We’re joining Senator Bernie Sanders and endorsing Tom for his bold stand against two fracked natural gas pipelines, the Atlantic Coast pipeline and the Mountain Valley pipeline. We’re joining with Senator Elizabeth Warren and endorsing Tom for his principled refusal to take money from Virginia’s huge coal-fired electric utility, Dominion Power. And we’re listening to Virginia climate hawks' overwhelming vote in endorsing Tom for his populist, progressive vision for Virginia.
We’re excited to announce an endorsement of Tom Perriello to be the next governor of Virginia, running on a platform of clean air, clean water, and clean government.
We’re endorsing Tom for his bold stand against two fracked natural gas pipelines, the Atlantic Coast pipeline and the Mountain Valley pipeline. We’re endorsing Tom for his principled refusal to take money from Virginia’s huge coal-fired electric utility, Dominion Power. And we’re endorsing Tom for his populist, progressive vision for Virginia.
But most important, we’re endorsing Tom after listening to Virginia climate hawks. We ran a poll asking our Virginia members whether we should endorse Tom, or his primary opponent Ralph Northam, or stay out. And they responded, overwhelmingly: 80% for Perriello, 10% for Northam, and 10% for no endorsement. That tells us that Tom has the grassroots support of Virginia progressives.
The Virginia governor’s race is one of a handful of key races across the nation taking place in 2017. It’s considered a bellwether for the mood of the country going into 2018. A strong progressive, pro-climate Democratic win will send a message that we can take the country back from the Republican stranglehold. Climate hawks need to take on Trump and climate polluters in every state in the nation, beginning in Virginia.
Northam, the lieutenant governor, has been running for two years. Tom jumped into the race in January 2017, and already he’s tied in the polls. He’s has picked up endorsements from climate hawks Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, and is tied in the polls with Northam. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has endorsed Tom. Meanwhile, Ralph Northam got the public support of Dominion’s lead lobbyist, who praised him as a “Virginia gentleman” in a tweet.
By deliberately choosing not to take dirty fossil fuel money, Tom is leaving himself vulnerable to being outspent. And that’s where we come in. We can help Tom win this race – and we can show that a race run on people powered small dollar donations can beat corporate power.
Update: Tom lost, 56% to 44%.
