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Hi there,
There’s a lot of early analysis of last night’s election results going around—and the results should certainly serve as a wake-up call to Democrats nationally—but it’s going to take time to fully unpack what happened in Virginia and other elections across the country.
Here’s what we do know:
We knew this would be a tough fight. Historically, the party in power has a difficult time sustaining power in odd-year and midterm elections. Since 1977, Virginia has only once elected a governor who was of the same party as the president, regardless of who they voted for in the previous contest. Both state and national headwinds were challenging, but we were fighting to defend, and expand, the policy progress we’ve seen in Virginia under Democratic leadership, from Medicaid expansion to the passage of the first voting rights bill in the South. This was a worthwhile fight.
Your work mattered. We couldn’t be prouder of the work this community did in Virginia. Our work matters the most on the margins. Many of the races in Virginia will be decided by just a few hundred votes or a couple percentage points. Thousands of Swing Left volunteers and donors mobilized to support Terry McAuliffe and 11 House of Delegates candidates in the closest races—taking action at a four-times higher rate than in 2019’s Virginia elections. Your thousands of phone calls and door knocks and millions of letters helped keep these races as close as they were. You helped turn out a historic number of voters and build valuable Democratic infrastructure for future elections in Virginia. The Swing Left community left it all on the field, and we saw what kind of fight the GOP is going to put up in battleground states in 2022.
We know the GOP playbook. The one useful thing about the national Republican Party is that their strategy is strikingly transparent: Confusion. Chaos. Fear. Donald Trump may not be on the ballot, but this is still his political party and they will continue to run on this anti-democratic, right-wing agenda fueled by overt racism and culture wars.
We know what to do next. We have time to learn the lessons from last night and chart a strategic course to November 2022. Democrats have time to pass legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure and Build Back Better packages and deliver on the promises made in the 2020 elections. We have the time to communicate and educate the public on what tangible impacts these policies will have on their lives. We’ve already identified many of the closest races up and down the ballot we’ll be working on next year, and we’re monitoring even more as states draw new maps this year. Our work this year was always a key first key step in our 10-year plan to build a stronger democracy, and that work continues.
Even when we don’t get the outcome we hope for, to paraphrase Senator Elizabeth Warren, the righteous fights are always worth it, and we must always fight them. The Swing Left community should feel nothing but pride for what we contributed in this very righteous fight.
As we move forward, I hope you’ll take some time to rest so you’re physically and mentally prepared for the work ahead in 2022 and beyond. This work is a marathon, not a sprint, and we will need you now more than ever to protect and expand Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and strengthen our democracy in the years to come.
Tori Taylor
Executive Director
Swing Left
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