Virginia 2019: A Test of What’s to Come

In the November 2017 elections, several races in Virginia were won or lost by less than 200 votes, including Shelly Simonds, candidate for Virginia House of Delegates, who lost by 1 vote.

In Virginia, all 140 seats in the General Assembly are up for election in November 2019. No, that is not a typo — there are elections in 2019! Right now, the Republicans hold a razor-thin majority — just 2 seats — in both the House of Delegates and the Senate. This presents an urgent opportunity to flip the VA State House and Senate. In 2019, Tech for Campaigns is focused on employing the best tech talent and building tools for Democratic campaigns to make that happen.

Why Virginia Matters

State legislatures decide crucial policies that impact our lives: healthcare, education, reproductive rights, common-sense gun reform, and electoral maps.

Right now, Republicans and Democrats in Virginia are battling over issues like:

• Common Sense Gun Reform: In July 2019, a special legislative session about gun violence prevention was called by Democratic Governor Ralph Northam. The session was ended by the Republican majority in 90 minutes. Not only were no votes allowed — very limited conversation was allowed, despite overwhelming support for reform from the public following the Virginia Beach massacre in May 2019.
• Equal Rights Amendment: The GOP-controlled state assembly has blocked the amendment, which would enact gender equality for Virginians, from a floor vote continuously. The latest block was a result of the Republican House Speaker Kirk Cox. Tech For Campaigns-supported Representative Jennifer Carroll Foy responded with “There is one man, and one man only, standing in between 160 million women across this country [and] their ability to finally be enshrined as human beings equal to men in the United States Constitution. Virginia has the opportunity to lead.”
• Medicaid Expansion: In 2018, the Virginia legislature voted to make Medicaid available to 400,000 low-income residents, following five years of resistance from the GOP. This was made possible because of the leftward shift in the legislature following the 2018 election. If Republicans retain majority control of the legislature in 2019, this could easily be reversed.

Why You Matter

We have tripled the number of candidates we are working with in Virginia since 2017. We anticipate working on over 90 digital and tech projects for nearly 40 campaigns in the state before the November 2019 state election. All volunteer work for 2019 will be staffed by early September 2019.

If you have with skills in digital marketing, email marketing, product management, design, software engineering, web development, data analysis, you can make an impact by signing up to volunteer for Tech For Campaigns. We want to match you with the best campaigns so you can make an impact this year. Sign up for Tech for Campaigns!

Don’t have time to volunteer? We get it, we are building tech infrastructure and tools and have full-time staff on the ground in Virginia and each state we help, so donate to ensure we can keep doing that for Virginia and in 12–20 more states in 2020.

If you know someone who wants to use their skills towards helping Democrats get elected in critical campaigns this year, share Tech for Campaigns with your community: Twitter and Facebook

Together, we can put the Democrats over the top in this crucial election year.