Focus on Trump in Va. governor race

The first statewide race in the President Trump era is becoming a test of whether attacks on the president can mobilize the Democratic Party’s liberal base.

The Democratic primary for Virginia governor features former Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, two candidates who are taking different approaches to the campaign.

{mosads}Northam was expected to have the primary field to himself, thanks in part to endorsements from establishment Democratic figures such as term-limited Gov. Terry McAuliffe and a majority of elected Democratic officials in Virginia. But Perriello’s entrance has upended the June 13 primary and jump-started the once quiet race by railing against Trump.

“It’s pretty clear that Perriello is shaping his campaign as very much an anti-Trump campaign,” said Geoffrey Skelley, a political scientist at the University of Virginia.

“And while Ralph Northam has plenty to say about Donald Trump, at the end of day, I don’t feel his rhetoric is aimed so much at the national picture as Perriello’s is.”

Perriello, who served a short stint in Congress, is training his fire on Trump and seeking to energize voters resistant to the president’s policy agenda. He has said his decision to make an unexpected run for governor was prompted by Trump’s victory.

Perriello won his congressional seat in 2008 by unseating a conservative incumbent but lost his 2010 reelection in the face of the Tea Party backlash against Democrats. The gubernatorial race gives Perriello a shot at a political comeback.

Perriello described Virginia as a “firewall” that can oppose Trump-administration policies. He’s positioning himself as the change candidate in the race who has bucked the establishment on several issues.

In an interview with The Hill, Perriello noted his support for criminal justice reform and free community college, and his opposition to two pipelines proposed for the state.

“It’s become clear over the last two months that we really set the tone on opposition to Trump, set the tone on the policy agenda, and the fact that we’ve done so without the top-down approach of endorsements from the establishment I think is really something that voters across the state have taken notice of,” Perriello said.

He pushed back on the idea that his focus on the national political landscape means ignoring state-level issues important to Virginians. Perriello argued that voters view Trump’s Cabinet appointments and the Supreme Court vacancy as local issues.

“When you’re coming from or have friends in ethnic communities, there’s nothing more local than what Trump is doing,” Perriello said.

Meanwhile, Northam, an experienced Virginia politician hoping to continue McAuliffe’s legacy, is looking at the race through a more local lens and emphasizing his political tenure in the Commonwealth.

But Northam hasn’t shied away from attacking Trump. When asked if he sees the governor’s race as a referendum on the president, he replied unequivocally, “No question.”

“I think people are resonating with my record and resume,” Northam told The Hill. “And the fact that I’ve been in this for 10 years really fighting for progressive values in Virginia against the very things Mr. Trump and his administration stand for.”

An early Quinnipiac University poll from mid-February found that the Democratic primary is wide open. Northam and Perriello are tied at 19 percent, with 61 percent of voters undecided.

While they mostly differ on style and tone, the Virginia Democrats also have differences in their backgrounds and political experience.

Perriello hasn’t served as a state-level elected official in Virginia, and his only political experience was his one term in Congress. After losing reelection, he worked for the progressive think tank Center for American Progress on issues like immigration and campaign finance reform. He later served in the State Department as a special envoy.

Northam, who grew up in Eastern Shore, served as an Army physician and was a pediatric neurologist. He pointed to that experience as a way to defend Virginians’ healthcare amid the looming Republican effort to repeal ObamaCare.

Before he was elected to serve alongside McAuliffe in 2014, Northam served in the state Senate starting in 2008, which he contrasts with Perriello, whom he labeled a “Washingtonian.”

There has also been scrutiny over both candidates’ past records and votes.

The National Rifle Association endorsed Perriello’s 2010 reelection, support he now says he regrets.

The former congressman also apologized for supporting an amendment to ObamaCare that prohibited participating insurance providers from covering abortions. Now, Perriello touts his commitment to gun reform and said he’s always supported Roe v. Wade.

“We really don’t need politicians, leaders now that put their finger up to see which way the political winds are blowing,” Northam said.

But Northam disowns some past blunders of his own, saying he regrets voting twice for former President George W. Bush.

Regardless of which candidate emerges as the primary winner, Democrats see Virginia as fertile political territory to build resistance to Trump. Hillary Clinton won the state decisively by more than 5 points.

“It’s almost always held true that Virginia is an early warning sign of what to expect in swing districts and swing states across the country in the midterms,” said Jesse Ferguson, a former Clinton campaign spokesman who’s worked in Virginia politics and remaining neutral in the primary.

The same Quinnipiac survey found Trump’s approval rating underwater in Virginia at 38 percent, lending some credence to the idea that Perriello’s anti-Trump rhetoric could boost him in the gubernatorial campaign. Still, strategists argue that the Democratic candidates should try to strike a balance in showing that they can serve statewide while also opposing Trump.

Ferguson argued that Democrats won’t need to shake-up their message much as they transition to the general election. He believes that puts them in a better position than Republicans, who he says need to embrace Trump during the primary and will likely distance themselves more in the general.

“I think one of the advantages for us is that the themes and messages that Democrats need to talk about in the primary can remain consistent straight through the general,” Ferguson said.

Meanwhile, Republicans are seeing a front-runner emerge among their four candidates.

Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman, is seen as the favorite with experience running statewide. He ran a surprisingly close Senate race in 2014 that came within less than 1 point of unseating Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) in a year that saw major GOP gains.

Corey Stewart, chairman of Prince William County’s Board of Supervisors, is an unabashed Trump supporter who co-chaired his Virginia campaign. Stewart was fired from the campaign after staging a protest outside of the Republican National Committee calling for the party to back Trump.

Stewart has accused Gillespie of not being committed enough to Trump. State Sen. Frank Wagner and Denver Riggleman, a former Air Force intelligence officer and distillery owner, are also running in the GOP primary.

Early polls suggest that Gillespie has a strong advantage going into the primary. And if Gillespie advances to the general, Democrats say he will have the financial resources to mount a competitive race, despite other recent Democratic wins in the state.
“Anyone who thinks that because we won in 2013, 2014 and 2016 that we’re safe in 2017 is taking this race for granted and making a mistake,” Ferguson said.