By Megan Cullins, contributor
With the Rocktown Raging Grannies singing and holding signs that read “impeach,” Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Democrats on Sunday hosted the first meet-and-greet event for the party’s congressional candidates after voters gave a greenlight for new district maps last week.
Many Democratic candidates who attended the event said that they are upset by the direction of the country under President Donald Trump’s administration and the Republican Congressional leadership.
The city and county Democratic committee hosted the candidate fair to allow voters a chance to meet the candidates and for those who are preparing to run in new areas, it offered an opportunity to get to know the community. Especially with candidates coming from Northern Virginia, the committee chairman said that it gives candidates a chance to see what they’re looking at in regard to rural Virginia.
Virginia voters agreed to amend the state’s constitution on April 21 to temporarily allow for redrawn districts after other states, started by Trump’s urging, redrew their districts. A Tazewell Circuit Court judge blocked the certification of those results a day later, meaning that the court system will have the final say on whether the new maps will proceed.
Under the new proposed map, Harrisonburg would stay in the 6th District, but instead of incorporating all of Rockingham County and most of the Shenandoah Valley, that district will include only a sliver of southern Rockingham County and will now stretch east to cover the Democratic leaning Charlottesville area.
Democrats now see that version of the district as far more winnable than the current version, which Republican U.S. Rep. Ben Cline has easily won re-election to represent since the 2018 election.
“Costs are out of control,” said Tom Perriello, a former congressman from Charlottesville and one of the 6th District candidates. “Cline allowed tariffs and this war. Blueridge is paying the price.”
Several Democratic candidates in the newly proposed 7th District, like Joe Schiarizzi and Dorothy McAuliffe, said they wouldn’t have entered the race before the proposed new maps surfaced. The new 7th District is a lobster-shaped district that includes most of eastern, central and western Rockingham, as well a bulk of Augusta county in one of its claws and some of the eastern suburbs of Richmond in its other claw, while the tail extends all the way to Arlington.
Schiarizzi, who is the youngest candidate at 30 years old, sought to appeal to younger voters about the high cost of housing. Schiarizzi said it shouldn’t be so normalized for young people to believe that they will never own a house.
Some veterans have joined the race. Bree Fram, running in District 11, joined the U.S. Air Force after the attacks on Sept. 11 then joined the U.S. Space Force once it was created. (The 11th District would include Broadway and northern Rockingham County and stretch northeast through Shenandoah and Page counties to Fairfax County, whose population would make up half of the district.)
Trump signed an executive order in Jan. 2025 limiting transgender people in the military, contributing to Fram’s retirement.
“Trump said he wants to keep the wrong kind of Americans out of the military,” Fram said. “I don’t believe there’s a wrong kind of American.”
Hugh Murray, running in the 6th District, was an Army JAG officer who spent time in Iraq. Murray said he is running because of how the Trump administration and its policies are affecting rural America.
McAuliffe, the former Virginia first lady, has experience in government working for the State Department under President Joe Biden’s administration as a special representative for global partnerships.
“I’m going to work hard to be a voice for this district,” McAuliffe said.
Dan Helmer, also a 7th District candidate, beat Republican state Del. Tim Hugo in 2019 to earn a seat in the Virginia legislature. He introduced himself to area Democrats as “the son of an immigrant and the grandson of Holocaust survivors.”
The Harrisonburg Democratic Committee described the event as a way to “highlight the importance of these newly created districts in ensuring community voices are heard.”
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