Mark Solomon was born and raised in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle. After earning a BA in humanities from Seattle University in 1981, he entered the U.S. Air Force, where he served seven years as an intelligence analyst. After leaving active duty, he returned to Seattle and became a crime prevention coordinator with the Seattle Police Department, where he worked for over 30 years. He also worked as a private security consultant and served in the reserve unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, including a deployment to Afghanistan. He unsuccessfully ran to represent District 2 on the Seattle City Council in 2019; then in January 2025 he was appointed to fill the District 2 seat after Tammy Morales resigned, and served until that November when the 2025 election results were certified.