Democratic Socialist Glen Pine is running in next June’s Democratic primary for Virginia’s 5th District.
Pine has spent years organizing and protesting with Alexandrians for Palestinian Human Rights, DeFlock ALX and ICE Out of Alexandria, and says that an extensive door-knocking campaign, backed by a wide network of grassroots supporters, will help him beat incumbent Del. R. Kirk McPike.
“I’m running to win,” Pine told ALXnow in a recent interview. “I’m emerging from popular social movements, from people’s movements, people who are trying to improve society, grassroots efforts. That is where I’m coming from, and that’s who I’m accountable to, and that’s what my experience is.”
Pine continued, “I’ve been out in the streets protesting for things, literally for over 20 years. But in Alexandria, certainly over the last few years, I’m somebody who’s been a regular presence at public meetings, speaking out about things I care about. But I’m someone who’s also been having closed-door meetings with elected officials, trying to sway them on things.”
The 48-year-old lives in the West End with his wife and teenage son. A native of Queens, New York, he’s lived in Alexandria for 11 years, and until recently spent the last four years as director of data science for Capital One. Pine also spent three years as a data science manager with Capital One, and four years as a data scientist with Savi Technology. He has a doctorate in philosophy from New York University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Washington University in St. Louis.
Pine says he started becoming politically active when he witnessed the World Trade Center attack in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. He spent years volunteering with United for Peace and Justice, and volunteered with the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020. Pine, who is Jewish, is also a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and co-founded Alexandrians for Palestinian Human Rights.
“I think if you talk to any Jewish person in the United States who has come to realizations and an understanding about what’s actually happening in that region [the West Bank], it’s been painful for all of us to go through the process,” Pine said. “For me personally that means yes, absolutely. I’ve lost some friends, I’ve lost some family members over my beliefs and my passion over this subject.”
Pine’s platform
Pine recently launched a campaign website. His priorities include affordability, implementing a statewide moratorium on data centers and severing ties between Israel and Virginia. He also called the Virginia Israel Advisory Board a redundant entity that “diverts millions of dollars each year in state, federal, and private grants towards Israeli corporations.”
“Our tax dollars should fund our community, not a genocide,” Pine said.
Pine said that the majority of residents in his district are facing tough economic pressure, and that the state should eliminate its 1% grocery tax.
“We have a 1% tax on groceries in Virginia that needs to go,” Pine said. “I think an important role of government is to step in when markets are disrupting people’s lives, throwing them out of work, and if there’s no support from the government for these people, they are going to be destitute.”
Pine continued, “The government should be helping them, like helping them either economically, like financially, with some kind of a transition, help people train people, help people up-skill and find jobs. For these folks who were laid off by Trump, I feel like Virginia could do so much more.”
Pine said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished. In the meantime, he’s calling on the General Assembly to prohibit local sheriffs from releasing inmates to ICE custody without a judicial warrant.
In Alexandria, Sheriff Sean Casey has been criticized for releasing inmates to ICE custody on administrative warrants that aren’t signed by a judge.
“At the state level, there should be laws that are clearer that make it so that someone like Sheriff Casey, who has decided that he’s going to interpret the law in a way that allows him to turn people over to federal custody, will not be able to see that ambiguity,” Pine said.
In a release, Pine said he will advocate for collective bargaining rights, a “livable minimum wage, and affordable housing for all Virginians.”
“Too often, workers in Virginia have been deprioritized, from so-called ‘right-to-work’ laws to the shameful veto of collective bargaining rights for public sector workers,” Pine said. “In my district, the living wage is $29 per hour for someone without children. The hourly minimum wage in Virginia is $12.77.”
McPike’s Competition
Pine says he hasn’t spoken with McPike yet, and that his opinions will likely be different from those of anyone else entering the primary.
“I get my ideas out of people’s movements,” Pine said. “I don’t get my ideas from other politicians or from what I think is going to help my political career or anything like that. I’m getting them from talking to people on the ground, and this is what people are calling for, so that’s why I’m running.”
McPike said he’s looking forward to running for reelection next year, and welcomes an “opportunity to discuss his record of working for Alexandria and vision for Virginia’s future.”
“Right now, my focus remains where it belongs; delivering for the people of Alexandria and advancing a progressive agenda that reflects our community’s values,” McPike told ALXnow in an email. “I am working on legislation for the upcoming General Assembly session and focused on my work as chair of the campaign to pass the marriage equality constitutional amendment this November.”
McPike handily won his 5th District seat against Republican Mason Butler with 85% of less than 8,000 votes tallied in a low-turnout special election in February. The win was expected in Democrat-led Alexandria, while the real contest for the seat was in the Democratic primary, which McPike won against three primary opponents in January, with 60% of 1,279 votes tallied.
McPike was first elected to City Council in 2021 and reelected in 2024. After winning his special election, he left City Council and resigned from his longtime day job as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and was sworn in later in February.
The Democratic primary is June 15, 2027, followed by the general election on Nov. 2.
