Cville Dems

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

Events

Fish Fry Fundraiser has a Fantastic Finale!

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wide shot photo of crowd State Senator at 6-24-2022 Fish FryLast Friday’s Fish Fry Fundraiser at the Jefferson School was a big success in every way:
  • Attendance was great —200+ people signed up, 59 of them at the sponsor levels. Thank you all!
  • Actually, attendance was even greater — another 100 people were a block away at the Federal Building protesting the Supreme Court decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, and when they heard Sen Lucas was speaking they came over to hear her… so in the end, we had a crowd of 300!
  • Financial success — we think this will put us in a good financial position to work hard on all the political issues facing us.
State Senator Louise Lucas was amazing; the crowd greeted her enthusiastically and she really returned the love, pumping up the crowd to “fight like hell” to defend women’s right to choose from Republican attacks. Watch these CBS19 and NBC29 clips (we got them to come over from covering the Federal Building protest to interview her about the Supreme Court’s Roe decision).
For more Fish Fry pictures and details go here!

The Fight for Abortion and Reproductive Rights Continues!

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Graphic entitled We Won't Go Back showing photo of street crowd protest holding large horizontal banner reading Our Bodies - Our AbortionsThe Cville Dems had a very busy week on this front.
Last Thursday night, 6/24, we partnered with Blue Ridge Abortion Fund to present a free webinar about how an overturning of Roe would impact the Charlottesville region. BRAF Development Director Deborah Arenstein and our Bekah Saxon gave welcoming and closing remarks, and the panelists (clearly already tired and frustrated preparing for the ban) gave a great presentation.
Friday morning 6/25 the overturning of Roe was announced. By Friday afternoon, we had coordinated with NOW and Bans Off Our Bodies for a 5pm rally at the Federal Building, arranged for the media to interview Sen. Lucas for comments at 6pm (see Fish Fry coverage above), and organized a ​​well-attended Cville Dems 11am Saturday 6/26 rally (here’s CBS19’s coverage, photos below).
As Sen. Lucas said, we are most definitely not giving up the fight (Pres. Biden came out Thursday in favor of a Senate filibuster exception for abortion rights)… but Virginia is on the edge of losing the next and deciding round of this fight. Gov. Youngkin has promised to push for an abortion ban, and if the Republicans gain seats in this November’s midterms then Dems won’t be able to stop Youngkin and his allies from outlawing abortion in Virginia too.
As we’re seeing, elections have very profound consequences.
Help the Dems organize and mobilize for November… join this fight!

Rally to Protest the Overturning of Roe v. Wade

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We’re  holding a rally at this morning (Saturday 6/25) at 11am at the Free Speech Wall to protest the outrageous (Republican-engineered) Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, throwing out decades of legal precedent and going against the will of the American people.

If you’re still feeling this outrage, please join us for an hour to share your feelings with other community members and show your commitment to reversing this injustice.

We’re still lining up speakers for this last-minute event, but confirmed speakers included:

  • our State Sen. Creigh Deeds
  • Charlottesville City Council member Michael Payne
  • a representative from Blue Ridge Abortion Fund
  • a representative from the UVA Dems
  • a recent high school graduate

In addition to these and other in-person speakers, we will be reading excerpts from the statements of some key local leaders and groups.

Abortion Rights and Access in a Post-Roe Charlottesville (RESCHEDULED)

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June 23, 2022 Abortion Access webinar poster

Anticipating the Supreme Court overturning abortion rights, the Cville Dems and the Blue Ridge Abortion Fund are sponsoring a Zoom webinar on Thursday June 23, 7:00-8:30pm, to help our community understand and prepare for the local challenges of the post-Roe abortion access landscape.

Pre-register here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ssI39I46QEuznYVZsy0_YQ

Virginia is a “receiving” state for abortion seekers; if abortion is banned in other states there’ll be a huge impact on abortion access here.
The webinar, produced by the Fund, will share “in the trenches” perspectives from a variety of Southern abortion funds:
  • how we got here
  • why the potential overturning of Roe isn’t just about abortion
  • how to talk about abortion access as a moral and community good
  • how community members can support abortion access today.
Please attend if you can (pre-registration required), and please share this invitation widely with friends, family, and anyone who wants/needs to understand this challenging new abortion landscape.
RESCHEDULED for 6/23 (originally 6/16), time and webinar link are still the same.

Josh Throneburg Campaign News (6/17/22)

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Photo of Josh TrentTrent Fisher, a VCU grad from Greene County, has just come on board as the Campaign’s point person for Charlottesville and Albemarle: canvassing, phone banking, text banking (coming very soon!), meet & greets, etc. Come meet him in person at next Saturday’s Fish Fry (you do have your tickets, right!?) or reach him by email trent@joshforvirginia.com .
Dudley Doane reports that Josh’s June 4th Leadership Summit (6/4) went really well, an all-around great day. Turnout was good (and diverse), and Dudley was particularly struck by a major turnout of trained up and motivated people from the former Spanberger districts and from the Lynchburg/Amherst area. Del. Sam Rasoul, Sen. Jennifer McClellan, DPVA’s Gaylene Kanoyton, 5th District Chair Patricia Harper-Tunley, and Rural GroundGame’s Jennifer Kitchen provided valuable training.
Josh Throneburg yard sign
Reminder: if you live at a high-visibility property, help raise Josh Throneburg’s visibility by hosting one of his yard signs! Dudley or Jane Boatner will be happy to deliver one to you, just contact him: jlbd1013@gmail.com

“Turn Out the Vote Thursdays”

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Photo of volunteers at Turn Out the Vote ThursdaysWe’ve started doing “Turn Out the Vote Thursdays” every Thursday (taking the place of “Take Action Tuesdays”) from 5-7pm outside of Brazos Tacos, to overlap with the sunset market at IX Park.

We’re writing postcards to newly registered City of Charlottesville voters, making phone calls, and generally doing what’s needed to help us win in November. Come join us and hang out while we help elect Dems!