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elleng

(130,895 posts)
Wed Nov 6, 2019, 02:07 PM Nov 2019

Democrats Could Learn a Lot From What Happened In Virginia.

'States don’t become battlegrounds overnight.

On Tuesday night, Virginia Democrats won their most consequential election in decades. After obtaining a majority in both chambers of the General Assembly, Democrats now have a governing trifecta for the first time since 1993. This is no accident. It comes in the midst of a generational political shift that was put in motion years ago. Virginia’s Democrats got where they are today as a result of year-round community organizing and voter engagement.

For decades, Democrats allowed the prize of an Electoral College victory to blind them to electoral opportunities elsewhere, staving off funding and failing to provide meaningful support for candidates, campaigns and local parties in places they had written off as unwinnable. The national Democratic Party spent millions in Virginia this year, but the state wasn’t always such a priority. From its position in the South to its prominent role in America’s legacy of oppression, Virginia was long considered reliably conservative — unbreakable. As recently as six years ago, Republicans controlled the office of the governor and the General Assembly.

Local organizations like mine understood the political potential of Virginia when we got started 12 years ago. We are winning because we recognize the power of an electorate that includes and reflects the diversity of our state. We don’t talk to voters only when campaign season rolls around. We try to reach voters of all colors, women, low-income workers and young people where they are, which has made it possible for us to develop a robust base of support along Virginia’s so-called Urban Crescent, from Northern Virginia to Hampton Roads. Long before Election Day, we registered more than 300,000 voters, knocked on more than 2.5 million doors, and organized within communities of color to help win significant policy changes like Medicaid expansion, which covered nearly 400,000 people.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/opinion/virginia-election-democrats.html?

5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Democrats Could Learn a Lot From What Happened In Virginia. (Original Post) elleng Nov 2019 OP
Hence, the quote leftieNanner Nov 2019 #1
Good read. Recruiting good candidates too. underpants Nov 2019 #2
Especially in my neighborhood! lagomorph777 Nov 2019 #4
Voter turnout! That's the lesson. KPN Nov 2019 #3
It sure as hell didn't happen overnight Blue_Tires Nov 2019 #5

lagomorph777

(30,613 posts)
4. Especially in my neighborhood!
Wed Nov 6, 2019, 02:58 PM
Nov 2019

Juli Briskman flipped off Trump, then flipped a seat on the County Board.

John Flannery is an MSNBC regular, with national name recognition (though only running for a County seat).

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
5. It sure as hell didn't happen overnight
Wed Nov 6, 2019, 06:39 PM
Nov 2019

and it didn't even happen yesterday...

2017 was when the tide turned, and only a technicality after three recounts and a literal coin flip prevented Dems from having a total takeover... 2019 was just unfinished business.

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