William Marks
William Marks (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 25th Congressional District. He declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on March 3, 2026.[source]
Marks completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
William Marks served in the U.S. Navy from 1996 to 2018. He earned a bachelor's degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1996 and a graduate degree from San Diego State University in 2007.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Texas' 25th Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on March 3, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 25
William Marks and Stephen O'Toole are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 25 on March 3, 2026.
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 | William Marks  | |
| Stephen O'Toole | ||
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Endorsements
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Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
William Marks completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Marks' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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In 2025 Marks founded Operation Caged Bird and raised more than $70,000 to provide banned books to students at the U.S. Naval Academy. For his efforts he was awarded the Courage Project Award.
Before moving to Texas Marks joined Meta (then Facebook) as Community Development Manager for the Western U.S. He awarded more than $10 million in donations to hundreds of schools, small businesses, and nonprofits.
Marks graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. in 1996 and retired from active-duty in 2018 as a commander. Marks was elected to the Amsterdam High School Hall of Fame in 2021.
In his final military assignment, Marks was the senior spokesperson for DoD intelligence issues, leading media engagement and special projects for the Vice President and Ambassador Nikki Haley. In this role, he held a Top Secret / SCI security clearance.
Marks was Chief of Media for the U.S. Navy from 2015-2016, directing the Navy’s engagement with national and international journalists, including crisis communications during an international hostage situation, a mass shooting, and roll out of the Navy’s $160 billion budget proposal.- Down with Oligarchs
- I will prohibit unelected billionaires from running shadow government agencies and stealing your data. - I will continue to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the government - but I will do it with independent, experienced fraud investigators and accountants. - I will vote to ban stock trading by members of Congress. Upon election, Congress members must shift their investments out of individual stocks and into index funds.
- I will sign a balanced budget pledge - Congress should not end its session without a balanced budget. We must reverse the $3.8 trillion deficit increase Republicans are enacting. - Hands Off - Hands off our social security. - Hands off our medicare and medicaid. The Congressional Budget Office estimated 10.3 million people will lose health care coverage under Republicans. - Hands off women's rights and bodies - each person must have the freedom to choose their own health needs with consultation by a physician - not a politician. - Hands off public schools. As the son of a public school teacher, I will increase funding for public schools by voting against private school vouchers.
- Constitution & Ethics - I will draft an ethics pledge for Congress - no revolving door between Congress and industry. Ban lobbying by former Congress members. - I will vote to prohibit foreign influence; there must be strict prohibition on all foreign gifts. - I will vote to overturn Citizens United. Dark money should be banned from politics. Political donations should only be made by individuals and families. - I support due process for all. We must defend the rule of law. You are innocent until proven guilty. - I will vote for term limits of 12 years for both the House and Senate.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House Texas District 25 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 12, 2025
