CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Gov. Abigail Spanberger appeared in Charlottesville on Thursday, urging residents of Virginia’s 5th Congressional District to turn out for the start of early voting Friday and support Democratic nominee Tom Perriello.

“Tom has a lot of unfinished business to do in the halls of Congress,” Spanberger told a crowd of about 50 Perriello supporters at IX Park who were undeterred by the late Thursday afternoon rain. “Because some of the things that he focused on, way back when, are still left undone. And he needs to go to Congress and work on rooting out corruption, and, frankly, even the mere perception of impropriety within the halls of Congress. He needs to go to Congress and focus on strengthening our healthcare system amid unbelievable attacks on it. He needs to go to Congress to work, to lower costs for everyday Virginians, who are feeling the pinch. And he needs to go to Congress and stand up for the Virginians, who are feeling the impacts every single day of a reckless president and bad policies that are hurting our fellow Virginians.”

Spanberger and Rep. James Walkinshaw, who represents Virginia’s 11th District, introduced Perriello at the gathering.

Perriello, the last Democrat to represent the 5th District, which includes the heavily Democratic-leaning Albemarle County and Charlottesville, served in Congress from 2009-2011. He is running against Republican incumbent Rep. John McGuire, a first-term member of Congress who unseated fellow Republican Bob Good in 2024.

During a brief question-and-answer session with local reporters after Thursday’s event, Spanberger lauded Perriello as someone who would work to counter the policies of the federal government that she said are having a negative impact on Virginia, including President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and his proclamation that allowed 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef trim to be imported into the United States.

“I know that Tom, as the representative of Virginia’s 5th district, will be an extraordinary partner to our cattle producers all across Virginia,” Spanberger said. “Whether it is the overall input costs that have been driven up because of the war with Iran, whether it is the trade policy that’s creating great disruptions, certainly a trade war with Canada does not serve Virginia agriculture well in any way. Canada’s our number one agricultural export destination. Not to mention, President Trump’s decision to flood the market with foreign subsidized cattle, particularly at a time when here in Virginia, because of drought conditions, despite today’s rain, our farmers and producers are facing real challenges.”

During his remarks to the crowd, Perriello attacked McGuire as being out of touch with regular Virginians, of profiting while most district residents struggle financially, and of supporting Trump even when the President’s policies hurt the Commonwealth.

“We are at a moment where folks like Congressman Walkinshaw and I, we want to make a difference in people’s lives,” Perriello said. “This is not just about stopping the stupidity in Washington though. We are very committed to stopping the stupidity in Washington. This is a moment where we need to be actively leading on the question of how we protect our families and our children from artificial intelligence. We need to be leading a national conversation about what a new American dream looks like for people under the age of 30 who’ve given up on the idea they’ll ever afford a home. This is a moment where we need to be putting together a positive vision about what it means for there to be universal affordable healthcare in this country. These are problems we can solve, but we are not gonna solve them with the jokers that are in Washington right now.”

Also Thursday, Spanberger updated the status of the proposed Dominion Energy-NextEra Energy merger. In August, the Governor took the unprecedented step of intervening in the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s review of the merger, making herself a party in the proceedings and affording her access to all the information and documentation the SCC is reviewing.

Earlier this week, the two power companies released a revised proposal for their merger in an attempt to make the deal more palatable to Virginia, including bill credits, additional jobs and a pledge to open a new co-headquarters in Richmond.

“Where we are right now is digging through the details of what they put forward,” Spanberger said. “And we’ll be filing a bit of a laundry list of things that we expect to see in potential negotiations moving forward – questions, priorities, and elements that we think the SCC should be considering as they continue their evaluation process. We’ve been quite vocal that the primary pillars of what matters most is certainly affordability for Virginians, the jobs of Virginians, and then our long-term green energy, renewable energy, locally generated energy goals.”