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The Snowmass Village Town Council is poised for a historic female majority after Tuesday’s election, two years after the council broke ground with a 3-2 female majority.
Unofficial results show Alyssa Shenk won the race for Snowmass mayor and Cecily DeAngelo and Tom Fridstein won the race for two open seats on the town council. Shenk, DeAngelo and Fristein will join council members Britta Gustafson and Susan Marolt, both of whom were elected to town council in 2022.
With Shenk at the helm and DeAngelo joining the council, Snowmass will for the first time see a 4-1 female majority on its town council.
Alyssa Shenk, the second woman to be elected mayor in Snowmass Village, will lead a town council with a historic female majority. Four out of the five council members will be women.
Jason Charme/Aspen Daily News
“I think it’s really cool, especially with what happened in the national election,” Shenk said. “We’re a strong group of women that all represent different facets of the community and I’m excited. I think it’s going to be really cool looking at all of us sitting up there, and I hope it’s inspiring to other women and to young girls.”
Shenk is the second woman to be elected mayor in Snowmass. Before her was Markey Butler, whose seat Shenk filled in 2014 when Butler won her first term as mayor.
Susan Marolt was elected to the Snowmass Village Town Council in 2022 and joined a then-historic female majority on town council. Three of the five council members were women.
Aspen Daily News file
“Where I sit at my council seat, I’m always looking up and seeing the wall of past mayors, and seeing that Markey is the only woman on there in all of Snowmass’ history, it makes me realize that women can do it too,” Shenk said. “I feel really proud that one day my picture is going to be up there.”
DeAngelo said she is excited to join a council with a female majority and proud that Snowmass voters elected such a council.
She also hopes her successful campaign will inspire others to run for local office or join local boards and commissions.
“I really hope that it inspires people under 40, women of reproductive age, and people who often feel underrepresented to run for all types of local office, including volunteer boards and other small positions that we often overlook,” DeAngelo said. “I think that’s something that’s missing in all different local races and it’s really important for people in local settings to get involved right now.”
Every other city or town council in the Roaring Fork Valley has at least three women on their councils, except for Aspen City Council. None of them, however, has an 80% majority that Snowmass will soon claim.
When Gustafson and Marolt were elected in 2022, they joined Shenk in a then-historic female majority, with three women serving on town council.
“When I first got on council, it was nice to have at least some women on council. I think that’s super valuable and different than other councils, Aspen in particular,” Marolt said. “I served on the (Aspen) school board before town council and that was mostly women, so I’ve gotten to do these roles with other women.”