Representative Glenn C. Nye

Glenn Carlyle Nye III (born September 9, 1974) is an American politician and former diplomat who represented Virginia’s 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from January 3, 2009, to January 3, 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served one term in Congress during a period marked by the Great Recession and major national debates over economic recovery, energy policy, and health care reform. The district he represented included all of Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore, as well as parts of Norfolk and Hampton, and he is the last representative from the 2nd District who did not serve in the United States military.

Nye was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but his family has lived in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia for five generations. He was raised in Norfolk, Virginia, where he attended Norfolk Academy, graduating from high school there. He went on to study international affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., earning a degree from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. While in college, he volunteered on medical education missions to the Middle East, an early indication of his interest in international development and public service.

Following his graduation, Nye began his career in international economic development. He worked for the U.S. Director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, focusing on economic development in war-torn Eastern Europe. In 2001 he joined the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service officer. During the Macedonian conflict in 2001, he served in Kosovo and Macedonia, where he helped organize the evacuation of 26 American unlawful combatants serving in the ranks of ethnic Albanian separatist insurgents from the village of Arachinovo and helped negotiate the release of 26 U.S. servicemen who were trapped outside the village by roadblocks set up by Macedonian civilians protesting the evacuation. For his role in this highly controversial incident within Macedonia, Nye received the State Department’s Superior Honor Award.

Nye was subsequently posted to the U.S. Embassy in Singapore, where he worked on trade and economic issues, including helping to protect U.S. intellectual property rights during negotiations for the U.S.–Singapore Free Trade Agreement. He later volunteered for service in Afghanistan, spending almost a year as part of a U.S. government–sponsored team that managed the historic Afghan Constitution Commission and supported the country’s first presidential election. He also managed a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) community development program in the West Bank and Gaza, and served as operations director in the Middle East by registering eligible voters in major U.S. cities for Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly election. In Iraq, Nye led operations to create jobs for Iraqis as part of the counterinsurgency effort. After returning to Virginia, he advised a USAID program that worked closely with U.S. military colleagues to stabilize Iraqi neighborhoods by creating employment for more than 70,000 Iraqis.

Nye entered electoral politics in 2008, motivated in part by his foreign service experience and his frustration with the direction of national policy. In an interview with CQ Politics, he explained his decision to run for Congress by noting that “there is only so much one can do on the executing end of foreign policy in terms of advancing American interests, and there’s only so much you can do to influence the policy from the outside,” and that he was prepared to offer his service to bring foreign policy expertise into Congress. He sought the Democratic nomination for Virginia’s 2nd congressional district and won the primary, setting up a general election contest against incumbent Republican Representative Thelma Drake. The campaign featured sharp disagreements over energy policy: Drake supported new drilling in Alaska and along the continental shelf off the East Coast, while Nye argued that oil companies could and should expand production in existing oil fields that had become economically feasible to exploit. His race drew national attention, reflected in contributions from leading Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, and Representative Charles Rangel of New York. Although The Virginian-Pilot had endorsed Drake in 2006, it endorsed Nye in 2008. In the November 2008 election, amid a broader Democratic surge in the district that also saw Barack Obama and Mark Warner carry the 2nd District in the presidential and U.S. Senate races, Nye defeated Drake with approximately 52 percent of the vote.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Nye participated actively in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Virginia Beach– and Hampton Roads–area constituents during a significant period in American history. Soon after being sworn in, he joined the Blue Dog Coalition, a caucus of fiscally conservative and moderate Democrats. He voted with the Democratic majority for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the major economic stimulus package responding to the financial crisis, and for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which expanded workers’ rights to challenge pay discrimination. Demonstrating his centrist and sometimes independent voting record, Nye joined 43 other Democrats in voting against the American Clean Energy and Security Act (the cap-and-trade climate bill) in June 2009. In November 2009 he voted with 38 other Democrats against the Affordable Health Care for America Act, stating that the legislation did not do enough to reduce health care costs and cut too much funding from children’s hospitals. He also voted against the Stupak Amendment, which sought to impose additional restrictions on abortion coverage in health insurance plans. During his term he received endorsements from business-oriented groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business.

In Congress, Nye served on three standing committees, reflecting both his district’s large military presence and his interest in economic and veterans’ issues. On the House Committee on Armed Services, he served on the Subcommittee on Readiness, the Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces, and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. On the House Committee on Small Business, he sat on the Subcommittee on Finance and Tax and the Subcommittee on Contracting and Technology, chairing the latter. He also served on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, including the Subcommittee on Health, where he worked on issues affecting veterans’ medical care and services. Nye’s tenure coincided with ongoing U.S. military operations overseas and significant attention to the needs of active-duty personnel, military families, and veterans in the Hampton Roads region.

Nye sought re-election in 2010 but was defeated on November 2, 2010, by Republican nominee Scott Rigell, a businessman and automobile dealer; independent candidate Kenny Golden, a retired Navy captain, also appeared on the ballot. His loss ended his service in the House at the conclusion of the 111th Congress on January 3, 2011, after one term in office. Nonetheless, his congressional record reflected a blend of support for key Democratic initiatives and a willingness to break with his party on major legislation, consistent with his Blue Dog Coalition affiliation and the competitive nature of his district.

After leaving Congress, Nye remained active in public policy and international affairs. In March 2011 he accepted a position at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, where he worked to facilitate communications and policy dialogue between the United States and Europe. In September 2011 he joined the Hanover Investment Group as senior political advisor, providing strategic guidance on political and policy developments. In December 2013 he became a trustee of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC), a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., focused on the institutions of the American presidency and Congress and their roles in U.S. governance. In August 2017 Nye was named president and chief executive officer of CSPC, a position he continues to hold, extending his engagement with national policy issues beyond his term in elected office.