promoting school choice and affordability, “market-based solutions” to affordable housing, and “law and order” measures to address crime and public safety.
Gunderson joins 11 Democrats and one Independent (Mason Butler) in the campaign for city council. The 11 Democrats will face a primary in June.
The question remains whether a Republican candidate can realistically be elected in a Democrat-dominate city. In Virginia, voters do not register with a party affiliation, so there are no official records of the number of Republicans in the region. However, voting results from the Virginia Dept. of Elections indicate that Republicans are in the minority in Alexandria.
In the presidential election in 2012, Republican candidate Mitt Romney received 27.9% of the votes cast in the City of Alexandria. In 2016, Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump received 18.8% of the votes. In 2020, President Trump received 18.1% of votes cast by city residents. In comparison, President Trump received 44.2% of votes in Virginia in 2020.
The Democratic primary election will take place on June 18, and the general election will be on November 4.
