U.S. Rep. Donald S. Beyer Jr., who represents the 8th District of Virginia that includes the City of Falls Church, is spending a week in snowy Iowa campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, whom Beyer endorsed last summer. Beyer is expected to return this Friday to appear at a campaign event for Del. Adam Ebbin in Alexandria on the eve of the convening of the annual general assembly legislative session in Richmond.

In an exclusive phone interview with the News-Press Monday, Beyer reported he’s been doing a lot of door knocking, in addition to holding events, and he is finding that “people are either for Pete or like him.” He said the key thing on people’s minds is that “they want so badly to win” over Trump. He said he tells them that “in our lifetime, whenever Democrats have chosen as their nominee a long-time D.C. regular political operative, they’ve lost, and whenever they’ve gone for someone young and exciting, like Kennedy, Carter, Clinton or Obama, they’ve won.

On the impeachment of Trump, Beyer said he’s “comfortable we did our job in the House” and that Democrats will be using their leverage in the Senate hoping for a fair trial there, in which case Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts “will do his best to be a responsible and fair judge.”