CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW)-  While the November showdown between incumbent 5th District Rep. John McGuire and former Congressperson Tom Periello dominated media attention, two local political novices also launched bids to put their names on the ballot as independents. 

Cooke Costa Harvey successfully obtained the required 1,000 certified signatures from registered voters in Virginia and will be appear as an option on the ballot alongside McGuire, a Republican, and Perriello, a Democrat. Chris Register told Cville Right Now he missed the threshold after about 25% of the signatures he gathered were disqualified.

A sense of duty also motivated renaissance man Harvey, who set his mind to getting on the ballot for the U.S. House of Representatives at the start of the year, even though it was a tall order.

“I knew I had to do it because of the opportunity and privilege I had,” Harvey told Cville Right Now, “to give back, to be the change, and to perpetuate this great country that has given me so much.” 

Harvey, hailing from Delaware, has experience in engineering and surveying, as well as working in wilderness therapy with at risk youth, the vocation that brought him to Virginia.  He did not attend a traditional college.

Both men filed paperwork before the first of January, named their campaign committees, and set out to notch the signatures of 1,000 registered voters who would like to have seen them on the ballot. Much to their surprise, as a political independent, there is no fee required to be submitted to the Virginia Department of Elections to run the campaign, as opposed to the $3,500 amount that be submitted to run as a Republican or Democratic candidate. 

“It was encouraging that there were not monetary walls in order to be a part of our governing structure,” Harvey said. 

Register recalled that, beyond the paperwork, all he had to do was design a logo and print business cards. 

“It’s really not that hard,” Register said. 

This lack of a financial barrier, in part, inspired both men to adopt a policy of not accepting monetary donations to help their campaigns.

“How much money do I need to spend to know that I gave it my all?”  Harvey said.   

Harvey and Register both spoke on the rigors of the campaign trail. Even though independents do not have a primary election to contend with, it took a toll on them, especially after willingly turning down financial contributions.   

Harvey pointed to the rules and regulations regarding how and where he could speak to voters to be the most difficult aspect of the process.  A lengthy trial and error process, involving being shooed away from business spaces and private property, fine-tuning his conversations with voters, and navigating differences between counties across the district in what candidates could speak at Board of Supervisor’s meetings, one of the only places for free airtime for a candidate’s platform and message ahead of an election.  He voiced his desire to alleviate this in the future as change he could inspire. 

“If you have a representative coming to your county, who could potentially be your representative, I think we owe them a minute of our time.” Harvey said.   

A graduate of the Georgetown School of Law and a veteran of the Peace Corp, Register decided to run after settling down in Charlottesville following the undertaking of a unique, independent journalistic project called Conversations with Us.  In three volumes, he detailed his journey across the nation to interview one person a day across 16,000 miles on his bike, all to better understand parts of the country and the people that live in them he would not normally have shared any time with due to his background.  

“That changed my vision of the country,” Register said. “It moderated me and helped me see people who vote very differently than I do as a human being and as a neighbor.” 

Running for congress as an independent felt like an extension of the project’s intent and methodology for Register. 

“If I wanted to have very real impact, I was in a position where I had a duty to do something,” he said.

For Register, the biggest challenge was an event neither man expected occurring midway through the campaign, the April 2026 redistricting referendum.   

Register told Cville Right Now he voted no on the measure, and noted that was relieved that it was struck down by the state supreme court, no because he didn’t agree with the end, but due to his fundamental opposition of the means, which were, in his eyes, taking a vote away from half the state. 

“You can’t save democracy by denigrating and blowing it up,” Register said.

Register said the referendum took much of his enthusiasm for the campaign and democracy in general at a critical time in the process, citing unpleasant interactions he had with those who accused him of taking votes away from the Democrat and Republican candidates. 

“I understand why people feel like it’s now or never and we’ve gotta do something,” Register said. “But that does not solve the crisis of democracy.” 

Harvey made a similar observation, saying that, though the interactions he had with those voters who also branded him a “spoiler” were cordial and polite, that he doesn’t see the harm in providing people with another choice. 

“The spoiling is the lack of options,” Harvey said. “It spoils the effects of democracy if there is no choice for the people.” 

According to them both, the appetite for an independent candidate, and a new choice on the ballot is high among many voters. Most of the interactions they had with the public were encouraging. 

“Some people didn’t care about my personal beliefs,” Harvey said, “but they just know we need to have more choices.” 

Register’s road ended after August 4, due to 25% of the 1,000+ signatures he obtained being rejected by the Virginia Department of Elections.  The signatures were declined due to being illegible, or errors in the registration of those concerned, such as their current addresses not matching their voter registrations.

Harvey, meanwhile, did reach the 1,000-signature threshold. Now that he’s made the ballot, he said his mindset must shift to a new one as his 2026 New Years Resolution reaches its second stage. 

“It kind of blew my mind,” he said. “And it also opened up a whole new world of, let’s try to go the whole way and see this miracle through.”