by Sarah Ullman
The fight to turn the Virginia House of Delegates blue this November matters to the whole country. These States are United, after all, and if Virginians were represented fairly in their state legislature, we might have had 1 or 2 fewer Republican votes for Trumpcare in the House of Representatives a few weeks ago. If gerrymandering to benefit the GOP didn’t distort the will of Virginia’s voters, then 400,000 more people would be eligible for Medicaid with Governor McAuliffe’s expansion under Obamacare. If we fight and win this battle to turn the House of Delegates blue, we will show the GOP that their obsequious defense of President Trump has electoral consequences.
My name is Sarah Ullman, and I’m the co-founder of One Vote At A Time, a grassroots superPAC of female filmmakers working to elect progressive politicians in 2017, 2018, and beyond.
This summer, we are traveling to Virginia to be a free-of-charge production company to progressive candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates. We believe that compelling campaign ads will help these small campaigns talk about the issues, expand their reach to more voters, and WIN.
Our campaign ads will feature voters from the district, talking about why electing progressive politicians matters. We want to use our skills as filmmakers to amplify local voices. We’re working with Flippable and Sister District to identify which candidates to support. We’ll distribute the videos using our expertise in paid media to target voters in that district. The videos will show neighbors, talking to their neighbors.
We’re crowdfunding the money for our work in Virginia because we didn’t want to be beholden to one corporate sponsor, or one single donor. We believe in the grassroots power of the people to fight for Virginia’s future.
Honestly, I wish superPACs didn’t exist at all. Citizens United was a grievous misjudgment that has far-reaching electoral consequences. I believe in public financing for elections at all levels of government. But I’m a pragmatist, and if we’re going to take back the House in 2018, we need to use all the tools at our disposal, and especially the tools that the political elite deploy.
Together, we can fight back and turn Virginia blue, one vote at a time. Join us.
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