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Alison Virginia O'Connell says she watched the Democratic firehouse primary play out and kept waiting for the issues she cares most about to get the space she felt they deserved. They didn't.
"I was frustrated at the lack of space for the issues that I care most about," O'Connell said Wednesday in a live interview with the Alexandria Brief. "And I thought, it doesn't have to be that way. I can provide people in the city a further left option that meets the needs of the people I regularly talk to."
So she filed — and gathered enough petition signatures to join the April 21 city council special election as an independent candidate.
Who she is
O'Connell describes herself as working class, progressive, and disabled. She has an autoimmune disorder and wears a mask at public meetings. She has lived in Alexandria on and off for about ten years — including a stint in Arlington when housing costs pushed her out — and has worked in the city for about eight years.
Her deeper community involvement, she said, began about three years ago through organizing around Palestinian rights and migrant justice. She has served on the city's Commission on Persons with Disabilities and, through that role, on the Alexandria Housing Affordability Advisory Committee.
She said she doesn't see herself as a politician. "I'm here because I am an Alexandrian and I'm really engaged in the city and I have strong opinions about what our city should do."
Housing: push developers harder
On housing affordability, O'Connell said she doesn't think the city pushes developers hard enough for deeply affordable units. She described her own experience of being priced out of Alexandria as evidence that the current thresholds don't work.
"When you say this is going to be priced at eighty percent area median income, that's still not realistic for a lot of people," she said. "That's not realistic for me."
She said she wants to push for housing priced at 30 to 40 percent AMI and supports social housing and stronger eviction protections.
Ethical investment: a resolution is ready
O'Connell has been a regular speaker at Alexandria City Council meetings calling for the city to screen its investments for human rights concerns — particularly divestment from companies she says are complicit in the genocide in Gaza.
She said drafts of an ethical investment resolution already exist and are ready to move. "The question is just getting support and getting it put on the docket," she said.
She acknowledged the city's investments are spread across multiple funds — including the Virginia Retirement System, the local government investment pool, pension funds, and city contracts — and that the VRS is largely outside the council's control. But she argued that existing ethically screened investment funds make the transition more straightforward than critics suggest. "We don't have to reinvent the wheel," she said, pointing to Portland, Maine and several California cities as examples of municipalities that have passed similar resolutions.
She also connected the issue to the current moment: "A lot of these companies that people have been calling out for their complicity in the genocide in Palestine, we see them now actively working with the Trump government and ICE." She argued that establishing ethical screening now creates a mechanism for future investment decisions as well.
ICE: cut the sheriff's budget, remove flock readers
O'Connell said she wants the city council to use the budget process to send a clear message to Sheriff Sean Casey over his office's cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement — at minimum, by denying him a budget increase.
"He didn't listen to the community and he didn't listen to city council when we told him that we don't want him transferring people to ICE custody," she said. She noted that Arlington and Fairfax County sheriffs are not doing the same, and that multiple legal entities have said Casey is not required to cooperate with ICE.
She also called for the city to push for the removal of automated license plate readers, which she said ICE uses to track people. "They are dangerous for all of us, not just migrants," she said.
On the question of whether bold public action could backfire by drawing attention to vulnerable residents, O'Connell was direct: "We have to be aware of who can't be in the room. There are a lot of people who care deeply about getting ICE out of the city and it's not safe for them to talk about it."
Boards, commissions, and community input
O'Connell described her time on the city's housing and disability commissions as educational but frustrating. She recounted watching three months of community input in favor of more affordable units in a development project — only to see city council set it aside.
"Sometimes community input is done just for the sake of saying it was done," she said. "They felt like decisions are already made. And when they come out to participate, it might be performatively heard, but not really heard."
That experience, she said, pushed her toward running. "We need a city council that is responsive when they get community feedback."
Redistricting
On the redistricting referendum also on the April 21 ballot, O'Connell said she supports it — but with a caveat. "More Democrats being in office doesn't guarantee that they're going to represent working people or the values that we have," she said. She added that electing more Democrats is a first step, but that primaries will matter for holding those officials accountable.
The case for her candidacy
O'Connell closed simply. "I'm really passionate about the city. I am not afraid to take risks for the issues I care about. I've put my physical body on the line. I'm willing to do that."
She acknowledged the reaction her candidacy has drawn — including skeptical comments about her age and appearance in some local forums — and said she found it more amusing than discouraging. "I'll think about the septum piercing. It could be good. It might be a cute look."
Early voting begins Friday, March 6, at the Alexandria Office of Voter Registration and Elections, 132 North Royal Street. Election Day is April 21. O'Connell's campaign website is avo4alx.com.
Watch or listen to the full conversation
This is the third in a series of Alexandria Brief conversations with the candidates for Alexandria City Council. Interviews with Frank Fannon and Sandy Marks are also available as video, audio, and transcript at alexandriabrief.com.
