Twenty years ago, Pete Barlow tried to take a shortcut at Walmart.

He and his father were walking through the store when Barlow, then in his 20s, steered toward the new self-checkout line. No cashier, no small talk, no waiting.

His father stopped him.

“When you have the opportunity to talk to a human,” he told his son, “talk to a human.”

The moment lasted only a few seconds. Barlow has been thinking about it for decades.

Today, that Anabaptist young man from Augusta County is a Democrat running for Congress in Virginia’s 6th District, a seat national handicappers consider safely Republican. He joins Beth Macy, of Roanoke, and Ken Mitchell, of Rockingham County, as Democratic candidates seeking to unseat Republican Ben Cline in the 2026 election.

Barlow has worked on farms, served on

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