As the Kuntry Store Band, including local fiddle player, store owner and music instructor Mike Mitchell and his student/son played on stage, another politician running for state office stopped at the Friday Night Jamboree to campaign, mingle and speak briefly.

Virginia State Sen. Ralph Northam, a Norfolk pediatrician running for lt. governor as a Democrat, became the second politician for the second straight week to make the jamboree his last campaign stop during a swing through Floyd.

It has become a tradition now for statewide candidates to make the Jamboree a starting point — a practice started by Sen. Mark Warner when he was governor.  During last year’s Presidential campaign, Vice President Joe Biden came through Floyd on a non-Jamboree day but still visited the Country Store.