Retired Army officer Alex Isaac announced a bid Jan. 10 for Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, becoming the fourth Republican to join the race for the open seat.

In a news release, the first-time candidate said that the “lackluster representation” of Democratic incumbent Rep. Jennifer Wexton and the district’s “continued downward spiral into progressivism” prompted him to run.

“It really came down to, you know, watching the state of affairs over the last eight years,” Isaac said in an interview with the Times-Mirror, “and just seeing what’s going on in terms of the rhetoric, the divisiveness from both parties’ far extremes. Those bullhorns, as I call them, are drowning out the work that needs to be done.”

Wexton has represented the district since 2018, when she flipped what had been a reliably Republican-leaning district. She decided to retire at the end of her current term following a diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy.

In his interview, Issac, 55, said that issues involving the economy and national security were paramount in his campaign.

“Seeing the divisiveness that’s going on, our ‘peer’ adversaries such as China, Russia, Iran and others are watching this and they’re acting and behaving in a way where they’re trying to exploit these divisions,” Isaac said.

A native of Flint, Michigan, Issac was born to an Iraqi father and Palestinian Christian mother. He attended the University of Michigan, graduating with a degree in political science, after which he spent 23 years in the Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and doing tours in the Balkans and the Middle East. A resident of Loudoun County for 20 years, he currently lives in Lucketts and works at ECS Federal, a defense contractor.

Mike Clancy, John Beatty and Brooke Taylor — all of whom also ran for the GOP nomination in 2022 — have also announced bids for their party’s nomination.

On the Democratic side, former Virginia House speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, state Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Herndon, Del. David Reid, D-Ashburn, Del. Dan Helmer, D-Clifton, state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Brambleton, Del. Michelle Maldonado, D-Manassas, former Virginia Secretary of Education Atif Qarni and Mark Leighton, a George Mason University librarian, Krystle Kaul, a defense contractor, Brandon Garay, a Department of Defense official, Travis Nembhard, an attorney, and Adrian Pokharel, a former intelligence officer, have all announced bids for Wexton’s seat.

Isaac said that his military background and business experience sets him apart from other Republican candidates.

“I’ve always seen myself as someone who’s results-oriented, mission focused,” Issac said. “Let’s identify the problem and let’s work together to figure out some of the solutions. In the past, the way things were approached, you know, many times were in a bipartisan manner. And I have a reputation of working with people to solve problems.”