Great news.
Party Leadership Unites to Flip Virginia from Red to Blue
Video of the press conference can be seen here
WASHINGTON — Today Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) Executive Director Jessica Post joined with Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, Senate Democratic Leader Dick Saslaw, and House Democratic Leader David Toscano to announce their partnership and unified commitment to flipping Virginia blue in 2019.
Jessica Post announced the DLCC is sending an initial early investment of $1 million to Virginia, where Democrats need just two seats in the House and two seats in the Senate to reclaim the Democratic majority.
“Today we are thrilled to announce one of the largest early investments in the DLCC’s history – we’re sending $1 million to turn Virginia blue next November,” said Post. “We’re excited to work hand-in-hand with Gov. Northam, Leader Saslaw, and Leader Toscano to align our strategies and execute a winning playbook to recruit the strongest candidates to run for office and train and equip them with the tools they need to run successful campaigns. We know we have to invest early so we can have robust operations on the ground as we work to turn Virginia blue next November.”
Governor Northam emphasized the successes Virginia Democrats have already accomplished, including expanding Medicaid to 400,000 Virginians. “2019 is going to be a year when…we can regain our majorities in both the House and the Senate. Finally, we as Democrats can get back on offense and stop playing so much defense,” Northam said.
Senate Democratic Leader Dick Saslaw highlighted the legislative priorities that Virginia Democrats could tackle with full governing control. “We need to get more people like Jennifer [Boysko] into the Senate,” said Leader Saslaw. “I think we’ve got a great shot at recapturing both the Senate and the House. We will be working with the DLCC to get this done.”
House Democratic Leader David Toscano expressed optimism for the future of the Commonwealth: “The DLCC has been with us every step of the way, and with this investment, they’re going to help us get over the top… when Democrats are elected, really good things happen. We showed in the last session the power of 49 Democrats, when we were able to get Medicaid expansion passed. We have our Virginia promise to really move Virginia forward, and when we take over the House, we will continue to fight for working people, against climate change, and continue to fight to make Virginia an inclusive place for people to live.”
The DLCC and state Democrats have flipped almost 400 state legislative seats from red to blue since 2016, including 15 seats in the Virginia House in 2017. The DLCC will be joining the Virginia House caucus for a training in December with over 30 candidates. The DLCC is already hard at work on the special elections on the horizon in Virginia.
In 2018 Democrats won over 2,900 state legislative seats – gaining seven trifectas, eight majorities, six supermajorities, and shattering four Republican supermajorities. Nearly 1,250 of the Democrats elected to their state legislatures in 2018 were women, and more than 900 were candidates of color. The DLCC knows that when Democrats have the majority in chambers, policies are passed that help all Americans. As the only organization exclusively committed to electing Democrats to state legislatures all over the country and winning Democratic control of chambers, the DLCC has been working with state legislative leaders for over two decades to invest strategically in state programs and rebuild the Democratic Party from the ground up. With the help of the DLCC, state Democrats are leading the resistance against the Trump administration’s extremist policies while moving our nation forward one state at a time.
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