The results are in for the Fifth District Democratic primary for Congress, and—well, I didn’t make it.
Former Congressman Tom Perriello just had too great an advantage in name recognition and his history in the district that his challengers couldn’t overcome.
I have promised to support Tom in the general election, and I will do so in any way I can. I’ve been saying all along that the people of the Fifth District need someone who will stand up for their rights and interests in Washington, DC, and someone who is not just a rubber stamp for Trump, and I am certain that Tom Perriello will be far, far, far more responsive to the will of the voters than our incumbent, John McGuire.
We get daily reminders of why we need this sort of thing. The latest is the approval, by the Senate, of Todd Blanche as Attorney General. This is the guy mainly responsible for burying the Epstein Files and for hatching a scheme to pay off violent January 6 rioters and give Donald Trump’s family permanent blanket immunity from the IRS. Blanche is outrageously corrupt, but the Republican Party will never, ever, ever stand up to Donald Trump.
This also highlights the diminishment of Congress and its complete subordination into a rubber stamp for the president. It is a reminder why we need to pay attention to the issue I put at the forefront of my campaign: the constitutional balance of power and the need to restore our system of checks and balances, so all power cannot be concentrated in one person.
My campaign was never about me or my personal vanity. It was about elevating that central issue and getting people to pay attention to it. As I return to my job as a writer and commentator—fortunately, running for office is not the only way I have of influencing our country’s future—I will continue to advocate for the bold actions and serious reforms we need to save our democracy.
I want to send out my thanks to the people who supported me, the volunteers, and the donors, and particularly my wife, who made me promise many year ago that I would never run for office—but who understood why I was running now and supported it.
The best part of campaigning has been traveling around the Fifth District and meeting a lot of terrific people who are engaged in making their communities better—and that includes the local news reporters who are continuing to do their important work under difficult circumstances. Politics on the national level, and the politics you see on cable TV and social media, tends to be mean and nasty and ugly, but it looks a lot better one-on-one, meeting people at the local level. And that’s something that gives me a little more hope that our democracy might survive this current moment.
Thank you for listening, thank you for listening to all of the things I’ve posted in this campaign, and thank you for your support.
