- Virginia Nov. 2, 2021 General
Election « Investments in the
Virginia Race
Democratic National Committee
November 1, 2021 from a DNC spokesperson
The DNC invested nearly $6 million in cash and direct contributions towards this year’s Virginia elections, the Committee’s largest-ever investment in the commonwealth in history. This is before accounting for the millions in in-kind donations of staff time, paid media, and other investments.
The DNC’s investment paid for the vast majority of the Democratic Party of Virginia’s coordinated campaign including:
- Funding for Coordinated Campaign Staffing: The DNC funded rapid scaling of coordinated campaign staff to organize in all corners of the commonwealth.
- Coordinated Campaign Staff Mentorship Program: The DNC developed a 1:1 coaching program for all coordinated campaign managers to prepare them for future cycles by leveraging DNC staff resources, experience, and expertise.
- Distributed Organizing Capacity: The DNC mobilized thousands of the national volunteers who took part in the 2020 election to also support the Virginia coordinated campaign through volunteer recruitment, voter education, and early vote/get out the vote efforts. To-date the DNC distributed organizing program mobilized volunteers who’ve completed 11,221 shifts, made 890,000 phone calls, and sent 3.5 million text messages. Additionally, the DNC has managed rallies and campaign events in the commonwealth featuring President Biden, three events with Vice President Harris, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
- Training Program for Diverse Organizing Talent: The DNC supported the coordinated campaign in identifying local and diverse organizing talent through a DNC-led summer training program, with an emphasis on a distributed organizing curriculum.
- IWillVote Assets for Voter Protection: The investment also included expanded assets for its “I Will Vote” voter protection program as part of the DNC’s $25 million expansion of the initiative, including polling place lookup tools, access to a national hotline and voter protection team database for monitoring and incident tracking.
- Last month, the DNC expanded its initial investments in Virginia with a six-figure “Get Out The Vote” constituency advertisement campaign in Black and Spanish-language radio as well as AAPI print outlets.
- In addition to its advertising and financial investments, the DNC has engaged in several additional efforts to mobilize Black voters and other voters of color, including:
- The DNC led multiple events to activate Black voters across Virginia in the last two weeks of the campaign alone, including deploying staff to lead Souls to the Polls and other Black engagement events all over the state and securing surrogate participation from leaders like Whip Jim Clyburn.
- The DNC conducted outreach and coordinated event activities across the commonwealth to mobilize Black AAPI, Latinx, and Women voters and distributed I Will Vote materials for voter education and mobilization
- Following President Biden’s endorsement of 21 House of Delegates candidates, the DNC ran digital ads to amplify their campaigns and drive additional support in the final weeks. The DNC also provided direct contributions to 8 of these candidates to further support their race. In the final weeks of this campaign, the DNC committed an additional $500,000 investment to make every effort to turn out voters supporting Gov. McAuliffe and the Democratic ticket. This GOTV investment further scaled the already impressive canvass operations in both Fairfax and Hampton Roads, as well as providing for a statewide vote-by-mail chase call program
NextGen America
November 1, 2021
NextGen America Reaches Hundreds of Thousands of
Young Voters Ahead of Elections in Virginia,
Pennsylvania
The country’s largest young-voter organization
emphasizes importance of local and off-year
elections to mobilizing 18-35 year olds
Austin, TX — Leading up to the Nov. 2 election,
NextGen America organizers and volunteers are
mobilizing young voters in key states and
localities across the country, including for
marquee contests in Virginia and important but
under-the-radar elections in Pennsylvania.
In Virginia, NextGen is texting and emailing more
than 350,000 young people with get-out-the-vote
messages ensuring they know when, how and exactly
what they need to cast a ballot and make their
voices heard. Such mobilization is essential in
Virginia, where races for governor, other
statewide offices and the House of Delegates are
held in odd years, out of step with the typical
electoral calendar.
In Pennsylvania, NextGen’s effort includes texting
and calling approximately 300,000
18-to-35-year-olds with personalized information
on when and how to vote. With a statewide contest
for a seat on the Supreme Court and the
Philadelphia District Attorney’s race on the
ballot, NextGen’s GOTV efforts have been focused
on ensuring young people have a voice in building
a state that represents them.
“Young people in Virginia and Pennsylvania turned
out in record numbers in the last election to flex
their power, and we’re seeing that their
motivation to participate in our democracy is just
beginning,” NextGen America President Cristina
Tzintzún Ramirez said. “There are no off years for
young voters when it comes to choosing who will
make decisions about their futures. We’re working
not just to mobilize young people for these races,
but also make voting a lifelong habit.”
Along with its efforts in Virginia and
Pennsylvania, NextGen is also reaching young
people in Michigan and North Carolina ahead of
important local elections. That outreach includes
calls, texts and online voter guides providing
nonpartisan information on how to get registered
and cast a ballot in important but
often-overlooked community-level elections.
NextGen’s 2021 GOTV efforts come as it recently
renewed its commitment to running the largest
mobilization of young voters in the country.
Earlier this month, NextGen launched its program
for the 2022 election cycle and beyond by
announcing its plans to register and mobilize
thousands of young voters in Texas, Arizona, North
Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Michigan,
Wisconsin and Nevada.
During the 2020 election cycle, NextGen
Pennsylvania made over 1.8 million calls, sent
more than 5.2 million texts, registered 23,500
voters, and pledged over 68,000 young people to
vote.
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About NextGen America
NextGen America is the leading national
organization for engaging young people through
voter education, registration and mobilization. We
invite 18-to-35 year olds — the largest and most
diverse generation in American history — into our
democracy to ensure our government works for them
and to find new solutions to the dire challenges
facing our society and the world. Since 2013,
NextGen America has registered more than 1.4
million young voters and educated many millions
more, delivering more than the margin of victory
for progressives in key races and building an
electorate that will lead American politics for
decades to come.