Election Day 2025 is on the horizon and a number of Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University graduates are vying for leadership positions in public offices around the country. Here are two to watch.
Ken Balbuena
Balbuena is a longtime volunteer for civic associations making his first foray into elective politics as the Republican candidate for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors representative for the Braddock District. Now that the special election held September 9 has been held to fill the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11) is itself vacated—thanks to sitting supervisor James Walkinshaw’s victory over Republican Stewart Whitson—Balbuena can campaign in earnest.
A 2020 Master of Public Administration graduate—who went on to earn a Schar School certificate in nonprofit management in 2021—he traces his commitment to public service back to childhood, when he watched his mother advocate for improved street lighting in their neighborhood.
“That was my first inclination on what civic engagement was like, and I wanted to be that kind of role model for my daughters,” he said.
At George Mason, which is located partially in the district he hopes to lead, he discovered, among other things, how data is vital in creating public policy.
“It’s one thing to say, ‘this needs to be done’ but when you can pull data into it, then it starts to become a different story,” he said. “It’s not just one person’s opinion; you’ve got evidence to back up what you are saying.”
He’s running for the board, he said, “on my public service record, first and foremost. I develop my priorities based off dozens of hours of dozens of conversations with community leaders and listening to hours of public testimony, so I could hear themes emerge.
“Another thing I learned at the Schar School is to not just look at what you’ve been told but to think critically and analytically so you can identify those themes,” he said. “That’s something I probably would not have been a strongly versed in without that in my Schar School education.”
The Braddock District Supervisor election will be held December 9.
Miranda Briseño
Briseño, a 2018 government and international politics graduate with a second major in sociology is vying for a seat on the Medford City Council in Massachusetts. The town of 60,000 is on the Mystic River, north of Boston and home to Tufts University where she completed her master’s degree in urban and environmental policy and planning in 2021. She is running as a Democrat.
“My time at the Schar School gave me an understanding of congressional politics, which was extremely foundational to my graduate studies and my decision to run for office and really put into context my ‘why’ for choosing local politics in particular,” she said.
Briseño came to George Mason thinking she might run for an office but “somewhere along the way, I thought it wasn’t for me anymore.” But living in Medford and experiencing “a feeling of powerlessness because of the national political climate” gave her a change of heart.
This was not a new feeling, she allowed.
“I was at George Mason during the 2016 election and remember attending my Schar School classes the day after, when so many professors outlined how what happened in that election went against everything political scientists knew to be true and understood about electoral politics on a national level.
“Fast forward to 2025, and after spending time working for my city, studying urban planning, living in New England—itself a fascinating case study in local politics—and feeling yet again powerless because of devastating funding cuts and policy rollbacks at the federal level, everything kind of fell into place for me to decide to run.”
In addition to her studies at George Mason, Briseño joined the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, captained the women’s Ultimate Frisbee Team, worked as a desk assistant with housing and residence life, and was a peer academic coach. She also completed an internship with the House Democratic Caucus on Capitol Hill, learning first-hand how politics—and the media—work behind the scenes.
Briseño’s platform reflects her career with MassDOT as a federal program and regional planning coordinator: completing a citywide ADA transition plan; ensuring viability of sidewalks; investing in transit-supportive infrastructure such as bus shelters and bus benches; and installing traffic calming measures.