Virginia House of Delegates Democratic challenger Jennifer Boysko
We have already
endorsed John Bell and
Kathleen Murphy in their races for Virginia delegate. They are contesting two of the 18 Republican-held seats that President Barack Obama won in 2012. Without those seats, Republicans wouldn't have that big 67-32 advantage in the House of Delegates. Virginia Democrats are fighting hard to change that, and we're lending a hand.
But if helping out two Dems is good, why not add more? The community response these last two days has been fantastic: nearly 600 donors and $16,000. These races are a great investment: The overall budgets are smaller, so your dollars go a long way. And while a larger Democratic caucus is good for Virginia, retaking the chamber this decade is good for all of us as the GOP's U.S. House majority is built almost entirely on gerrymandering. Thus, our long-term efforts toward a truly representative House must go through states like this one.
So given the impetus to do more, we rolled with it. Introducing two new additions to our Virginia candidate roster:
Atif Qarni
Atif Qarni in HD-13 is running against the infamous "
Sideshow" Bob Marshall, whose greatest hits include calling Obamacare "rape", said that disabled kids are God's "special punishment" for women having abortion, sees no difference between homosexuality and pedophilia and necrophilia, wants Virginia to mint gold and silver "alternate currency", and tried to mandate guns in schools.
This is a 55-44 percent Obama district, so no reason someone this crazy should hold it. But of course, Virginia Republicans benefit from their off-year elections as they dampen Democratic base turnout. Let's help reverse that trend.
Jennifer Boysko in HD-86 is running against longtime incumbent Tom Rust in this solid-blue district, 60-39 Obama. Rust has managed to sell himself as a "moderate" and is personally popular, thus bucking his district's partisan trends. He wouldn't survive reelection with presidential turnout, but he doesn't have to.
There is no public polling in either of these two races, but my new mantra applies: If our people turn out, we win. The districts are just two Democratic to fear otherwise. Thus, I'm personally chipping in to both candidates and hope you follow suit.
Our ability to turn the U.S. House of Representatives solidly blue in the long-term is dependent, in huge part, on our ability to control the 2020 redistricting process. And that battle begins in Virginia, this November. So please don't sit on the sidelines. A few bucks provides a huge boost to our Virginia friends fighting the good fight.
Update: David got his hands on Jennifer Boysko's internals:
We now have our hands on a third internal poll from a Democratic candidate running against a Republican incumbent in Virginia's state House, and the news is once again positive for the challenger. In the state's 86th District in Northern Virginia, longtime Delegate Tom Rust has a narrow 47-44 lead over Democrat Jennifer Boysko, which pollster Myers Research says represents a "16 point net shift toward Boysko from earlier this year." Given Rust's enduring personal popularity and moderate profile, it's pretty remarkable that Boysko has made the race this close.
According to Myers, the shutdown has definitely harmed Rust, and Republicans would be in much worse shape without him, since Democrats lead on the generic ballot 48-42. What's more, Democrat Terry McAuliffe has a wide 53-41 lead in the governor's race. If McAuliffe can finish strong, this is very much the sort of race where his coattails could extend further down the ballot, especially since Obama won this seat 60-39.
3:57 PM PT: For those of you who'd love to help, DFA has set up a virtual phonebank here.