Tom Perriello launches run for his former Congressional seat

“Someone asked me yesterday why I thought it was a good idea to jump off this cliff,” former Democratic Congressman Tom Perriello said at his campaign launch event on December 10. “And I said that I knew if I jumped, there were hundreds of people ready to jump behind me.”

The shoulder-to-shoulder crowd packed into Charlottesville’s Random Row Brewing Co., straining the limits of the venue’s 200-person capacity, cheered loudly.

On December 9, Perriello announced his 2026 run for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, which he previously held from 2009-2011. He says incumbent Republican Rep. John McGuire has failed to stand up for district residents: “He’s standing right in the way of good jobs and lower health care costs.” 

Perriello criticizes McGuire’s cuts to rural broadband support and green energy jobs, and his lack of intervention in the Department of Justice’s attacks on the University of Virginia. “That is not only a university we’re all very proud of,” Perriello says, “but is the No. 1 employer in this region, and John McGuire allowed it to be turned into a political punching bag.” 

At press time, McGuire’s office had not responded to a request for comment.  

“People are facing way too much pain in this community in terms of rising costs of health care and child care,” Perriello says. “It’s outrageous that tens of thousands of people in this district right now are facing the threat of losing their health care or seeing their premiums triple because John McGuire and the MAGA Congress are choosing to prioritize tax breaks for huge corporations over the families that they represent.”

Perriello’s vote in favor of the Affordable Care Act may have cost him his seat in the 2010 election. But the candidate and his supporters now view that vote as an asset.

“I have health insurance right now because of Tom Perriello and that Affordable Care Act vote, as do a lot of people,” former Virginia delegate Sally Hudson said at the December 10 event. “As he will tell you, some things are more important than getting reelected.”

“I wish every single one of our elected officials had that sort of courage and conviction,” said Rebecca Wood at the campaign launch. At Perriello’s invitation, she flew in from Boston, where she’s attending law school at the University of Massachusetts. But Wood has roots in the area, having grown up in Roanoke, attended James Madison University, and previously lived in Charlottesville.

“My daughter was born at 26 weeks gestation in 2012,” Wood said. “She was the size of my hand. Without the ACA, her birth would have been considered a preexisting condition, and she would have exceeded her lifetime cap before ever coming home from the NICU, which meant she would have been uninsurable, and she wouldn’t have had access to health care, and she wouldn’t be where she is now, as a typical 13-year-old.”

“People would share with me their stories of how the Affordable Care Act had saved their family from bankruptcy,” Perriello says. “There’s a lot more we can do, but those things made a difference for people, and they know that it wasn’t an easy vote for me to take.”

By December 12, Perriello gained endorsements from Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. Three of the six Democrats previously running for the nomination have suspended their campaigns and endorsed Perriello: Crozet’s Paul Riley, Charlottesville’s Adele Stichel, and Lynchburg’s Kate Zabriskie. 

“I welcome the competition,” says Scottsville Supervisor Mike Pruitt, who’s staying in the primary race. “People are frustrated with the Democratic Party, right? They see it as a party that is running the same playbook, that is running the same message, that is running the same people. And they want new leadership.”

“I think I’m in a somewhat different lane than Tom Perriello is, offering something of an alternative to him,” says fellow Democratic primary candidate Robert Tracinski. “I’m trying to create a campaign that would offer important things for the Charlottesville Democrats, but also have more appeal to independents [and] former Trump voters with a serious case of buyer’s remorse who are out in the rest of the district.”

Perriello says his experience and broad support make him the right candidate to win. “I’ve done it before, and I’m going to do it again, because we have the grassroots support of stakeholders from across Central Virginia and Southside,” he says. “I think what people want right now is a fighter who is willing to work a double shift up in Congress and back here in the district to make a difference in people’s lives.”

“He wants to meet with people,” said local activist and cybersecurity expert Tanesha Hudson at the December 10 event. “He wants to hear your thoughts. He basically embraces everybody in this community. So, why not Tom? If not Tom, who?”