David W. Marsden

David William Marsden (born April 5, 1948) is an American politician representing Virginia's 35th Senate district, which contains portions of Fairfax County. A member of the Democratic Party, he first entered the Virginia Senate by flipping the 37th district during a 2010 special election to replace then Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli and was the first Democrat to represent that district since 1992. After the Virginia Senate's district lines were redrawn in 2023, Marsden began representing the 35th district. Before entering the Virginia Senate, he was elected to three terms representing the 41st district in the Virginia House of Delegates, serving from 2006 until 2010.

Early life and education Marsden graduated from Wilbert Tucker Woodson High School in 1966 and Randolph–Macon College in 1970.

Political career Prior to his career in politics, Marsden spent seventeen years as head of the Fairfax County Juvenile Detention Center. He retired from the position in 1999 to begin a new career lobbying Virginia state government about juvenile justice policies. In 2000, then-Governor Jim Gilmore appointed Marsden as Chief Deputy of the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice, where Marsden served under former Fairfax County Sherrif Carl Peed. He then served for one year as Acting Director of the department in 2001.

In 2005, Marsden was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, flipping a seat that had been held by retiring Republican Jim Dillard, who endorsed Marsden.

Between 2006 and 2010, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates representing the 41st district.

Elections On January 12, 2010, Marsden won a special election to replace Republican Ken Cuccinelli as the representative from Virginia's 37th Senate district. Cuccinelli had been elected Attorney General of Virginia the previous fall. The Washington Post described Marsden's election as a "come-from-behind win" in a district that had not been represented by a Democrat since 1992 and noted that it gave Democrats control over all of the Senate districts in Fairfax County. The region had recently supported Republican Bob McDonnell for governor, and Marsden's election gave Democrats a two-seat majority in the Virginia Senate at a time when Republicans controlled every other part of state government. His opponent, Steve Hunt, had previously served on the Fairfax County School Board.

During the 2010 special election, Marsden lived a few hundred feet outside of the 37th Senate district. The district lines were redrawn to include Marsden's primary residence ahead of the 2011 election.

Marsden was elected to his first full term in the Virginia Senate in 2011, running against Marine veteran Jason Flanary.

Legislative work In 2021, Marsden was the chief sponsor of the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, making Virginia the second state after California to enact a comprehensive consumer data privacy law. In an interview with The Markup, Marsden acknowledged that the first draft of the legislation was written by an Amazon lobbyist and that he and colleagues relied on the Future of Privacy Forum — a nonprofit funded primarily by major tech companies — for neutral policy guidance during the drafting process. Critics noted that the implementation committee formed after the law's passage included representatives from industry-aligned organizations but no consumer or privacy advocates.

Senate committee assignments Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources (Chair) Commerce and Labor General Laws & Technology Transportation Rules