Netflix and Politics: College Student Alex Zand isn’t waiting to graduate to run for office
Zand, 21, is running for the District One seat on the Parkland City Commission and is currently a Political Science major at FAU.
Alex Zand spent the beginning months of his quarantine binge-watching Netflix like most of his peers. However, he also spent it planning his campaign for Parkland City Commissioner.
At the ripe age of 21, Heron Bay resident Zand is running for the District 1 seat, which is currently being held by Commissioner Stacy Kagan. Kagan is resigning from her position to run for Parkland City Mayor.
After attending four out of the five Parkland schools throughout his life, Zand is currently attending Florida Atlantic University, majoring in Political Science with a double minor in Public Management and Sociology.
Throughout his collegian career, he has served in several leadership positions and organizations. Currently, he is serving as Alpha Epsilon Pi’s Internal Philanthropy Chairman and has served as the governor of FAU’s Student Government, where he represented 20,000 students. In his time as governor, he was the primary account holder for two accounts totaling $50,000 and helping allocate an $8.9 million budget.
After his run for governor, he preceded to run for president of Student Government, where he considered the odds to be heavily in his favor. However, Zand lost the election to Celine Persaud by just five votes. In the wake of his loss, and as his junior year was coming to a close, he began wondering what was next.
“I still want to be involved; I still want to lead,” he said. “I want to further my experience in the political realm.”
What started as merely dinner time conversation between him and his father, his plan for candidacy quickly unfurled in the beginning months of quarantine. “They [elected officials and highly respected individuals] all said the same thing; that I should take it and run.” He added, “Win or lose; it will not be a loss.”
“So that is kinda what I did. I got to planning, and in this COVID virtual climate, there really was not much for me to do. It was either sit at home and at the time watch ‘Tiger King,’” he laughs, “or start planning my campaign, and that is what I chose to do.”
When he announced his candidacy during the summer, Zand told Selene Raj, a reporter for The Parkland Talk, “It is truly my passion to make the world a better place,” he said. “After speaking with many well-respected community leaders, it became clear to me that I can best lead my fellow Parklanders as the next city commissioner for District 1.”
His policy initiatives are to enhance community-wide safety, expand community services and Parks & Recreation, and maintain responsible development.
He is passionate about Parkland’s uniqueness and wants to protect the city from any rapid growth, and he plans to do so by annexing the surrounding land.
Zand also acknowledges the renovations needed in the area. “Loxahatchee Road needs to be repaired,” he said in an interview. “It is one lane each way right now with no median and no bike lanes or sidewalks. It is very unsafe. So I want to add all of those.”
He also shared his beliefs on expanding Parkland’s Parks and Recreation and improving the city’s school safety and the community’s safety.
Zand, himself, is a Marjory Stoneman Douglas graduate. Marjory Stoneman Douglas, or MSD, was the site of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting back on February 14th, 2018. Zand had long since been graduated at the time but still advocates for gun violence prevention policies.
In an interview with Gina Pfingsten, a reporter for the Parkland Talk, Zand advocates for the Parkland Run March for Our Lives organization. “Parkland is the birthplace for March For Our Lives, an incredible organization formed to harness the power of young people across the country to fight for sensible gun violence prevention policies that save lives. March For Our Lives, much like my campaign, prioritizes the registration of young voters. It is vital that every eligible voter is registered to vote and exercises their right to do so.”
His priorities stem from his ideology of leading the current state of Parkland but also leading the future of Parkland. “Let’s not act now for what we need to do get done now, but we need to be proactive and think about the future.” Zand unambiguously admits, “I feel like I bring a fresh perspective with unique and innovative ideas on that sense.”
Zand prides himself on his campaign. His fresh and unique candidacy flourishes under his equally fresh and unique campaign team. “My campaign team is about 20 to 25 people, and the majority of that range from 15 to 25-year-olds. I have got volunteers in high school that are trying to get community service hours,” he said. “I’ve got college students that are using my campaign as internship credit, and I have post-grad students that just want to get involved.”
He admits to having some elder influence in the community to strengthen his campaign but acknowledges that the youth fuel his candidacy. “We are very grassroots and are trying to do everything that we can virtually,” he said.
A colleague and campaign volunteer of Zand’s, Joe Washko, admires Zand “as himself is a moderately smart person, but his best qualities are that he knows how to diversify the people that are around him.” He continues, “[He does so] to bring intelligence from different areas and become essentially, one unit, one team that allows him to have a full spectrum of intelligence at his aid.”
With only less than a month away, Zand is continuing his work to further his campaign. He finds himself getting down to the nitty-gritty and getting out there in the community, always wearing his campaign shirt, always talking to the residents of Parkland. He sits at his desk to get his work done, located in the city that he loves so much, with the American flag pinned on the wall behind him. He is filled with the ambition of the American dream, and his final closing words ring hopeful, “I [just] want to change the world.”
