Victory in 2017!
Thanks to your work throughout the year, we can hold our heads high because we achieved another Democratic sweep in Virginia! Because of countless activists who put in the many hours of work knocking doors, making phone calls, working inside and outside the polls, sending postcards and letters and texts, contributing funds, organizing volunteers, spreading the word online, lending professional expertise and more, we have elected strong Democratic leaders in Governor-Elect Ralph Northam, Lieutenant Governor-Elect Justin Fairfax, Attorney General Mark Herring and a great number of new and returning House of Delegates members.
We’d like to recognize all the people and groups that contributed, though we might leave some off inadvertently. Just be aware that you’ve helped move the Commonwealth of Virginia forward, and for that we thank you. Here are some who we’d like to recognize, in no particular order:
Our Volunteers – so many of you who knocked on doors, made phone calls, recruited and trained others, wrote postcards, distributed literature, talked to voters at Metro stations, schools and more, and found other creative ways to get the word out — and who filled over 3,000 volunteer shifts at the polls on a cold, rainy day!
FCDC Members – they provided the expertise and knowledge of the electorate and political landscape. Special thanks to those who helped set up and manage our Joint Campaign to reach voters by mail – our Vice Chairs, and Rick and Burma Bochner and their team. I’d also like to thank our local district committee leaders as well as our Voter Registration & Education and Precinct Operations who did so much work beforehand to get us into a winning position.
Local & state grassroots organizations – some which were already established and some which sprang up after the 2016 election: Virginia Democracy Forward and Network NOVA (which hosted events and became well-organized groups covering a wide variety of action areas), numerous Indivisible and Huddle groups working at the regional and neighborhood level, Our Revolution, Win Virginia (with CEO Tom Perriello, who worked tirelessly for our nominees), organizations inspired by the Women’s March, Together We Will, Democratic Women of Clifton & Northern Virginia, We of Action, League of Conservation Voters, Virginia Civic Engagement Table, local Pantsuit Nation chapters, MoveOn chapters, Act Empowered, Network for Progress, the Virginia Women’s Equality Coalition, Progress VA, NOVA Grassroots with their website that serves as such a great resource, NOVA Pride, Vienna Neighbors United, Postcards for Virginia, People Demanding Action, 90 for 90, gun violence prevention organizations such as Moms Demand Action, Concerned Citizens against Gun Violence, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and others.
Affiliated Democratic organizations like Fairfax Young Dems, George Mason Democrats, Progressive Democrats of America – Virginia, the Democratic Asian Americans of Virginia, Democratic Latinos of Virginia, and our Congressional District Democratic Committees
Partner organizations such as New Virginia Majority, Planned Parenthood and NARAL, the Sierra Club, Labor leaders like the SEIU, AFL-CIO and NOVA Labor, EMERGE Virginia which recruited and trained women leaders, Human Rights Campaign, NextGen America, immigrants’ rights organizations like CASA in Action, Community Change Action, America’s Voice, For Our Future Action Fund, and Equality Virginia
Campaign Staff from the VA Victory 2017 Coordinated Campaign and the Democratic Party of Virginia down to the House of Delegates campaign staff. Regional Directors JT Beck and Dean Charles Anthony II, and over a dozen local Field Organizers. Our most competitive House of Delegates campaigns such as Kathleen Murphy campaign manager Rebecca Lipson; Alex Vuskovic, Dan Allen and everyone on the Donte Tanner campaign (which is still, even now fighting for every last vote!); Noah Kim and Adi Radhakrishnan of the Kathy Tran campaign, Will Van Nuys and Jamie Meyer of the Karrie Delaney for Delegate campaign.
Members of the House Democratic Caucus and their staff who, even if unopposed, went all in to fundraise and get out the vote for our three House challengers.
Elected Officials from U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, down to our local School Board members who all hit the trail for our 2017 candidates.
Our donors who enabled us to reach an unprecedented amount of voters, and kept our operations running at FCDC Headquarters so we could support multiple programs
Voter Protection Attorneys and Volunteers who watched the polls, worked in boiler rooms and attended electoral board meetings to ensure that every valid vote is counted
National groups that recognized the importance of Virginia’s elections and stepped in such as the DNC, Let America Vote, the Women’s National Democratic Club, Mobilize America, VoteRiders, Organizing for Action, Flippable, Knock Every Door, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, Swing Left, and Sister District
Nonpartisan groups, while not endorsing candidates, brought attention to civil rights, human rights and voting rights issues that we share a passion for: organizations such as the ACLU, NAACP, OneVirginia2021, the League of Women Voters, Showing Up for Racial Justice, National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations, Virginia Organizing and Spread the Vote
Digital Organizers who worked behind the scenes and created a multitude of innovative tools to assist voters, contact friends, organize volunteers & events, find election information and more: the VA Dem Tech group led by Dave Leichtman; Vote Mob VA; developers of online tools like Uprise, VoterCircle, Mobilize.io, Crowdpac, and ActionNetwork.org
Bloggers and writers who did the kind of reporting on the Virginia races that you often couldn’t find anywhere else: Lowell Feld and editors of BlueVirginia.us, which is required reading for all Virginia progressives, and folks who wrote commentary, analysis and letters to the editor to get the information out to our voters on every platform.
Fundraising groups like Virginia’s List, the Competitive Commonwealth Fund, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Emily’s List, EveryDistrict and Run Everywhere
It was an unprecedented effort with activists from all around contributing to our victories last Tuesday. Thank you again, and know that we will always be here to elect Democrats and fight for the causes we believe in.
To view the election results, click here.
