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Hi Friend,
Virginia sets the standard. The Virginia General Assembly has met annually since 1619, making it the model for representative legislatures in the United States and the oldest continually operating legislative body in the Western Hemisphere. For better or worse, many important decisions concerning who can fully participate in our society—from the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to criminal disenfranchisement laws to desegregation*—have taken place in Virginia over the last 400 years.
Today, due to its off-year elections, Virginia remains a critical player on the national stage. The victories we saw during the 2017 statewide elections—including five from Flippable alums—foreshadowed the strong nationwide showing in the 2018 midterms, wherein Democrats gained over 300 state legislative seats, flipped seven state chambers, and gained six trifectas for a total of 14 to the GOP’s 22. With redistricting set to begin in 2021, Virginia’s November elections are seen as a bellwether for the future of our democracy. If we flip a southern state with a record of GOP racial gerrymandering, we’ll have crucial momentum going into next year’s elections.
In order to build a strong pro-democracy movement in 2020, we need to invest in Virginia now. The lessons we learn from Virginia in 2019 can help lead us to more victories in 2020 and a stronger democracy in 2021. But the window for high-impact contributions is closing, and we already know these races will be highly competitive: in 2017, three of Virginia’s legislative districts flipped blue by just 336, 389, and 894 votes. By donating to the Flippable Fund today, you can help our Virginia candidates make their campaigns as strong as possible in this final stretch.
* The NAACP filed more civil rights lawsuits in Virginia than in any other state, and civil rights attorney Henry Marsh said, “...the rest of the Southern states were sort of watching Virginia to see what would happen.” Virginia Museum of History & Culture 
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