You can find our stories on Republican incumbent John McGuire here and Democrat Tom Perriello here.
Voters in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District will see three candidates on their ballot for U.S. representative, including an independent candidate, Cooke Harvey.
The contentious midterm election has seen the historically Republican district drift toward the left. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report recently shifted the race from “solidly Republican” to “leans Republican” amid a barrage of ad spending in support of the Democratic candidate. But Harvey, who launched his campaign on Jan. 1, 2026, aims to give voters an option outside of the two-party political system.
Harvey, of Amherst, is up against Republican Rep. John McGuire, of Goochland, and the Democratic challenger, former Congressman Tom Perriello, of Charlottesville.
“That was my mission this year, was to get on the ballot for people who, like me, had gone to the ballot box enough times before and were unsatisfied with either the Republican or Democrat,” he said in a phone interview. “There always seems to be just two people, and I found that the easiest solution to that was having another name on the ballot.”
Harvey lives with his partner in Amherst County, where they like to live simply, he said. They like to grow food and plant trees, and they keep chickens, ducks and honeybees. Harvey has a passion for permaculture, a type of sustainable agriculture that mimics nature while farming the land.
“My dream, besides becoming a representative for the people that is a unifying force and a positive influence, would be that someone else finds this passion as well, and we never relinquish the ballot to the two parties in the future, that we always have a minimum of three choices on the ballot,” he said.
He declined to answer when asked which party he planned to caucus with in Congress if elected.
“I would think I would be available to discuss policies that are best for the 5th District, and this would entail working with both parties,” he said.
When asked about the main issue facing voters as they head to the polls — the economy and high cost of living — Harvey said that, if elected, he would vote to invoke the War Powers Resolution to force President Donald Trump to withdraw from the current conflict with Iran. U.S. involvement in the conflict in the Middle East has driven up the cost of fuel and other items. Congress had voted on the effort earlier in the year, but none of the resolutions have made it to Trump’s desk, and if they did, the president would likely veto the measures. Congress would need a two-thirds supermajority to enact legislation despite a president’s veto.
Current economic woes have also been attributed to tariffs levied by Trump against trade partners. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to impose tariffs, but the legislative body has delegated that power to the president. Harvey said he would like for Congress to modify and renegotiate legal tariffs. He argued that, through that modification or renegotiation, manufacturing could be brought back to the U.S.
If elected, Harvey said he would hold town halls across the district and bring those concerns to Congress when asked what policies he would support in the short term to alleviate economic concerns.
He said he has been traveling to different boards of supervisors meetings across the district to hear from residents regarding their concerns during public comment. Other aspects of his campaign include “standing on the street corner in Lynchburg, standing on the downtown mall in Charlottesville,” he said. His campaign platform includes making Election Day a national holiday, efforts to reduce the U.S. debt and regulations for the private, public and military use of artificial intelligence. He said he was open to ideas when asked how he would tackle those issues.
“The campaign is just being in public places and offering myself. I don’t impose myself. I’ve only knocked on a few doors as I was walking in downtown Lovingston,” he said. “In general, I don’t want people coming around knocking on my door unsolicited, so I stayed away from that as much as possible.”
Harvey has also said that he declines to take monetary or in-kind contributions to support his campaign, aside from a few dozen yard signs a friend bought for him. He said his goal is to get money out of politics and therefore he has decided not to take money as a principle.
“I was really just counting on the social media miracle,” he said. And that includes posting videos on various social media platforms on a nearly daily basis. “I’m just counting on that, you know, that the people are as frustrated as I am with the gridlock and inability to work together, and that this spark would turn into a fire. Basically posting videos every day is the way to get out there.”
He added that he also attends different events to talk to people, but without passing out campaign literature. On the day he was interviewed, he was looking forward to a zombie walk in Amherst County.
You can see how Harvey answered our issues questionnaire on our Voter Guide; the other candidates did not.
