Earlier this evening, I had the chance to chat (at her campaign’s request) with VA11 Democratic candidate Irene Shin, who is one of ten Democratic candidates listed on VPAP (the others being Ross Branstetter IV, Candice Bennett, Dan Lee, Leopoldo “Leo” Martinez, Amy Papanu; Stella Pekarsky, Priya Punnoose, Amy Roma, James Wakinshaw) running to succeed the late, great Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11) in the US House. See below for a lightly edited transcript of the interview with Irene Shin. Also, keep in mind that the Democratic nomination (which will almost certainly determine the next Congressperson in the 9/9/25 special election, given that this is a deep-blue district) will be determined in a “firehouse primary” on June 28, just over two days from now. So stay tuned – and may the best candidate win!
P.S. I’ve now interviewed six of the VA11 Democratic candidates – Amy Papanu, Dan Lee, Leo Martinez, Amy Roma, James Walkinshaw…and now Irene Shin.
Note: First, we started off chatting a bit off-the-record. One thing Irene Shin said she wanted ON the record was that she definitely wished that there had been Ranked Choice Voting used in the VA11 Democratic nomination process.
Irene Shin: “I think it’s really tough to coalesce after a contested primary without RCV. But that would have been an opportunity to bring our party back together after this.”
Blue Virginia: “Right because it requires that someone gets a majority. And it’s more, I guess, legitimate in a way – that legitimacy is clearer in that case…in the LG primary, for instance, maybe Ghazala Hashmi would have ended up with 50% plus 1 if we’d used Ranked Choice Voting? And that to me is better.”
Irene Shin: “Totally, you’re right…not being about the legitimacy, but about being an easier path to bring the party back together.”
Blue Virginia: “Yeah I think so. I think it’s intertwined, because like if people see that there’s legitimacy, and they feel like the process and also someone got 50% plus one or whatever, then it feels more legitimate, then even people who didn’t support that nominee are like, well, you know, it’s fair and square, that’s what happened…”
Irene Shin: “They can say that was my number two pick and so I feel fine with that.”
Blue Virginia: “Well that too, yeah. I think they found that ranked choice voting elections are less negative. I mean you even had with Mamdani and Lander, they did a cross-endorsement video which went viral actually. That was a very good video, whether you like those two guys or or not or whatever. But that was a very good video, it showed they have a sense of humor and everything, but it was also very smart.”
Irene Shin: “The internet went crazy for it.”
Blue Virginia: “Yeah, well people love that kind of content, it seemed authentic, they seemed to be having a good time with it…Anyway, I’ve asked all the candidates mostly the same questions, pretty much almost exactly, just to be fair if nothing else. Kinda boring, I know. So the first question is just is, what what made you decide to run for the seat, what are your main arguments for the Virginia 11 Democratic voters who might not know you?”
Irene Shin: “Yes, that’s a nice big broad question. Well, I’ve been serving in the House of Delegates for four years as you know. And I decided to jump into this race for Congress because I I think Democratic voters are probably feeling like I’m feeling, which is frustrated. When I look at the Democratic Party, I have found it to be this past year, I found it to be so infuriating to watch. First, it was Democrats who were censuring Al Green for when he stood up on Social Security during the State of the Union. And then it was 45 House Dems who voted on the Laken Riley Act. And then recently, while literal tanks were rolling in American cities and like Trump called on the National Guard, and we saw 75 Democrats thanking ICE for their service. And I just feel like that kind of behavior from the Democratic Party is so out of touch with where the Democratic voters are right now. That for me was really the thing that’s clinched it. And so I jumped into this race because I think that Democratic voters are feeling like I am. And if you look at this field, you know at this moment in democracy, I think voters want to be be reminded that their congressional districts are things that belong to the people, and that they should have a say in electing who their next representative is. And if there are enough people who agree with that, I think we’ve got a different vision for the future that other candidates aren’t offering. A lot of which has to do with not just about generational change, which isn’t just about age but about doing things a different way and not the way you’ve always done things just because they’ve always been done that way.”
Blue Virginia: “Right, which kind of segues into the second question I’m asking everybody, which is where do you see yourself on the ideological spectrum? And then do you have any particular members of Congress you would model yourself after if elected, and specifically since this is to replace Gerry Connolly, do you see yourself different or similar to his approach to the job?”
Irene Shin: “Yeah, good question. On the ideological spectrum, I consider myself pretty progressive. But I’ve always been a progressive since my first election, I’ve always run as a progressive. But I’ve also run as a really pragmatic progressive. And I think that I’ve been able to deliver results since being in the House of Delegates on progressive priorities and still being able to do that work. I think as you might remember, when I first ran, I ran against someone who was also progressive but wasn’t able to actually move the needle…I feel so strongly that moving the needle matters. As much as your values matter, you have to be able to pick up the football and move it 10 more yards down the field in the time that you’ve got it. It matters. And so I feel that way about this race too. I think I’m pretty left on the spectrum, I’m certainly to the left of lots of the candidates on the stage up there last night. In addition, some of the folks that I’ve long admired in politics, that I’m really proud to have the endorsements of, include folks like United States Senator Andy Kim. I still remember Andy was the congressman who was pictured on the New York Times in the immediate aftermath of January 6th where he was cleaning up the floor on his hands in the Rotunda. And then he won last year, sort of beating the political machine in New Jersey. And I felt like his vision for how we could build a different kind of politics, it resonated so deeply with the voters of New Jersey, who who were like ‘hell yeah, like we don’t have to keep doing things this way, we can get up and say like ‘no, the governor’s wife doesn’t get to assume a seat just because she’s the governor’s wife.’ And like, ‘no, we’re not going to accept a senator who has gold bars…”
Blue Virginia: “Yeah, I think he’s in prison now or going to prison.”
Irene Shin: “So like the idea of not being willing to settle for business as usual and to be able to effectively put forth that message in a courageous way, that resonated so authentically, I think with voters, that they were like ‘heck yeah I’m on board with it.’ Andy is someone that I admire very much and who I like his leadership style, putting forward more people-driven progressive, but pragmatic politics is the kind of change I’m trying to model here too.”
Blue Virginia: “And then would you say in terms of Gerry Connolly’s approach to the job, do you see major areas where you’d be similar to that or different from that or what? Or are you just different people? Obviously, we’re all different people – lol.”
Irene Shin: “Totally. You know, Gerry has been a giant in our community for so long, his fingerprints are on everything in Fairfax County. I want to continue his legacy and the work that he did, was that sort of Irish fighting spirit about him… I read an article that someone sent me…dated like 1950s…it was an old diplomatic missive that said Korea is the Ireland of the Orient…I was like, what is this? And so I read it…how like the Korean people are also people divided in the nation…also people who like to drink a lot, they are also people who have really hot tempers. And like, therefore, they are the Ireland of the Orient. Like this is an insane thing to say, but I kind of get it… ”
Blue Virginia: “Yeah, that’s interesting…So, you like the feistiness; I mean Connolly was definitely a fighter.”
Irene Shin: “Yes, and I think that is something that I plan to continue that part of his legacy. Because that’s what we loved about him. And I know that voters of the 11th love that they had someone in Congress who was fighting for them day in and day out. And I think that they can expect that same fighting spirit from me. I think we are inevitably innately different people. So I think coming into Congress, we have different approaches because we have different lived experiences. You know, my parents are immigrants and so like fighting for immigration and immigration reform is a front and foremost priority for me, personally. But given the makeup of the district now, I think it is also nice to know that that’s reflective of the district too…”
Blue Virginia: “Right, yeah, it’s an incredibly diverse district…it’s gotten more even and more and more diverse. So yeah, today it’s probably one of the most diverse districts maybe in the country, I don’t know but it’s up there.”
Irene Shin: “Yeah, it’s definitely a minority majority district now, which is different than when Connolly first took that seat. And so I think that some of the ways that I’ll differentiate our style, my style of leadership from him, will just be to you know be different. And I am different. But also I think the other thing that I’m looking forward to is building an office that is a little bit more reflective of our community. You know, I want to make sure that we have folks in the office in the district office who are multilingual, reflective of the languages that are spoken in our community. And I think that’s really important. One of the ideas I’ve put forward is making sure that we have a specific team dedicated to helping federal employees navigate the systems and processes for either like legal services and/or getting plugged back into other job resources, or making sure that they have opportunities to navigating the unemployment system. Because I know that in Virginia, that can be really complicated too. And then I also want to make sure we have a specific phone number or hotline and a staffer dedicated to immigration issues as we see more and more of those kinds of challenges rise up. If ICE is in our community, I’m going to be the kind of congressman who wants to know about it and figure out what we’re doing to make sure that they are not violating people’s constitutional rights.”
Blue Virginia: “Yeah, those are all excellent ideas and good points. So I guess your general approach, this kind of goes along with the approach to being a member of Congress, but do you think at this point the way the Republican Party is, should Democrats in Congress be attempting more to work across the aisle quote unquote with them, or be more trying to block, slow down, obstruct all these harmful, disastrous Republican proposals? I mean, is it even possible to really work with Republicans at this point? Or what should we be doing at this point?”
Irene Shin: “Yeah, that’s a great question. You know, I’ve had a lot of success working across the aisle in Richmond, but Richmond is a very different beast than DC is; we don’t have a Lauren Boebert in Richmond. And so almost all of my bills that have been signed by the governor and passed into law have been with bipartisan support. And I’m the only legislator or elected official in this race who has served in both a minority and majority chamber. When I first went in, I went in under a Republican majority. And I say all of that to say that bipartisanship is important. But – BUT – we are the opposition party, right? And Jim Jordan wanted to bring articles of impeachment and then open an impeachment investigation against Biden; they didn’t freaking navel gaze and hem and haw about it, they just went and did it. And I feel like what we need right now are Democrats who are willing to stop hemming and hawing, stop voting in support of resolutions that thank ICE agents for their service.”
Blue Virginia: “Yeah, that was bizarre, I didn’t understand that one.”
Irene Shin: “Like impeach the guy and then move on. My mom always said to me, like if you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly bear. My point to the Democratic Party is, if you’re going to be the opposition party, be the freaking opposition party. Like don’t take James Carville’s advice to roll over and play dead.”
Blue Virginia: “No definitely don’t do that. I don’t know what he was talking about, sometimes I just don’t understand that guy at all, lol…But yeah, I guess the thing is I agree with you on a lot of that, I just think sometimes you have to think about being strategic. Like we could move to impeach Trump every day; he does something, multiple things actually, every day that are probably impeachable offenses – he’s breaking the law left and right, he’s violating the Constitution left and right. But we can’t be impeaching him 10 times a day or once a day or twice a week…Also, you need to know if you have the votes; like Nancy Pelosi was amazing at that, she could count the votes, she knew what she had, she didn’t bring anything to the floor until it was ready. I mean, I guess there are reasons to bring something to the floor even if you’re going to lose. Sometimes you just do it for for other reasons. So how strategic should Democrats be or just should we just be like kind of bomb thrower types and just go in there and just be like, we don’t care if we win this fight, lose this fight, we’re just going to have the fight and we’re just taking it to them?”
Irene Shin: “If we had a full Democratic roster when the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ came for a vote, do you think they still would have gotten it across in the end? But it would have been that much harder for them…”
Blue Virginia: “That was a very close vote, they have a very small majority, so a couple votes could make all the difference…So I’m curious, do you agree with what Rep. Jennifer McClellan said a couple months ago, that ‘our republic is being stress tested to the breaking point and I don’t know if we’re going to survive,’ that we are ‘absolutely in a constitutional crisis’ and that ‘This is fascism, this is something I never thought I would see in the United States?’ If so, what would you do about it?”
Irene Shin: “I agree.”
Blue Virginia: “So then the question is, if that’s the case, what do you do about it? Fighting fascism is a tall order.”
Irene Shin: “It is a tall order. But it is not, I mean…I could be wrong, and maybe I am, but I think the fascism and the authoritarianism is a symptom of a deeper problem. I’m hesitant to say that, because maybe the fascism and the authoritarianism is the problem. But then I think there’s something to be said about the fact that decades of voter disenfranchisement, decades of underfunding if not straight defunding civic education, decades of decreasing the quality of public education, that I think has led to a moment in which people feel see disconnected from politics and the government, that they feel disdainful of the government. I think that continues to perpetuate the cycle of like, if you’re resentful of the government, then you don’t trust it to help you. And if you can’t trust it to help you, then they can’t do their jobs either. And I think it’s really important for us to be clear as Democrats that Republicans have for decades systematically eroded the public trust in the federal government, in the system that we’ve built. And that was by design. And I think our role in some of this, and how I’ve seen my job in being a state delegate in Richmond, has been to be transparent as possible with my community, do the work they sent me to do, and then come back and report to them on what we were able to accomplish on their behalf, because I hope that helps to be a way in rebuilding…”
Blue Virginia: “Right, and that’s actually a very good segue into my last question. I saw that you had congratulated Mamdani on winning the nomination for mayor of NY City. And then of course the VA House GOP went after you, kind of on that, and was basically saying you support “defunding the Police.” So, Mamdani maybe reflects what we were just talking about. But I wanted to give you the opportunity if you wanted to say anything about what the Virginia House Republicans were saying. And I’m curious what you think about some of Mamdani’s more ‘left-leaning views,” let’s say, such as government-run grocery stores, rent control, etc. – curious what you think of those.”
Irene Shin: “I think that the House GOP tweet about when I congraluated Mamdani for becoming the first AAPI mayor of NY City, that seems crazy. He won a really hard-fought race, and I was just saying congratulations. And so that’s not surprising, because the House GOP is just, they are grasping at straws; they do not have a strategy or a message, and not even messengers on the ballot this year who can win over Virginians.”
Blue Virginia: “Right, so they have no positive message is what you’re saying, they have nothing positive to say, so they just attack us?”
Irene Shin: “Yes. They’ve got nothing. They’ve got nothing…It seems to me that the outcome of Mamdani’s election, I think it’s that part of his platform was easy to digest and it resonated with people, because it was focused on affordability; it focused on rent control, it focused on free public transit, and these I guess you would call them government-owned grocery stores…publicized, not privated, whatever that means…rent freezes and child care…Those are issues, whether you agree on the end outcome of what he’s pushing for, those are issues that deal directly with affordability. And we we know that people are interested in talking about affordability because times are tough right now. And so do I love the idea of public transit? Yes, 100%. Do I want childcare to be more affordable, and for people to be able to actually access it but it’s not just the folks in the low-income bracket or folks that make upward of $200,000? Yes, 100%. Should rent be more affordable, especially when Northern Virginia is facing such a housing crisis? Yes, absolutely. So like I agree with those things; I think that we should be working towards them. I don’t know that it’s a fair comparison to tie his agenda directly to the work that Virginia House Democrats are doing, but Virginia House Democrats have been fighting the affordability fight to build a more just economy for Virginians since we’ve had the majority in the last two years. So like if the GOP wants to hit us on wanting to make life more affordable for Virginians, go ahead.”
Blue Virginia: “Yeah, I think what they’re clearly trying to do is falsely paint the Virginia Democrats, including the statewide ticket, as far left and out of the mainstream. Because we always say *they* are far right, which is actually accurate, and that pretty much their ideas are crazy or whatever. So they’re trying to basically say, ‘no, YOUR ideas are crazy, YOU’RE out of the mainsream…it’s like playground in first grade or something, and that’s all they got. But I see what they’re doing – they’re trying to divide us as well. So we don’t want to fall into that trap.”
Irene Shin: “So I would guess that the outcome of Mamdani’s election again is not necessarily about whether people are fired up about his policy proposals, which I imagine they are because they again go directly to the heart of things that I know families are facing – affordability crisis. But also I think you have to see it for what it is, which is this hunger voters have to do something different. And I think the sentiment of anti-establishment, you see that all across the world. And I think that part of this too, is if business as usual hasn’t been working and voters are desperate for us to hear that they want us to try something different. That was my takeaway from last night.”
Blue Virginia: “Yeah, I think that’s probably right, I think that there’s a lot of truth to that. So anyway, I guess we probably should wrap it up, because it’s getting late and we only have like about two days until Saturday….before voting starts (well, voting is going on right now actually, early voting, and there have been a lot of people doing early voting). So anyway, thanks for your time and good luck, and I guess we’ll get some results not too long from now.”
Irene Shin: “Yeah, we’ll see you on the other side. I appreciate all the good work you do for us.”
Blue Virginia: “Thank you very much, you too.”
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