VA House Dems Leader on âA Massive Victory Of Unprecedented Proportionsâ
We knew our elections would be viewed in a national context. In fact  I argued in a Washington Postpiece published in June 2017 that the Virginia elections would be a far better bellwether for politics in the post-Trump election era than races such as the special election in Georgiaâs 6th Congressional District. The Clinton-Kaine ticketâs performance in Virginia proved to us that there were Democratic votes to be gotten  if we could only get them to the polls. We have now seen the results  and they bode well for the future of the Commonwealth and the country.
It all starts with candidates. After last yearâs election  Virginians woke up. We were immediately contacted by people throughout the state who wanted to run for some office; it was âraining candidates.â What emerged was the finest crop of candidates that we have ever assembled. They began running early  were trained early  and  in many cases  assembled their teams in January and February. Many were knocking doors by March and raising the substantial sums of money that would be necessary to tell their stories and engage with their constituents. You simply cannot win without good candidates  people who know how to connect with their communities and fashion a message that speaks directly to local needs. While some will argue that this election was âall about Trump â we knew we could not beat entrenched incumbents with an âanti-Trump messageâ alone. We had to have something more and we found it in every single one of these candidates.
 Trump  And Base Energy
We knew we could not win without increasing voter turnout  and  Trump  became our greatest asset. Early in the campaign  we assembled a matrix that projected how many additional House seats would be in play for every 1 percent increase in turnout. Voter turnout in state races is notoriously low  and we saw that if we increased the Democratic turnout by 5 percent  we could flip as many as 17 seats. Few believed us  but the numbers were always there  and preliminary turnout figures suggest that the increase approached 5 percent  rising from 43 percent in 2013 to about 47.6 percent. This surge in turnout was undoubtedly due to the â Trump  factor;â House Republican incumbents refused to distance themselves from the President and it hurt them badly. In some cases  they even made the mistake of embracing Trumpâ using nasty advertising strategies and divisive campaign mail. On election day  Virginians sent a message that was as loud and clear as the sound of an avalanche careening down a mountain pass; Trumpâs policies and style were clearly rejected.
We knew our elections would be viewed in a national context. In fact  I argued in a Washington Postpiece published in June 2017 that the Virginia elections would be a far better bellwether for politics in the post-Trump election era than races such as the special election in Georgiaâs 6th Congressional District. The Clinton-Kaine ticketâs performance in Virginia proved to us that there were Democratic votes to be gotten  if we could only get them to the polls. We have now seen the results  and they bode well for the future of the Commonwealth and the country.
It all starts with candidates. After last yearâs election  Virginians woke up. We were immediately contacted by people throughout the state who wanted to run for some office; it was âraining candidates.â What emerged was the finest crop of candidates that we have ever assembled. They began running early  were trained early  and  in many cases  assembled their teams in January and February. Many were knocking doors by March and raising the substantial sums of money that would be necessary to tell their stories and engage with their constituents. You simply cannot win without good candidates  people who know how to connect with their communities and fashion a message that speaks directly to local needs. While some will argue that this election was âall about Trump â we knew we could not beat entrenched incumbents with an âanti-Trump messageâ alone. We had to have something more and we found it in every single one of these candidates.
  [TGT] And Base Energy
We knew we could not win without increasing voter turnout  and   [TGT] became our greatest asset. Early in the campaign  we assembled a matrix that projected how many additional House seats would be in play for every 1 percent increase in turnout. Voter turnout in state races is notoriously low  and we saw that if we increased the Democratic turnout by 5 percent  we could flip as many as 17 seats. Few believed us  but the numbers were always there  and preliminary turnout figures suggest that the increase approached 5 percent  rising from 43 percent in 2013 to about 47.6 percent. This surge in turnout was undoubtedly due to  [TGT] factor;â House Republican incumbents refused to distance themselves from the President and it hurt them badly. In some cases  they even made the mistake of embracing Trumpâ using nasty advertising strategies and divisive campaign mail. On election day  Virginians sent a message that was as loud and clear as the sound of an avalanche careening down a mountain pass; Trumpâs policies and style were clearly rejected.