Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Perriello called last month’s Women’s March on Washington a “visual reminder that we are the majority in the country and … in Virginia” during a stop in Fredericksburg Wednesday.
But something did concern him at the march, he told about 60 people at the University of Mary Washington. Most of the participants he spoke with did not even know about this year’s race for governor.
“My goal in this race is to convince people that state elections matter,” Perriello, a former one-term congressman from Charlottesville, said to applause. “This is not just our first chance to defeat [Republican President] Donald Trump at the polls, and we will defeat Donald Trump at the polls this November. This is our chance to keep Virginia as a firewall against that kind of hate and division and for the inclusive Virginia that we all want.”
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Perriello emphasized his vision of a “more inclusive Virginia” in a 10-minute speech to a largely Democratic audience, before taking questions for about an hour. A campaign press release referred to the stop as a town hall meeting and took aim at GOP congressmen, including Rep. Rob Wittman, R–1st District, who have not met requests for town halls in the wake of Trump’s inauguration.
Perriello—who is challenging Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam for the Democratic nomination—answered questions about nonpartisan redistricting reform, Trump’s immigration policies, gun control and other issues. Most attendees seemed to admire the candidate for governor, a far cry from the contentious town hall meetings then-Congressman Perriello hosted during the tea party movement eight years ago.
One questioner asked how he would address gerrymandering to “reduce the size of Republicans in the House of Delegates.” Republicans have not won a statewide election since 2009, but hold 66 of the 100 seats on the House of Delegates.
Perriello said vetoing partisan redistricting maps will be the “single most impactful thing I will do as governor.” He noted that some Democrats also want to “rig the system” in their party’s direction.
“I think that’s the wrong approach because it’s bad for democracy, it’s bad morally, but also we should not be afraid of a level playing field,” Perriello said. “Progressive values are the majority values in Virginia now, very clearly.” Earlier, he noted that Virginia was the only Southern state to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton over Trump in November’s presidential election.
Another questioner asked how, as governor, Perriello would respond to Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, including the 90-day ban on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. Federal judges have halted that ban.
The candidate replied that he will do whatever he can “within constitutional powers,” but said his options are limited. Americans, he said, need to be “absolutely fearless” about calling out hate and bigotry.
“Donald Trump ran the most viciously racist campaign of my lifetime, and I think we have to be honest about that,” Perriello said. “That doesn’t mean we assume every Trump voter supports that.”
He also touched on gun control in response to a question from a woman who said, half-jokingly, that she wished former Democratic President Barack Obama had gone “door to door to take all the guns.”
“I don’t want to go to a grocery store with someone” openly carrying a firearm, she said.
Perriello, who received the National Rifle Association’s endorsement while in Congress, said he thinks the debate about guns has shifted toward “building an arsenal to take on your own government.” He said he will try to make the case for stronger background checks and other measures to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.
The Second Amendment right to own firearms, he said, is not “inconsistent with the ability to have common-sense gun reform.”