July is All About Coordination

DPVA HQ has been hard at work integrating with our Statewide campaigns, holding successful trainings, and planning a host of events all across the commonwealth.

Team Political has been attending committee meetings, planning campaign rallies, and are working to provide guidance and support for every candidate running for the House of Delegates, from the 1st District to the 100th — Shyam & Jack are putting the legwork in now so that we have a fantastic election day in November.

The Communications & Digital teams began coordinating with campaigns to ensure a consistent and winning message. Comms has been putting out press releases every day about the work we’re doing to keep our majority and keep hold of our statewide offices — and laying out clearly why the other side can’t be allowed to take power back in Richmond. Digital has been breaking online fundraising records for the Virginia state party and has been working together with various campaigns to increase the overall Democratic digital footprint and boost fundraising and engagement numbers across platforms.

Kiana is our Swiss Army Knife — she works with Jara to facilitate trainings, staffs fundraising events, manages our summer internship program, plans all of our staff retreats and professional development trainings, and fills in gaps wherever she sees them. Tierra Ward joined us at the beginning of July as our Redistricting Director — she’ll be working with our committee members, and elected officials at the state and local level to try and get the fairest maps possible.

Finance has been planning our Summer event series, Pints on the Patio, and planning our annual Barbara Johns panel and reception and the largest fundraising event of the year for Virginia Democrats, the Blue Commonwealth Gala. Here’s a list of events and links to get your tickets.

Pints on the Patio: Fredericksburg — 7/15
Pints on the Patio: Chesterfield — 8/10
Barbara Johns Panel & Reception — 8/14
Blue Commonwealth Gala — 9/25

Team Finance is growing tomorrow as well! We’re excited to add Randy Sprinkle to our ranks as Deputy Finance Director — Find out more about Randy and the rest of the DPVA team here.

The Voter Protection team is working to do just that — protect voters — but more than that, Ja’Scotta is holding trainings, recruiting volunteers, working on getting Sunday Voting in place in localities around the Commonwealth, and educating voters on new election laws in Virginia! Along with trainings about Voter Protection and our programs there, Jara has been giving trainings every week, and sometimes more, as we get our committee members, staff, and volunteers geared up for November’s election. Jara’s work will directly impact our election this year but the seeds planted this year will bear fruit in the years ahead as we seek to make Virginia into a more inclusive and accepting Commonwealth.

Our Data Team and Operations departments are working closely with the coordinated team and House campaigns across Virginia. The Data team has been working day and night to ensure every campaign has the voter data they need to run programs successfully, safely, and securely. Our Operations team has been a key figure in the coordinated campaign so far — onboarding all the new campaign staff all the while making sure that the DPVA is staying in a healthy situation financially.

We have one of the strongest state parties in the nation and a lot of that is to do with the efforts of our entire staff. Obviously, we wouldn’t be here without the steadfast leadership of our Executive Director Andrew Whitely and last but certainly not least, our Chairwoman, Susan Swecker. Susan and Andrew together with the DPVA staff have overseen the Take The Majority campaign in 2019, played a massive role in the federal elections here in Virginia last year when we took back the White House and re-elected Mark Warner and all of our Congressional Delegation.

The DPVA couldn’t be in better shape than it is right now, but we know that the reason we’re here is because of the incredible candidates who run in these elections, the amazing volunteers and committee members who make up our backbone, and our generous donors, small and large, who allow us to focus on growing our Blue Commonwealth.

Thank you.

— Team DPVA