Dems in Virginia may be despairing, but my team - a ragtag group of scrappy part-timers, students, and volunteers - is holding our heads high.
Yes, we lost our race - but we accomplished so much. Over the past eight months, as we dedicated ourselves to giving a voice to voters who were overlooked in the 65th District in Virginia’s House of Delegates, we managed to turn out more voters than ever, raise more money than the past two candidates, hold the line even as Virginia swung to the right by 12 points statewide, and we did it at a significant fundraising disadvantage.
93 Democrats ran for the House of Delegates this year. 37 of those were Dem challengers to Republican incumbents. Every Republican incumbent held their seat - even in races where the Democrat was favored to win.
And at 17,000 votes and counting, my campaign earned more votes than 61 out of the 93 Dems who ran - including every single incumbent Dem who lost their seat. Among Dem challengers in districts carried by Trump in 2016, I earned the third-highest vote count. If every single Democrat had gotten at least the number of votes that I did, we would have a seven-seat majority in the House of Delegates.
Compared to previous races in the 65th, we increased Democratic turnout by 28% and got nearly 4,000 more votes than the 2019 Democratic candidate. Although as a percentage of voters we mostly held the line - netting 33.7% of all votes cast in the district - our uphill battle was steeper than most, as my opponent was the second-highest performing Republican this year.
Our voters showed up for us; unfortunately, they also showed up for Glenn Youngkin.
What makes our accomplishments all the more impressive is the fact that we received next to no help from the top of the ticket or the establishment organizations and PACs. None of the top ticket candidates held events with us or joined us for canvassing, spending more of their efforts in districts they considered more “flippable” (none of them flipped). The biggest PACs that support Democrats, like the pro-environment Clean Virginia, snubbed our campaign while they gave most other Dems running for Delegate anywhere from a flat $5,000 up to $245k. Again, we received more votes than 8 out of the top 10 Delegate candidates that received money from the Clean Virginia Fund.
My campaign raised roughly $40,000 this year - more than the $35,586 raised by the 2019 candidate, and raised without the $11,000 that the previous campaign got from the Win Virginia PAC. The only PAC money we accepted were from small Virginia-based organizations like the Impact Center and the Competitive Commonwealth Institute, as well as local Democratic committees, and even then, our single largest donation was $1750. More than 25% of our money came from small-dollar donors, and 84% of our money came from individuals.
In all, we spent $2.52 per voter - far below the $83 to $150 that the top fundraisers spent on each vote.
No TV ads. No mailers. No billboards. Just a bunch of dedicated volunteers making thousands of voter contacts, and a vision that people could believe in.
The fight to get our Commonwealth back starts now, and it starts with going back to the roots - our grassroots. Less focusing on big money, more focus on ideas. Less attacks and more inspiration.
Change starts one person at a time, and we managed to get an extra 4,000 in our corner this year. And I am not done. I’m just getting started.
See y’all in 2022.
CAITLIN COAKLEY IS A WRITER, MOM, AND ACTIVIST FROM CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, VIRGINIA, CONTINUING THE FIGHT TO TURN VIRGINIA BACK TO BLUE. IF YOU BELIEVE IN PEOPLE OVER PROFITS, THAT CLEAN WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT, AND THAT BROADBAND ACCESS IS ESSENTIAL, SUPPORT HER CAMPAIGN.
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