A Blue Virginia
VIRGINIA 2019
In the words of Joe Biden, Virginia flipping blue is a “big f*cking deal.” The Commonwealth can now look forward to: Gun safety legislation, ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, anti-discrimination protections on housing/public employment to members of the LGBTQ community, increase in teacher pay, fund public schools, join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and create a Virginia version of the Green New Deal. Virginia voters even made history by electing the first woman speaker of the house.
We launched our campaigns in Virginia last summer when we hosted the first Blue Uprising climate change forum with the coastal candidates. While each candidate had different ideas on how to tackle climate change, we all agreed there is no silver bullet. Blue Uprising also co-hosted an event with the Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA) at Manny’s in San Francisco featuring Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the DPVA and William Rinehart, founder of Blue Uprising. They discussed why it mattered to flip Virginia. Susan Swecker gave the SF based audience some insight on what it means to the state and former capital of the confederacy to possibly become the 38th state that could push the country to enact the Equal Rights Amendment. Lastly, we hosted an I Surf I Vote event in Virginia Beach during the East Coast Surfing Championships featuring candidates and local professional surfers. We have a lot of love for Virginia Beach and the Hampton Roads community for making our events a huge success.
Jay-Z says, “Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t,” and we hit the streets (digitally) of Virginia’s 100th House District and spoke directly to over 25,000 people in the district and hundreds of our targeted voters saw our advertisement three times or more. Over 60,000 voters in coastal Virginia saw our reminder to vote and checked out our endorsement page. When we advertised our I Surf I Vote photo where we spelled out “VOTE” with surfboards, the amount of engagement was shocking. We had folks sharing with their friends and family, and we saw our reach go well beyond our usual audience. Reaching new people led to some lively discussion. Our three takeaways: make interesting content, be bold in your vision, and take time to understand the feedback you are getting.
We also were reminded that working with other like-minded organizations is critical. Groups like Sister District, Run for Something, League of Conservation Voters Virginia, and Swing Left all contributed to Democratic success. Virginia went blue because of a team effort that inspired Virginia voters. Now Blue Uprising is poised to take those lessons into 2020.
A huge thank you to our team member Jamie Lynn for supporting our efforts in Virginia and we could not be more proud of her helping Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn.