In November, Del. Lily Franklin, D-Montgomery County, stood on stage with Beth Macy in Roanoke and extolled the best-selling author as a congressional candidate: “I believe in Beth Macy as you all do, too,” Franklin said. “We are going to flip the 6th District and send Beth Macy to Congress.”
On Monday, a different congressional candidate — Tom Perriello — announced that he has hired Franklin as his new campaign manager.
This is noteworthy on several levels.
First, while Virginia’s General Assembly is considered a part-time legislature where members still have their regular jobs, it’s unusual for one of those legislator’s jobs to be a campaign manager for another politician. (From time to time, though, some Northern Virginia legislators have had jobs as lobbyists in Washington, D.C.)
Second, while Macy and Perriello aren’t formally opponents at present, they would be if the proposed constitutional amendment on redistricting passes April 21. It’s also possible that Franklin’s former boss, Roanoke Del. Sam Rasoul, will enter the race if redistricting is approved.
Third, and this is pure speculation on my part, this hire could signal that Perriello is hedging his bets on that amendment passing. Part of his campaign’s announcement about Franklin emphasized that she has campaign experience in the 5th District, the district that Perriello would be in if redistricting fails.
Franklin, a former math teacher, has a background in political work. She worked as chief of staff for Rasoul before she served as deputy campaign manager for the party’s unsuccessful 2022 House candidate in the 5th District. In 2023, she ran for the House of Delegates seat that covers parts of Montgomery and Roanoke counties, losing narrowly. In 2024, she worked for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign in western Virginia. Last fall, she ran again and won — and will soon be returning to Richmond for her first reconvened session that will take up any vetoes and amendments from the governor, then a special session to pass a budget.
In an interview Monday, Franklin offered assurance that she could balance the roles of both legislator and campaign manager. “My responsibility to constituents always comes first,” she said. “Most of my life I’ve worked multiple jobs, just to make ends meet, just like people in my district.”
Franklin said she remains a Macy supporter. “Beth Macy in the current district is a great fit,” she said, referring to the current 6th District, now represented by Republican Ben Cline. “I’ve got nothing against her.”
Franklin said she’d known Perriello, a former congressman from Albemarle County, for years. “He’s really fought for western Virginia,” she said. “I was giving him thoughts about the race. We realized we had a really good fit. We both care deeply about western Virginia and our community.”
Perriello is currently in the 5th District, a mostly Southside-based district represented by Republican John McGuire. If redistricting fails, his only opponents for the party nomination are little-known and lightly funded candidates, while the most recent campaign finance reports showed Perriello with more than twice as much cash in hand as McGuire. That district would be an uphill fight for a Democrat — McGuire won two years ago with 57.26% of the vote — but the Democratic Congressional Committee has designated it as a targeted district, signaling that funding will be available for a competitive bid.
In that scenario, Macy would be in the 6th District with two Democratic challengers from the Shenandoah Valley, Pete Barlow of Augusta County and Ken Mitchell of Rockingham County — plus a fourth from outside the district, Hugh Murray of Henrico County.
If redistricting passes, then Barlow and Mitchell would go into the 7th District, while Macy and Perriello would be paired in a newly configured 6th District stretching from Radford to Charlottesville to Harrisonburg. Rasoul has said he might enter the race if there’s a new map.
Regardless of what happens, Franklin won’t be able to vote for any of those candidates. She lives in Christiansburg, in the part of the town that would remain in the 9th District under redistricting.
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