Justin Wilson won Alexandria’s Democratic nomination Saturday to run in the July special election for City Council.
Wilson received 655 of the 2,011 ballots cast, about 32 percent of the vote in a field of five candidates. His closest rival, Jim Lay, received 537 votes.
Wilson was the first candidate to enter the race, putting up a campaign Web site within hours of Vice Mayor Andrew Macdonald’s resignation May 8. He received all of the council members’ support, though Macdonald endorsed his former campaign manager, Boyd Walker. Walker finished third, garnering 466 votes.
“It was an enormous help to have them [the council] behind me,” Wilson said. “They were able to tap into a lot of their supporters.”
At the July 17 special election, Wilson will face Republican candidate Bill Cleveland, who served five terms on the City Council between 1988 and 2003.
Cleveland received 363 of the 498 ballots cast in the Republican caucus May 29.
“My focus on transportation, budget accountability and children really caught,” Wilson said. “He’s definitely a formidable adversary, but we have a positive message and I’m very confident.”
Wilson, a senior information technology systems engineer with Amtrak, chairs Alexandria’s DASH bus transit board. He served two terms as the Del Ray Citizens Association president, and Gov. Tim Kaine appointed him to Virginia’s Board of Juvenile Justice.
