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Running for everyone
A Mount Vernon physical therapist wants to join the U.S. Congress so the average person will be better represented.Lori Alexander, a therapist and mother of four, hopes to represent the 11th Congressional District so she can end class discrimination and give everyone equal opportunity, she said.
“I see very few representatives in Congress who I can identify with,” Alexander, 40, said. “They are always the same old type of people who seem to be chosen by party insiders.”
In the Democratic primary contest, Alexander is taking on Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly (D-At Large), Iraq war veteran Doug Denneny and former Congresswoman Leslie Byrne for a seat occupied by Republican Tom Davis for 13 years.
The winner of the June 10 primary will take on Republican Keith Fimian, an accountant and the only GOP candidate who filed to represent the 11th District – an area that includes parts of Democratic-leaning Fairfax County and Republican-leaning Prince William County.
Alexander's campaign strategy is to make people realize her opponents are “the same type of politicians who are already in Congress,” she said.
“I want to be a person who represents regular people,” she said.
If elected, she will work to give everyone equal opportunities, especially when it comes to education and health care. Students of the 11th District are not getting into Virginia colleges and universities, and many are not getting adequate health care, she said.
Her humble upbringing helped formulate her belief that “the average person isn't properly represented in government,” she said.
Alexander began attending school in the projects of Lowell, Mass., during high school, shortly after her father left her mother and four siblings.
She worked her way up from being a secretary to become the first college graduate in her family, eventually earning a master's degree in physical therapy from Boston University.
She married Brian Alexander, an attorney, in 2001, and they moved to the Mount Vernon area where he grew up.
Her experience with the Mount Vernon Chapter of the Sierra Club, her children's schools and her civic association has made her familiar with the issues in the 11th District, she said.
Alexander says she wants to be an “abnormal” representative and likens herself to Barack Obama – a “candidate not well endorsed by political insiders.”
She is managing her own campaign from home using experience she has gained volunteering for several other campaigns. So far, she has managed to run a grassroots-based effort with the approximately $8,600 she received from family and friends.
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