We need leaders who know how to lead — who are tough, strong, and decisive, who’ve worked hard for our country and are willing to stand up and serve. We need leaders who know how to listen, who care about the issues facing hard-working Florida families, and who know how to get our country back on track. And that leader is Martin Marks. 

 

When he was eight years old, his family immigrated to the U.S. He learned the value of hard work from his parents when he saw his dad leave for work every morning at 4:30 a.m. in the family’s used Honda Civic while his mom started a business from their kitchen table. 

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Growing up in South Florida, Marks eventually graduated from Johns Hopkins with a BA in Writing Seminars (Honors) and Near Eastern Studies, as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a finalist for the Marshall Scholarship. He then directly matriculated into the Writing Seminars graduate program, earning an MA, and then earned his MFA at NYU while teaching in the Expository and Creative Writing Programs. 

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As a writer, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Travel + Leisure, The Huffington Post, The New York Post, Paper Magazine, and Hemispheres Magazine, among others. He served as the Editor-at-Large for a glossy imprint of the New York Observer. 

 

When diagnosed with a rare thoracic condition, Marks battled through nerve degeneration and crippling pain, undergoing nearly a dozen major operations over the course of two years. With the tools he learned during his recovery, Marks earned an ERYT-200/RYT-500, having completed coursework at Nosara Yoga Institute, and founded his own yoga studio. Doing everything from mopping floors to teaching to making payroll, Marks learned firsthand what it was like to build a small business from the ground up.

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Following years of weak foreign policy, President Trump asked Martin’s mother, Lana Marks, to help restore America’s status as a leader on the world stage as Ambassador to South Africa. During the nomination process, Marks served as Senior Advisor and Chief Strategist, navigating all legal, personal, political, and media issues — conducting all opposition research, preparing the nominee for majority and minority staff meetings, and drafting her SFRC opening statement and testimony. And, after the nomination, Marks joined her in South Africa to support the objectives of President Trump’s foreign policy.

 

Marks ran for the US House of Representatives in in the FL-22nd District, outperforming each of his opponents in fundraising – though it was a nine-person primary with yet-to-be-drawn district lines. As the process of redistricting continued, he decided to pause and wait for the dust to clear.