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Hi Friend,
After 26 years, Virginia is finally blue! Last night, Democrats flipped the Virginia House of Delegates and State Senate, winning 53 and 21 seats in each chamber, respectively.*
Today, we celebrate this monumental victory as well as 13 candidate wins.** After months of knocking doors, participating in town halls, and amplifying constituent voices, our candidates have ushered a new era of government into Virginia. This feat comes two years after the Flippable community helped eight candidates flip their House of Delegates seats. Those flips, alongside the other seven seats grassroots organizations worked to flip blue in 2017, contributed to last night’s victory.
Senator-elect John Bell and supporters celebrating his victory in SD 13.
So what does flipping Virginia blue mean?
This is a win for democracy. For far too long, Virginians’ ability to fully participate in our democracy has been hindered by onerous voting restrictions and racially gerrymandered maps. Now that Virginia has a Democratic trifecta, the General Assembly can repeal the state’s strict voter ID law; pass pro-democracy measures such as early voting, vote-by-mail, and automatic voter registration; and implement an independent redistricting commission.
This is a win for strategic investments in state legislative races. From developing a two-cycle plan to identifying the most competitive races where the marginal impact per dollar is higher, our focus has always centered around targeting intelligently and spending efficiently. To that end: in 2017, we focused on making inroads in the House of Delegates to facilitate flipping the chamber—and General Assembly—blue in 2019. (Last night’s results clearly validate that approach.) And nearly 89% of the funds raised by the Flippable and Swing Left community for Virginia this year went to races decided by single-digits margins.
This is a win for the grassroots. Together, the Flippable and Swing Left community raised more than $863,000, knocked upwards of 88,000 doors, and wrote over 200,000 get-out-the-vote letters. But we weren’t alone: Sister District, New Virginia Majority, Progress VA, and countless organizations worked tirelessly to flip Virginia, and all of our candidates—regardless of electoral outcome—ran formidable people-powered campaigns.
Swing Left volunteers canvassing for Senator-elect Ghazala Hashmi last weekend.
As the oldest continuously operating legislative body in North America, the Virginia General Assembly occupies a unique space in our political imagination. It has served as a blueprint for representative government over the last 400 years, at times capturing the promise of democracy and, at others, exposing its vulnerabilities. But in 2020, with a Democratic majority at the helm, the Virginia General Assembly can serve as a model for strengthening democracy by giving Virginians fair elections and fair maps that are long overdue. The work is only beginning.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. We couldn’t have done this without you.
In solidarity,
Catherine Vaughan
Co-Founder, Flippable
Chief Strategy Officer, Swing Left
* As of 11:00 AM ET.
** We’re still awaiting final tallies in HD-27 and HD-83. 
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