CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Before making the trip to Charlottesville on Friday to campaign for Democratic 5th District congressional hopeful Tom Perriello, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore heard a question from his mother.

With his own election just a month away, shouldn’t Moore be solely focused on that race?

“This race matters to all of us,” Moore told a crowd of Perriello supporters at a Friday afternoon rally at Tonsler Park. “This is where the fight is.”

In a rousing call to action, Moore labeled Perriello a champion for people’s futures, comparing the work Perriello would do in Congress to the park’s namesake, Benjamin Tonsler, a city educator during segregation. 

“Tom has always been very clear about who he fights for,” Moore, raised by a single mother, told the crowd. “He fights for families like mine. … Because Tom fights for us, it’s our job to fight for him.”

And Moore told the crowd, simply getting Democrats elected isn’t enough.

Moore, 47, is a U.S. Army veteran and Maryland’s first Black governor. His visit Friday was another indication that the Democratic Party views the 5th District as being in play.

Moore, Perriello and Rep. Jennifer McClellan, of the neighboring 4th District, told the audience that the policies of the Trump administration, supported by incumbent 5th District Rep. John McGuire, including the war in Iran and the trade tariffs, have worsened the affordability crisis.

“This is a very important race that we can win and we will win,” McClellan told reporters after the event. “Both of our districts, urban, suburban, rural, we have seen pain everywhere, from our farmers to our inner city hospitals. We need a fighter who is actually going to fight for the American people and not for Donald Trump.”

Perriello told the crowd that this election can be “the first of the post-Trump era” and is a chance to stop federal policies that hurt Virginians, especially in the middle and lower classes. 

“John McGuire’s votes have taken $100 out of our pockets every week,” he said. “That ends now.”

After appearing with former Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman on Monday for the launch of “Republicans For Tom,” Perriello implored his supporters to reach out and engage with friends and neighbors who have traditionally not voted for Democratic candidates. 

“Don’t write off any of your neighbors just because of who they voted for in the past,” he said. 

Speaking to reporters after the rally, Moore expanded on his reasons for visiting Charlottesville just “31 days and a wake-up,” as he described it, from Election Day. 

“It’s not just about the man and the candidate. It’s about the moment,” Moore said. “We have a fighter here. We have someone who when he goes to Washington, D.C., he’s going to spend time focusing on his constituents, unlike what we’re seeing from Rep. McGuire right now. Someone who is more focused on currying favor from the White House.

“This is an incredibly important moment. He is a special leader and it’s important to not just the district, not just to Virginia, but it’s important to our country that we have a turn in the House of Representatives, that we have a turn inside the Senate and that we have a legislative branch that understands its responsibility and understands its power,” he said.

Perriello called it “an honor” to have Moore on hand as an “ally,” and said he and the Maryland governor are aligned on how they view the work of politicians.

“What we care about is making a difference in people’s lives,” Perriello said. “That’s the only metric that matters. Right now, people are in way too much pain and this crisis is a manmade crisis. This wasn’t a tsunami. It wasn’t a crop disease. This was a group of men in Washington deciding to make life worse for people around here, sending prices through the roof.”