Sep 24, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min · 14 segments
It has been nearly two decades since a massive upset first put Tom Perriello on the political map. In 2008, the young Democrat ousted a six-term congressman in Virginia’s heavily republican 5th…
Tom PerrielloGuest
Catie BeckHost
Yeah, it's not a healthy lifestyle, and it's high anxiety and the rest, but also it's nothing compared to – I was able to be up in D.C. for one day last week because we're now on this red to blue list of the key pickup seats that are going to flip the house, and we're really excited to be on that.
It helps with things, and I was meeting with some of the other prospective members, and And I remember this from before.
I mean, I don't know how people with young kids who are in New Mexico or Montana, you're flying across the country every week.
I think the lived experience of somebody, you know, like Bobby Scott, who has a more compact district and has been doing it for a long time.
He's able probably to focus a lot on policy and the potential of being the chairman if we win.
But again, to cover one of these large districts with the And the way people want is tough.
In fact, the greatest compliment I think I got during my time in Congress was being called the mayor of the fifth district.
And that's really the way that I try to be present is like a mayor where you feel like you see that person, you know that person, you have access to that person.
So that's the – I said to someone the other day that whenever I'm reading about democracy, I get really depressed.
And so if you just read the punditry or the polling or whatever, there's lots of noise in there.
almost everyone you meet with is just a decent person who cares about their family, cares about their community, may or may not have the same views that I do on the right way to fix it.
Through the years, people said, didn't you become jaded? Didn't it convince you that all the stories you're covering, so many of them are negative, and I'm sure it made you feel like human nature is not what you hoped it would be.
Yeah, it's not a healthy lifestyle, and it's high anxiety and the rest, but also it's nothing compared to – I was able to be up in D.C. for one day last week because we're now on this red to blue list of the key pickup seats that are going to flip the house, and we're really excited to be on that.
It helps with things, and I was meeting with some of the other prospective members, and And I remember this from before.
I mean, I don't know how people with young kids who are in New Mexico or Montana, you're flying across the country every week.
I think the lived experience of somebody, you know, like Bobby Scott, who has a more compact district and has been doing it for a long time.
He's able probably to focus a lot on policy and the potential of being the chairman if we win.
But again, to cover one of these large districts with the And the way people want is tough.
In fact, the greatest compliment I think I got during my time in Congress was being called the mayor of the fifth district.
And that's really the way that I try to be present is like a mayor where you feel like you see that person, you know that person, you have access to that person.
So that's the – I said to someone the other day that whenever I'm reading about democracy, I get really depressed.
And so if you just read the punditry or the polling or whatever, there's lots of noise in there.
almost everyone you meet with is just a decent person who cares about their family, cares about their community, may or may not have the same views that I do on the right way to fix it.
Through the years, people said, didn't you become jaded? Didn't it convince you that all the stories you're covering, so many of them are negative, and I'm sure it made you feel like human nature is not what you hoped it would be.
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