Virginia Door Knocking Challenge

Donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/knockdoors

Why: The most effective way for a candidate to persuade people to vote for them is to ask them personally by going door to door. But the demand on many candidates to spend a disproportionate amount of time raising money from big donors rather than talking to voters gets in the way of meeting their future constituents. Future Now Fund (“FNF”) wants to keep candidates focused on people, not chasing donations. That’s why we’ve created the Virginia Door Knocking Challenge (the “Challenge”), which will encourage candidates to engage in effective grassroots campaigning while still being able to fund their campaigns.

The Challenge: Based on Future Now Fund’s unparalleled district-level analytics (Washington Post, 2/17/19), we will endorse nine inspiring challengers running to flip the most important seats and change the balance of power in the Virginia House of Delegates. The nine candidates are: Larry Barnett (HD 27), Joshua Cole (HD 28), Sheila Bynum-Coleman (HD 66), Clint Jenkins (HD 76), Len Myers (HD 81), Nancy Guy (HD 83), Karen Mallard (HD 84), Phil Hernandez (HD 100), and the winner of the Democratic primary in HD 62.

How it Works: Each month (as defined below), the four candidates who knock on the most doors among the nine will each receive a $20,000 direct contribution to their campaigns (“Challenge Amounts”) from FNF’s Challenge Account. If there is a tie for fourth place, the tied candidates will split a single Challenge Amount. This door-knocking count will reset each month. The first month will start the day after the primary and go until July 15. Funds will be distributed once FNF has had time to tabulate the results (expected to be a few days). There will be three more measurement periods ending on August 15, September 15 and October 15, with distributions following shortly thereafter.

How Your Contributions Are Used: Your contribution to FNF’s Challenge Account will be evenly distributed among the four candidates with the highest number of door knocks on the dates specified above, subject to the Challenge Amounts. Any funds raised into the FNF Challenge Account in excess of the Challenge Amounts will be distributed equally among all nine candidates in the Challenge on or around October 20. If insufficient funds are raised to meet the Challenge Amounts in any given month, each of the four campaigns will receive one-fourth of the funds in the FNF Challenge Account. Any contribution made to the Challenge Account will qualify as a “designated contribution” under Virginia law and will therefore be reported as a contribution from the donor to the candidate.

Other FNF Contributions: Outside of the Door-Knocking Challenge, Future Now Fund has committed to re-endorsing its eight incumbents running for their second term and will contribute to all its endorsees. These funds will not come from the FNF Challenge Account.

Oversight: Future Now Fund will have access to VA House Democratic Caucus their internal reporting which will be used to count the doors each candidate knocks. Future Now Fund will further require all Challenge candidates to sign a form (the “Accurate Reporting Agreement”) promising to accurately report all data. Only doors knocked by the candidate themself will qualify for the Challenge.

Disqualification of Candidate: Candidates will be disqualified from the Challenge — and not eligible for any funding — if they publicly withdraw from the race, are indicted, or violate or fail to sign the Accurate Reporting Agreement.

If the court-approved 2019 Virginia House of Delegates map is no longer in effect for the 2019 election, funds in the Challenge Account will be evenly distributed between all candidates participating in the Challenge as of the date the court-approved map is withdrawn and the Challenge will terminate.

Each month Future Now Fund will publicly announce the total doors knocked by all the candidates participating in the Challenge and the recipients of distributions.

We’re so excited to start the Virginia Door Knocking Challenge. Now let’s go out there and change the world one door at a time.