× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

There’s a friendly crowd at First Baptist Church in South Richmond for an event on the restoration of voting rights for felons — a day to celebrate the redemptive power of second chances.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe is on hand to announce that in the first 11 months of his administration, more than 5,100 Virginians had their civil rights restored.

That’s more than any other governor in a single year — a point that McAuliffe says is just the beginning of a plan to exceed the record 8,163 restorations then-Gov. Bob McDonnell granted from 2010 to 2014.

McAuliffe explains that it was a big part of his platform when he first ran for governor in 2009, when he lost the Democratic nomination in a three-way primary.

“I also had a lot of big other ideas — wind turbines and high-speed rail,” he tells the crowd. “And I said, ‘If you don’t like my ideas, don’t vote for me’ — and they didn’t,” he says to laughter.

“That’s all right. I got right out of bed the next day and got right back at it.”

Before long, the scripted media event starts to resemble a church revival, with testimony offered by three felons with restored rights, spontaneously invited up by the governor to tell their emotional stories.