I am running for Congress against Virgil Goode in Virginia's Fifth District—and the reason might surprise you.

First a word about the race. The Fifth includes 22 mostly rural counties in central and Southside Virginia, stretching from Charlottesville down to the North Carolina border. Mine is an area hit hard by factory closings and lost farming jobs. The incumbent Republican Virgil Goode came to national prominence for his remarks about Rep. Ellison being sworn in on the Qu’ran. An ex-populist, he has repeatedly voted against SCHIP, backed credit card and pharmaceutical companies, and supported the Iraq surge. I believe the key to victory is conviction politics.

A bit about me. I've spent the past few years working in progressive politics in the U.S. and overseas on justice and security issues in Sierra Leone, Darfur, and Afghanistan. I helped launch Avaaz.org—a project to take "people-powered politics" global, operating in 12 languages with over 1.7 million members around the globe in less than 12 months. That work is powerful and rewarding. But I've decided to change course.

I'm running for Congress because I believe my campaign can be part of an important change in American politics. The 2006 elections demonstrated the viability of conviction politics. The great midterm candidates spoke from a deep sense of right and wrong, not a desire to position themselves on an artificial spectrum of right, left, and center. In my state, Senator Webb talked about engaging Iran and Syria and, a year earlier, Governor Tim Kaine took an anti-death penalty position that was opposed by a large majority of the state. Even though voters disagreed with him on the issue, they appreciated his strong character and commitment to principle. These candidates did not care if these actions would poll well, only that they were the right thing to do.

These elections did more than win back the Senate and Governor’s Mansion. They made me believe I could run the kind of campaign that is worth running—and win. They challenged the conventional wisdom that, as Democrats, we have to choose between our principles and our "electability." That approach has often been summarized as centrist, but it is more accurately characterized as poll-driven. It produced the ironic result that by standing with the majority on almost every issue, people were more likely to assume Dems were just pandering. In 2004, a huge portion of independent voters who broke for President Bush gave the following rationale “I do not agree with him on a lot of things, but at least I know where he stands.”

As a candidate, the majority of unsolicited advice flowing my way sadly remains in favor of timid, poll-driven politics. Many in the party cling to the belief that Americans have to be "fooled" into voting for us. Others are concerned that Fox News will ruthlessly exploit any statement that is not sufficiently vague to be devoid of all meaningful content, as if moving to the middle will suddenly engender "fair and balanced" coverage.

I disagree. I remain convinced that a campaign based on conviction politics is the only kind worth running. As you might imagine, that is easier said then done—it is tough to stick to this simple rule under the pressure of a campaign and to draw the line between deep conviction and mere opinion. That is why I remind myself of these two points each day:

Conviction politics will make me more effective if I win

The first question I asked myself before deciding to run for office was not "can I win?" but "can I improve people's lives if I win?" I believe that our country and communities need big change, and that takes a mandate. For instance, I firmly believe that America is less secure today because of the Bush policy of preemptive warfare. This is not a single issue position that can be isolated to Iraq – just look at the Bush administration’s posture towards Iran. If during my campaign I were to make the safe, popular criticism of the Iraq conflict by simply saying that it was “mismanaged,” then have I laid a foundation for the argument against war in Iran? I will pick up this example tomorrow. There should be a correlation between the case a candidate makes on the trail and the agenda she champions in office.

I also care deeply about economic fairness at home and injustice around the world. The people of my district are very concerned about the loss of industries and jobs, declining wages and health care. But despite what some strategists insist, the people of my district also care about sexual slavery, genocide and oppression. I can only be effective fighting for solutions to these ills if I have a mandate from the people of the Virginia Fifth—so I intend to talk about these issues during the campaign and enter Congress, again, with clear support from the people I represent.

Conviction politics will make me more likely to win

Senators Webb, Tester, and Brown, Gov. Kaine, and many others won tough races with conviction politics. We know it works. And it makes sense.

One note on this, I have not met a voter who expects to agree with me 100% of the time. Most people do not even agree with their spouse or best friend on every issue. More often, the deepest connection with another person comes from when I disagree with them and admit it, because at least they know I will tell the truth. While some strategists focus on positioning candidates on issue after issue, I believe most voters focus more on whether the candidate integrity and character on the whole, demonstrated by the conviction to take a stand. These lines from Toby Keith probably strike pretty close to how many people, including me, feel about this:

"I'm a man of my convictions. Call me wrong. Call me right.
But I bring my better angels, to every fight.
You may not like where I'm going. But you sure know where I stand.
Hate me if you want to, love me if you can."

For the rest of the week, I will be talking about my struggle to apply these simple principles to the issues of the day (Iraq War, culture war) and my experience putting conviction politics into practice. The successes of conviction candidates in 2006 inspired me to run for Congress. I am still very early in the process, but am hopeful that this campaign will be part of building on those lessons for a better democracy.