DFA Endorses Challengers in Key Virginia House Races
Today, Democracy for America (DFA) endorsed six progressive candidates challenging Republicans in the Virginia House of Delegates. DFA will be mobilizing its 37,065 members in the state through fundraising, organizing, and volunteering to support its endorsed candidates in the state.
Democracy for America Electoral Director Annie Weinberg on the endorsements:
“Ending the Republicans’ veto-proof majority in Virginia’s House of Delegates will not happen unless we invest in progressives who are willing to take on entrenched Republicans. With these candidates, we will be expanding the map and channeling the enormous grassroots resistance energy we are seeing in Virginia into building more progressive power in the State House. It is past time for the state’s political leadership in Richmond to reflect the strength, values, and diversity of its people.”
DFA endorsed the following six Democratic candidates running in Republican-held seats in Virginia House of Delegates:
- Sheila Bynum-Coleman (VA-62)
- Wendy Gooditis (VA-10)
- Chris Hurst (VA-12)
- Josh King (VA-02)
- David Reid (VA-32)
- Donte Tanner (VA-40)
These House of Delegates endorsements are an initial part of the group's on-going “Purple to Blue” Project, a national multi-year effort to build power in state House and Senate chambers across the country, with a focus on making “purple” state legislative seats (like those in Virginia) decisively Democratic. As part of the program, DFA earlier this year endorsed eight incumbent progressives in the House of Delegates, as well as Justin Fairfax for Lieutenant Governor of the state. Since it’s launch, the program has mobilized its renowned network of small dollar donors and grassroots volunteers to elect state legislators in battleground states nationwide, with recent victories from Virginia to Arizona, Colorado, Maine, New Mexico, and more.
Democracy for America is a people-powered political action committee with 1 million members nationwide. Since its 2004 founding, DFA members have raised and contributed more than $40 million and made more than 11.1 million volunteer calls to help successfully elect 917 progressive candidates nationwide.