VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden has told Virginia high school graduates to believe that the U.S. has a bright future.

Biden echoed a key election-year theme — that the country is on the right track — Thursday at Tallwood High School in Virginia Beach. It was his second speech at a Virginia high school since April, a sign of the state’s importance to President Barack Obama’s re-election bid.

Biden told the students that the world is on the cusp of major technological innovations and they’ll help lead it.

He told them to tune out the cynicism, pettiness and negativity that pervades the public discourse.

Said Biden: “Believe in yourselves because you have reason to, and believe because there’s no reason not to believe in the continued promise of this great country.”