RALLY’s Hot Take Election 2017: Love Still Wins.

By Shayna Englin

Delegate-elect Danica Roem at her victory party. Washington Post / Getty photo.

Despite a Republican campaign strategy built solidly on the hate-fueled, divisive, fear-mongering playbook set by the 2016 Trump Campaign and the first year of the Trump Presidency, last night Virginia Democrats swept statewide offices and may have flipped enough House of Delegates seat to flip the chamber (recounts pending.)

Amid the many wins for progressive values last night, in Virginia, New Jersey, Maine, Washington, Florida, North Carolina… all over, really… the Virginia victories have us cheering in the RALLY offices. We’re cheering for what the thrumming means for policy, but also what it means for politics.

Here’s why we love it:

1. Love wins. RALLY’s DNA is shot through with the conviction that love wins. Our work on the case that helped make marriage equality the law of the land is part of our core identity as a firm and as a team. We show up at mosques with signs of love and support. We rally for DACA enrollees out of love. We’ve been alarmed and disheartened at the victories for hate over the last year. It’s so good to see hate fail in spectacular fashion. Thanks, Virginia.
2. You’ve got to be in it to win it. If ever there was a case for running a campaign every time, everywhere, Virginia is it. The VA House flipped (fingers crossed) thanks to candidates running in what every data point would have pointed to as sure loser districts. But the VA Democrats played, running candidates in dozens of “unwinnable” districts. So when the wave hit, they were ready to ride it. It’s as true for advocacy and culture change as it is in elections: you can’t win the fights you’re not in.
3. Symbolic victories matter. Danica Roem will become the first ever out transgender candidate to win and serve in a state legislature, after unseating 26-year incumbent Bob Marshall last night. Marshall was the author of not only a “bathroom bill,” but the horrific Marshall Newman amendment that made LGBTQ Virginians second-class citizens for nearly a decade. Delegate-elect Roem is just one victory, but it’s a symbol for the consequences of hate and the power of love (and good policy and good campaigning.) Symbols matter, and we love this one.

Special thanks to the voters of New Jersey who gave Chris Christie a bad night. And many thanks to the voters of Virginia who gave the RALLY team a reason to love election day again.

Shayna Englin is a Principal at RALLY, an issue-driven communications firm that takes on sticky political and social problems and finds ways to push them forward.