Cville Dems

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

Winning in November, Option #1 — “Turn Out the Vote Thursdays” at Ix Art Park

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Poster using a wide variety of different letter and background colors used with the words "Turn out the Vote Thursdays phone bank grab a bite at a food truck write postcards to voters"We meet every Thursday 4-7pm at the Ix Art Park (on the Brazos Tacos lawn if nice weather, inside the restaurant when not-so-nice). Come when and for how long your schedule and mood dictate; it needn’t be every week or the entire three hours.

Today (Thursday 8/31) we’ll start writing GOTV cards to City of Charlottesville “Lean Democratic” voters, stressing the importance of turning out for Creigh Deeds. If you can, bring a chair and a clipboard/something similar to write on.

There are lots of different ways to help over the next few months; do what’s most comfortable for you! For example:

  • Writing postcards and making follow-up phone calls to newly- registered voters. That combination has been very successful, resulting in this group voting at a consistent 75-80% rate in 2021-2023.
  • Distributing “walk sheet” name and address lists of Dem-leaning people for our campaign canvassers to visit.
  • Sending some specific issue-message postcards (a new idea we’re considering).
  • Writing postcards and phoning people we’ve previously registered.
  • Writing postcards and phoning for campaigns near Charlottesville.

Photo of volunteers writing postcards at "Turn Out the Vote Thursdays” August 24, 2023For the past three years, we’ve had many many dedicated people joining in. In 2022, we had 100+ volunteers who attended at least once to eat, drink, chat, and pitch in together to help our Democratic candidates win; many attended almost every week! If you’ve joined us before, please join us again. If you haven’t tried it yet, come on down and meet fellow Dems and enjoy yourself while working for a big win on November 7!

Questions? Please contact Mary Ann Harris: harrisma49@gmail.com

 

Winning in November, Option #2 — Canvassing Locally

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We’re partnering with the Albemarle Dems to ensure we win all our local races; with several uncontested City races, it makes sense to shift some of our energy.

Creigh Deeds 2023 campaign headshot. Creigh is wearing a light blue shirt and red tie

  • State Senate: Incumbent Senator Creigh Deeds is favored to win our crucial Senate District 11, but the district has some very conservative areas, and we can’t be complacent if we’re going to keep this seat. His opponent, Philip Hamilton, is quite a piece of work; among other claims to fame, he’s publicly misgendered his own 12-year-old, claiming that school teachers had poisoned his child’s mind into being non-binary. And he favors schools outing gay students to their parents (see below in “Preaching Beyond the Choir”). This is not someone we want representing us; please donate to or canvass for (or both) the Deeds campaign!
  • House of Delegates: Amy Laufer (our Albemarle County neighbor running in a competitive District #55 race) and Katrina Callsen (running unopposed in our District #54)
  • Charlottesville City Council: Natalie Oschrin, Michael Payne, and Lloyd Snook (running unopposed)
  • Charlottesville School Board: Amanda Burns, Shymora Cooper, Chris Meyer, and Nicole Richardson
  • Albemarle County Board of Supervisors: Bea LaPisto-Kirtley, Ann Mallek, and Michael Pruitt
  • Albemarle County School Board (ACSB): Rebecca Berlin, Judy Le, Ellen Moore Osborne, and Allison Spillman. A few notes about Allison’s race: she’s running against Meg Scalia Bryce, the daughter of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia-Bryce is (a) very concerned that the ACSB has been treating LGBTQ kids with respect and support, and (b) is very offended by its anti-racist curriculum. Scalia-Bryce has been winning the fundraising race by a wide margin, and we can’t let extremists like her (e.g. a big fan of the Moms for Liberty book banners) start taking over our local schools (per Forward Albemarle, all her kids attend private schools). Please help Allison’s campaign any way you can, especially via donations and canvassing help.

If you’d like to canvass locally (figure a shift is roughly 3 hours):

  1. On a weekday, please email karencombs6522@gmail.com .
  2. On a weekend, use SignUp Genius to participate in one or more of these coordinated canvasses:

Spreadsheet screenshot showing dates + start times + cities + locations of Fall 2023 Democratic canvasses as of 8-31-2023 - Some rows are highlighted in yellow

Combs’ Office map  Mudhouse Crozet map yellow=Weekends of Action emphasis

Please tell your friends and social media connections how important it is to vote (and maybe even volunteer!); we need to hit high vote counts in our area to offset more conservative areas!

Winning in November, Option #3 — Supporting Other VA Races

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Republicans control the House of Delegates and the Governor’s mansion, and Dems barely hold the Senate; if Republicans take the Senate, then Virginia will become Florida, which means forced childbirth laws, schools teaching whitewashed history, “don’t-say-gay” laws, and other measures to erase LGBTQ youth.

We can’t let this happen; all Dems need to help in some way. Here are four non-local races where our help can make a difference:

  • The state party’s political staff say that two must-win races are Senate District 17 (Delegate Clint Jenkins looking to move up) and Senate District 24 (incumbent Senator Monty Mason running in a redrawn district). These races aren’t in the neighborhood, but if you can send a few bucks, it can help us retain the Senate!
  • In the not-so-far-away HD-57, Western Henrico/Eastern Goochland, Charlottesville native Susanna Gibson is running in a no-incumbent, competitive district against a Republican who on Sept. 5 was secretly recorded talking about abortion saying he’s pro-life and “further restrictions might not be possible unless Republicans gain more seats in the legislature.” We need to win this seat to have a chance at a House of Delegates Democratic majority. January 6 insurrectionist John McGuire represented about 55% of HD57 voters in the old HD56, so we have MAGA voters to overcome!
  • Lily Franklin is running for the HD-41 seat, around Blacksburg. Charlottesville Dems know her well from her excellent work on the Josh Throneburg campaign, and she’s exactly the sort of person we need in the House! She’s in a right-leaning district, but we believe Lily has a fighting chance if we pull together. The Thursdays at Ix group will be helping her campaign, possibly including a road trip to knock on doors there.

Whatever you choose to do, please do something to help the good guys hold the Senate and regain the House! Thank you!