Eugene Puryear

Eugene Puryear (born February 28, 1986 in Charlottesville, Virginia) is an American journalist, author, activist, and politician. In 2014, he was a candidate for the at-large seat in the DC Council with the D.C. Statehood Green Party. In the 2008 and 2016 United States presidential elections, Puryear was the vice presidential nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).

In 2014, Puryear ran as a D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate for the At-Large City Council seat held at the time by Anita Bonds. His campaign put forward a 10-point program, which describes some of the policy positions taken by Puryear. On April 1, 2014, Puryear won the party's nomination, defeating G. Lee Aikin, 67.3% to 25.1%. On November 4, 2014, Puryear placed sixth out of 14 candidates in the general election.

Puryear wrote the book Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America, which was published by PSL Publications.

Puryear writes regularly for Liberation News, the newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. He has co-edited some of the PSL's books, such as Imperialism in the 21st Century: Updating Lenin’s Theory a Century Later. He is also the host of the daily political talk show By Any Means Necessary, on Radio Sputnik.

Puryear studied at Howard University, where he became a lead organizer with the anti-war ANSWER coalition and has helped organize large protests against the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Puryear and the ANSWER coalition were involved in the campaign to free the Jena 6. As a freshman at Howard in 2005, Puryear was interviewed by The Washington Post as an "activist-in-training" and cited his engagement with activism against gentrification, racism, the US occupation of Iraq and other issues.

In November 2010, RT interviewed Puryear regarding socialism in the United States. He has also appeared on RT to discuss U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East.

Puryear has been deeply involved in the Black Lives Matter movement.

In 2008, Puryear ran on the Party for Socialism and Liberation's ticket alongside presidential nominee Gloria La Riva. The La Riva/Puryear slate was on the ballot in six states and received 6,818 total votes.

In July 2015, Puryear was announced as the running mate of Gloria La Riva, the Party for Socialism and Liberation's 2016 presidential nominee. However, he was not eligible to hold the office, as he would not have been at least 35 years old by Inauguration Day. He was critical of the Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.