Former Virginia Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello is expected to announce Thursday that he plans to run for governor, according to a tweet issued Wednesday evening. The 42-year-old Yale Law School alumnus has told a number of Democrats he was considering running in the party’s June 13 primary.
NEWS: @tomperriello is running for Va governor. He called @RalphNortham today to tell, will announce tmrw.
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) January 4, 2017
If he runs, Perriello could be up against Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, who is a Democratic favorite to run for Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s job. State law mandates that a governor can’t serve consecutive four-year terms.
Perriello is known as a progressive Democrat and worked in President Obama’s State Department following his legislative stint. After Congress, he worked as president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund before being tapped as special representative for the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. In 2015, he was appointed special envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
