As Vivian Paige mentioned in her write up of the Hillary Clinton rally at GMU, Gerry Connolly was at the event and even gave one of the introductory speeches. He discussed the importance of this election, especially right here in Virginia. He added a new bit to his speech that I hadn't heard him use before. In an attempt to emphasize the hope an Obama administration brings despite the challenges our country is facing, he used a phrase he had heard in a hymn at church -- "hold on, a change is comming." He repeated this several times during his speech, with the crowd joining in after the first few times. As someone who has seen his stump speech so many times that I basically have it memorized, I thought this was a nice little addition.
After Gerry gave his speech I asked two women in the crowd, Holly and Alyssa, what they thought of his message. They both said he did what they expected and that it did reinforce their belief that he would make a good Congressman. When I began to ask them what they thought of his background and positions on the important issues, they highlighted how he's done a good job in local office and knows concerns of the people he hopes to represent. They also spoke about how residents often hold their local officials more accountable than federal elected officials and hoped that Gerry would bring that spirit of accountability to Capitol Hill.
This was a good sign for the Connolly campaign because Gerry often speaks about his passion for local government. He then combines that with his experience with the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to help illustrate how he'll be a productive Member of Congress who has a history of local leadership. The fact that these two women highlighted those points after hearing Gerry speak for the first time shows that his campaign has done a good job of getting out its message and that he has a history of producing results.