Having served in the House of Representatives for two years and been active in diplomatic circles, Tom Perriello can claim experience in the federal government, and strong name recognition in Charlottesville where he grew up. He quickly raised a quarter of a million dollars for his campaign and saw an influx of volunteers, but Rob Tracinski isn’t worried. He’s running from Louisa County – with more conservative ideas that he says will play better in the general election.
“The fifth district has a long history of nominating candidates who are extremely popular in Charlottesville," he contends. "I’ve lived in Louisa County for almost 30 years – much more rural, much more conservative place. Fifteen years ago I was active in the Tea Party movement here in Charlottesville. I went from the Tea Party to No Kings.”
A professional writer, Tracinski recently penned a book called Dictator from Day One, detailing abuses by the Trump administration.
“Taking executive power far beyond its constitutional limits – far beyond the norms of our free society. The system of government we live in has already changed, and if we want to be back in a full-fledged liberal democracy, we have to roll back what’s already happened.”
He blames Donald Trump for the nation’s troubles but believes sitting members of Congress are also part of the problem.
“I think they’re still too much in the sort of mode of doing normal politics, and the collegiality and you work together and you’re not very radical, you’re always very cautious and timid. I think we need somebody who’s ready to engage in the kind of constitutional knife fight that’s going on here.”
Knife fights are probably not on the agenda for congressional candidate Suzanne Krzynowski -- a doctor in Lynchburg and a long-time resident of Bedford – who wants to unite Americans.
“I’m frustrated with hearing people arguing about right wing and left wing, and everybody knows a bird needs two wings to fly, right? I’m a unifying type of person, so I thought this was the moment.”
She believes the issue of healthcare could propel her to congress.
“Affordability problems, access problems -- people are really frustrated – not just patients but doctors, nurses. The hospitals are under strain. It’s a very complex and difficult problems, but it’s one of the major affordability crisis that we have now in this country. I love my patients. I take care of patients one by one, and we’ve reached a point where I was feeling like one by one isn’t enough anymore.”
She’s also concerned about Russian interference in global affairs.
“My family left Poland, so we have concerns about Russian propaganda and cyber warfare against the West, and that threat needs to be taken seriously.”
One potential problem – pronouncing her last name. Kryznowki is tough to spell, but the candidate is not concerned. Her slogan: “Dr. K for Congress!”
We have already profiled Mike Pruitt – a third candidate running against Perriello in the Democrats’ Fifth Congressional Primary. A retired military man and civil rights attorney, he vows to give greater representation to people who live in rural areas, like the one where he grew up.
“You know I loved my community, but I wasn’t going to be able to make a life there," he recalls. "I went to college on an ROTC scholarship, which that right there was already kind of a challenge because this was ’09. I’m a queer man. It wasn’t legal for me to be serving in the military, and then graduated, commissioned in the U.S. Navy, spent eight years kind of ping ponging across the country – two deployments to combat zones on ships, and then served at the office of naval intelligence and started thinking, ‘Hey, what am I going to do next?’
He went to law school and hopes to serve in Congress.
One question facing all of these candidates – who will they actually represent? The fifth congressional district currently stretches from the Richmond suburbs to the North Carolina line and has been reliably Republican, but Democrats are backing a constitutional amendment which – if approved by the voters – could allow the General Assembly to draw new boundaries that might favor Democrats running for congress.
