CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – While it’s easy to see the challenge facing Virginia Democrats going into the mid-term elections as having to fight battles on two fronts – campaigning for Congressional seats while simultaneously selling voters on the party’s redistricting initiative – Tom Perriello insists that’s not the case.

“In some ways, it’s focused the conversation,” Perriello, running in the current 5th and proposed 6th District, told Cville Right Now. “Because whether I go further west or further south, people are telling me the same thing. They don’t want to pay this much for healthcare and gas. As much as I thought it might be different to run against Ben Cline versus John McGuire, voters see them as exactly the same thing.”

Virginians are voting on a Democrat-backed temporary redistricting amendment that could help the party pick up as many as four additional seats in Congress in the upcoming mid-terms in November. 

Early voting began last month and runs until Saturday. Election Day for the redistricting amendment is Tuesday. The Virginia Supreme Court will also consider the constitutionality of the amendment, after the vote.

At the same time, candidates like Perriello are running their own campaigns, unsure which district they’re actually vying to represent. In either case, Perriello would face an incumbent Republican if he wins the Democratic nomination.

McGuire currently represents the 5th District, while Cline represents the 6th. 

“It’s just awesome to see how much excitement there is from across the region for the campaign,” Perriello, a 51-year-old Charlottesville native, said. “We’re less than a week away from knowing the district lines and then we’ll just continue to accelerate forward. What’s then really rewarding in a way is that this campaign has been a source of hope to a lot of people who feel like their entire government has forgotten about them or kicked them to the curb. They want to believe that our democracy is going to get through this, that we’ll rebuild some form of the American dream, and people see that in this campaign.”

Perriello disputed the Republican contention that the new maps centralize power over the Commonwealth in Northern Virginia. 

“I think these maps are going to give the Western part of the state a whole lot more representation,” Perriello said. “Instead of these three heavily gerrymandered seats for the Republicans, you’re going to have two seats that are much more competitive. You’re going to definitely see, for this area, the most even district in the country, one that was basically a coin toss between (Kamala) Harris and (Donald) Trump.”

Perriello argued that the current makeup of the 5th District disenfranchises voters in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, a deeply Democratic-leaning region, by diluting those votes with deep Republican areas further south and west. 

“I love the current 5th district, but the idea that Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Danville, and Goochland are all part of one integrated community is just not true,” Perriello, the last Democrat to represent the 5th when he held the seat from 2009-2011, said. “If you look, the new 6th is not just an even district, which scares Ben Cline, it’s also a district that immediately makes sense. Anyone who knows the region looks at it and says, ‘Oh, these are the small towns of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A lot of them are college towns, and that means we have some priorities in common that I can go up and fight for in Washington. So, I think it’s definitely going to be good news for the Charlottesville area to have a champion who actually shows up, but also for the broader Blue Ridge.”

Perriello criticized President Trump for getting the country involved in a war in Iran that Perriello said was unnecessary and has costs for Americans overseas and at home.

“The war is not only a disaster for Americans struggling paycheck to paycheck, it’s a disaster for America’s national security and standing in the world,” Perriello said. “And it’s obviously a horrific tragedy for the families of schoolgirls in Iran who’ve been killed in our name. I think what’s most frustrating, even to many of Trump’s core supporters, is that it’s been a disaster in ways that were 100% predictable.”

Perriello also criticized President Trump for making a trip to the Charlottesville area just to host a fundraising dinner, not to speak with local residents.

“He didn’t talk to voters at all,” Perriello said. “He just went and did his $1 million per pardon or plate dinner, and that’s how he launders that money. And, you know, that Cline and McGuire may not have been there but they have been with Trump 100% on every vote. Which means whoever is buying off Trump with those millions of dollars is setting the agenda and Cline and McGuire are voting for it every time.”

Anti-Trump sentiment in Virginia helped carry Democrats to victories winning races for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, while also flipping 13 seats in the House of Delegates. 

Now, candidates like Perriello are hoping that momentum continues into November, whichever district they end up running in.

“At the end of the day, what I’m hearing from so many conservatives is that Cline and McGuire have voted for these Trump taxes,” Perriello said. “There’s no other way around it. A tariff is a Trump tax. The increase in gas prices is a Trump tax on the American people. He is taxing the American people backwards and forwards, and Cline and McGuire? It is their job to stand in the way of that and put their communities first, and they haven’t done it.”