Keep on truckin’, Tom

Stumping across the 5th district of Virginia, from the rural back roads of Nelson County to the cities of Southside, where its residents reminisce about the days when they had well-paid work at the textile mills in the area, there’s a candidate for Congress who talks about faith-what it means to him and to the community he aims to serve. Heads nod along as he stands at the pulpit of his potential constituents’ churches, and gives his testimony about his religious upbringing, the importance of a lived faith, and how sacred life is. Contrary to popular assumption, this candidate is in fact a Democrat running to represent the 5th, and he firmly believes his liberal politics align with his religious beliefs-in fact, he would say his faith is the foundation for his politics.

I joined Tom Perriello’s campaign at the beginning of this past summer, as a Common Good Fellow. This fellowship for college students was modeled after the Freedom Summer of the Civil Rights movement, when young people committed to integration and racial reconciliation traveled across the South, from small town to small town, and tried to mend the social sins poisoning the communities. As Common Good Summer Fellows, we were basically grassroots and grasstops organizers. We recruited volunteers, made countless phone calls, and knocked on doors-that is, when the person’s dog didn’t chase us away from the yard.

So far, though, this campaign sounds typical of most Democratic campaigns. Knocking on doors and phonebanking is the bread and butter of campaigns-but Perriello’s campaign is cut from a different cloth. We fellows also were charged with attending community pastors’ meetings, where we would talk about Tom and how he plans to work with churches to reach out to those marginalized in the community. We also lent a hand at church food banks, where church members could come and get some groceries for the week after listening to a brief sermon. This volunteer work is a core element of Tom’s campaign, one that sets it apart from any race-Democratic or Republican-that I know of. Every member of the campaign is supposed to tithe 10% of his or her time giving back to the community that he or she is working in-whether it be through building houses through Habitat for Humanity or preparing food at Salvation Army soup kitchens. So far, Perriello campaign workers and volunteers (including Tom himself) have tithed 1,119 hours to communities in the 5^th district.

But little of this faith outreach would work as well as it has, had not Tom Perriello himself had such an authentically strong faith and a natural ease at talking about it with people. Many Democrats who run for office are Christian, but there are notoriously few who actually can articulate their beliefs without sounding stilted or uncomfortable.

Perriello can not only talk comfortably about his personal faith-he is also doing something that will help rebuild a Democratic grassroots in the 5^th that will help to win future elections. He justifies his liberal politics by his Christian faith-he doesn’t hide from it, he doesn’t try to gloss over his liberalism, or say that in some way his Christianity "makes up" for his somehow evolving into a suspicious liberal. No. In his old white pickup truck, he drives across the district telling people that his Christian faith is the reason for his commitment to public service-that he believes a strong faith is a lived faith.

All I can say is, keep on truckin’, Tom. You just might beat ole Virgil.