Mike Pruitt knows what he is against. Virginia The 5th Congressional District extends from Charlottesville North Carolina Borders are not sending Democrats To the first assembly since 2008. The district is vast, rural, deeply conservative, characterized by a region with closed hospitals, abandoned main streets and years of infrastructure.
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But Pruitt, a 33-year-old gay navy veteran, lawyer and member of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors in central Virginia, says he hasn’t run to hedge his worth.
He runs to represent places like the ones he came – the working class community in the country was left by both parties. His campaign focuses on Medicaid defense, regulating artificial intelligence, challenging corporate profits, and modifying tax systems that privilege capital rather than labor, and he refuses to leave. Transgender Rights, even part of his party signal retreat.
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“It doesn’t cost you to cut down on tackles, but I’m not,” Pruitt said. Supporters In an interview. “I want to be able to communicate with my very red district. If I’m stuck to this population that’s so easy to leave, I think it’s the right thing to do, so I think they’re being vulnerable, hurt, and threatened in a really serious way, so people look at it and hope that this is what we can actually trust.”
Mike Pruitt on the campaign trailCourtesy of Mike Pruitt for Congress
His opponent, Republican Party Rep. John McGuire is a former Navy seal in his first year after the president. Donald Trump’s Approved. McGuire The Protects Act is commonbanned federal funds for gender-maintaining care for minors and voted for Trump’s “one big beautiful bill.”
Pruitt warns that the impact on District 5 will be devastating. “This bill would almost certainly drive Medicaid off,” he said. “People will die of curable illnesses,” he added, in districts where clinics are often scarce, even the closure of one provider could mean a difference in access. He cited a child psychologist from Louisa County. “The only person providing child mental health services across that county” could be forced to close. In Farmville, local hospitals face cuts that could ripple over multiple counties.
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“There is no redundancy in rural healthcare,” Pruitt said. “If you lose one provider, you lose your system.”
Pruitt Political His identity is shaped by the same small town roots he saw throughout the district. He grew up in what he described as “the ruins of the town of a former factory.” South Carolina As the textile industry collapsed, as a queer teenager in the 1990s, he wasn’t always safe at Blue Ridge Foothills. He won the Navy ROTC Scholarship during “Don’t Ask, Tell,” re-entered the closet and deployed twice to fight the zone. He then worked for the Naval Intelligence Agency before completing his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
He currently works as a housing lawyer and sues the company’s landlord. “I have a career I dreamed of. I’ve married a great guy. I have a community I love and I’m going to give back,” he said. “But I got here with a little sand and a lot of luck, and most people in this area don’t have that kind of luck.”
Pruitt’s husband, Will, 30, an Anglican priest of Spotsylvania County, was a source of stable support and perspective throughout Pruitt’s public service journey.
Mike Pruitt with her husband.Courtesy of Mike Pruitt for Congress
He draws a direct boundary between the experiences hiding his experiences under DADT and the harms he believes in new Trump transgender-like policies. Military Prohibited to today’s service members. He calls it a “baffle,” claiming that McGuire and other Republicans support a stronger army while excluding eligible recruits based on gender identity.
“All they do is leaning against the cruelty of the performance I’m worried about, and I’m worried about, becoming more of what my opponent is leaning.” For Pruitt, forcing trans people to hide who they are is not just discriminatory, it’s dangerous. “We know from the data that forcing people to hide is harmful to their mental health,” he said. “I don’t know how that gives us stronger combat power.”
Pruitt sees District 5 as a reflection of where he came. “We’re a district that the industry has left behind, but people are still there,” he said. “They know that ritual aid in the town is closed. They know that their pay hasn’t risen in 10 years. They feel like they have boots at the back of their necks, and they’re not wrong.”
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He said that some Democrats treat rural voters as charity cases or data points, but Pruitt said from his lifelong experience. “The people in rural America are not helpless, they’re angry,” he said. “And I understand that rage.”
He calls Virginia’s 5th District a “sacrifice zone” of corporate and political indifference. As AI infrastructure and data centers expand to other counties, Pruitt warns rural jobs are at risk, and councils are not paying attention.
“All of this technology is going to take away our work,” he said. “And Congress hasn’t done anything about it.”
He said large data centers depicted by cheap land and access to natural gas are now located in central and southern counties like Buckingham and Pittsylvania. “These companies are no longer in northern Virginia. The land is too expensive,” he said. “That’s why they’re here.”
He recalls a conversation he had with a local official in Edward County, central Virginia. He asked how to explain the AI threat to long-distance truck drivers. “I said, ‘Truck driver jobs are in the crosshairs,” Pruitt said.
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
