For the first time in recent memory, liberals have started to take the power of state government seriously. While California has gestured at a multiracial, social democratic future, the 25 states with unified Republican governments have lurched right, attacking as many vulnerable (and usually Democratic) constituencies as they can. In Virginia, Gov. Terry McAuliffe has vetoed 71 separate pieces of legislation so far, warding off laws he claims would amount to “nuttier, more socially divisive legislation than even North Carolina.” With the stakes so high, it is crucial Virginians choose the right candidate to defend their values in the fall gubernatorial election. For those in the University community who care about decency, social inclusion and economic security for all, that candidate is former Rep. Tom Perriello.
As a Representative for the historically Republican fifth district, Perriello took tough votes in support of Barack Obama’s agenda, even as he tried to push the congressional Democratic party towards a full-throated embrace of New Deal-style politics. While he supported the Affordable Care Act — something at least one of his other Virginia Democratic colleagues did not do — he has made clear the law needs a public option to lessen the toxic influence of profit on our health care system.
Perriello’s critique of the Democratic Party’s leadership doesn’t end with health care reform. After the stimulus was passed, he argued that a WPA-like green jobs program was needed to rejuvenate rural economies even as party leaders turned skittish about further government investment. Defending his vote for cap and trade, Perriello told critics, “The Republicans may win some seats because of this vote, but they can’t regain their souls for demagoguing the issue [of climate change].” Perriello lost in 2010, but he succeeded in laying a template for a kind of “conviction politics” badly needed in the Democratic Party.
Since declaring his candidacy for governor, Perriello has signalled he understands the way forward for the Democratic Party is offering solutions to working class economic concerns while defending a diverse, multicultural Virginia. In an interview with The Collegiate Times, Perriello shares his concerns about automation’s effects on workers, suggesting its effects might be addressed by restoring “the purchasing power of the working middle class out.” Unfortunately, Perriello’s campaign website is light on policy detail, but his Congressional tenure suggests he will commit to addressing the problems poor and middle class Virginians face. Having hired Bernie Sanders’s New Hampshire campaign manager and the senator’s fundraising firm, Perriello is lucid about where the energy in his party is and that stale, Clinton-style economics combined with superficial appeals to identity will not deliver a winning coalition.
Perriello’s opponent in the primary, Lt. Governor Ralph Northam, is a fine politician and would be preferable in every way to likely Republican nominee Ed Gillespie, a career lobbyist who embodies everything wrong with the Washington Republican establishment. If Northam were elected governor, his tenure would likely be a continuation of Terry McAuliffe’s business-friendly agenda, which would be an acceptable outcome, even if that approach is unlikely to produce major change. Perriello on the other hand has the potential to move Virginia politics in a strongly progressive direction and shake up the Richmond status quo. For despondent liberals wondering how to resist Trump’s agenda, giving Tom Perriello’s campaign a closer look would be a good place to start.
Gray Whisnant is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He may be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.
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