Republican Julie Robben Lineberry says she wants to win the Senate District 39 special election — but acknowledges the math is against her.
“I’m no Pollyanna to politics,” Lineberry said Thursday in a live conversation with The Alexandria Brief. “I didn’t think, oh my gosh, I’m going to come in here and flip a Democratic seat that’s been a Democratic seat for... well, long ago.”
Lineberry, a longtime Alexandria resident and retired realtor, is running against Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker in the Feb. 10 special election to fill the seat being vacated by Sen. Adam Ebbin. The district, which includes all of Alexandria and portions of Arlington and Fairfax County, votes roughly 70 percent Democratic.
When asked directly whether she’s running to win or simply to ensure Democrats don’t run unopposed, Lineberry was firm.
“Oh, I want to win the seat,” she said.
A last-minute decision
Lineberry said she decided to run in the final moments before the filing deadline after seeing no other Republicans had stepped forward.
“I literally, during the last half hour of filing, sent them an email declaring,” she said. The Alexandria Republican City Committee subsequently canceled its planned canvass and named her the nominee.
She described herself as a “pop-up candidate” in a “pop-up campaign” — though she noted her opponents faced similarly compressed timelines.
“We’re all pop-up candidates,” she said. “And that’s where we are.”
Walking back the rhetoric
In her campaign announcement, Lineberry used sharp language about the election process, citing “high-jinx,” “election manipulation,” and accusing “the political machine” of “undermining democracy.”
Asked Thursday whether she genuinely believes Democrats broke the law or acted unethically, Lineberry softened her tone.
“I’m not sure those were my lead words, but they are words that I used,” she said. She framed her concerns as criticism of party processes that limit voter participation rather than allegations of illegal activity.
“When you are a party that wants to keep control of certain things, you can best do it by limiting the process by which your candidate is selected,” she said. “The party bosses love to just appoint and say, OK, this is his turn. This is her turn.”
Lineberry also referenced ballot harvesting in Alexandria during the COVID-era elections. When asked whether she reported the alleged activity to authorities, she said, “It was reported,” but did not provide details about who reported it or the outcome.
She then pivoted to criticisms of city council meetings held over Zoom during the pandemic, saying participants “weren’t allowed to talk” while the council rezoned “hundreds of sites in the city.”
On affordability
Lineberry has made affordability a central theme of her campaign, listing it as the first of six priorities on her website. But when pressed for specific solutions, she acknowledged the limits of what she could offer voters in Northern Virginia.
“Unfortunately, I have no choices for you except to move south,” she said, before pivoting to criticize Democratic tax proposals she said would raise costs on deliveries, ride-sharing, and other services.
When asked repeatedly what legislation she would propose, Lineberry said she would work to lower the gas tax and freeze salaries for government employees — excluding teachers, police, and firefighters. She also said she would oppose Democratic energy policies she blames for rising costs.
“That’s how I would, in the legislature, in the Senate,” she said. “I will be in a minority party unless there are two Republican Senate seats flip. I can always pray.”
Throughout the conversation, Lineberry frequently turned to city-level grievances — criticizing the size of Alexandria’s staff, the use of outside consultants, speeding camera tickets, and development decisions — rather than state legislative priorities. When asked if she’d consider running for city council instead, she demurred.
“I probably have as much chance of getting elected to this one as I do to the city council,” she said.
On education
Lineberry, who has worked as a substitute teacher in West End schools, including Ferdinand Day, John Adams, and Ramsey, raised concerns about declining student scores. When asked for her solution to improve them, she offered a simple answer.
“Teach them,” she said. “Teachers spending lots of time and people helping them. But they need smaller classes.”
She described classrooms of 20 to 25 students where “a third of them were non-English speaking or needed emotional or physical special aids.” She also criticized the lack of green space at some school playgrounds, noting that Ferdinand Day’s playground is “on the third floor of the parking garage” with “not a tree or a blade of grass to be seen.”
A ‘moderate Republican’
Lineberry described herself as a moderate Republican, though she acknowledged the term has lost meaning in today’s political environment.
“I used to be considered a moderate Republican,” she said. “But the Republican Party, like the Democratic Party, have now done away with moderates. You get canceled.”
She said she supported a different candidate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary but voted for Donald Trump in the general election.
“When it came to election day, and it was either to vote for Biden-Harris or for Trump-Vance... I just watched Biden for the last six months. It was not a choice,” she said.
Lineberry said she opposes all four constitutional amendments currently moving through the General Assembly — covering redistricting, reproductive freedom, voting rights and marriage equality.
On federal workers
With thousands of federal employees living in the district, Lineberry was asked about her message to those worried about workforce reductions under the Trump administration.
She pointed to her own experience losing her White House job when Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976.
“I was a... I lost my job because of that,” she said. “I went and found a job.”
When asked if she supports the current federal workforce cuts, Lineberry responded with a question.
“Do you support affordability, making things, cutting things?” she said. “Are there ways to make lives more affordable other than by reducing something?”
She argued that recent decreases in egg prices are a sign that “the market is saying somebody’s trying to reduce rates.”
‘I’m passionate about serving’
Lineberry, who worked in the White House personnel office during the Nixon and Ford administrations, served 10 years on the Alexandria Electoral Board and has been active in community organizations, including the Girl Scouts, TWIG, and the Inova Alexandria Hospital Auxiliary.
She emphasized that she’s not seeking higher office.
“I’m not looking to stair-step and in 18 months change jobs and get a higher position,” she said. “I’m just trying to make a difference now, today, in 2026.”
Asked about her favorite spots in the West End, where she lives, Lineberry named Ho’s Chinese on Fern Street and Farlington Pizza.
For more information about Julie’s campaign, visit julieforva.com.
The race
Early voting begins Jan. 31. Election Day is Feb. 10.
The Alexandria Brief has also invited Bennett-Parker to join us for a conversation and will announce details once confirmed.
Watch the full conversation below or listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.
