DNC boosts Virginia’s get-out-the-vote efforts with additional six-figure investment

Virginia State Capitol. Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury

The Democratic National Committee announced a six-figure investment into Virginia’s democratic campaigns on Tuesday, meant to support additional field staff to help with door-knocking and distributing mailers and campaign literature. The new investment comes as the state’s executive branch and House of Delegates campaigns ramp up in the final weeks of the election and follows the DNC’s previous $3 million investment in Virginia. 

While Virginia and New Jersey have drawn the focus of both parties this year as politically purple states with gubernatorial elections, the DNC announced earlier this year that it will continue to boost all state chapters of the party to support candidates up and down ballots from local to state to national. 

“The role of political parties is to build infrastructure everywhere,” DNC chair Ken Martin said in an April press call. 

With Virginia among the top three states with the largest concentration of federal workers, Democrats have reminded voters that President Donald Trump’s administration has made many cuts to such positions and pointed out the potential negative impacts on the state’s economy. 

“As voters start heading to the polls, the DNC is ensuring Virginians know the stakes of this election,” Martin wrote in a press release announcing the new investments. 

Republicans are also accelerating their efforts as the final stretches of the election unfold. The Republican Governors Association recently supplied Virginia with an additional $1.5 million for advertising to capitalize on Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones’ text messages from 2022 that contained violent rhetoric about a former GOP Virginia lawmaker and his family. 

The texts have been widely denounced on both sides of the aisle but Republicans have called on Jones to drop out of the race while Democrats have stopped short of doing so (the revelation of the three-year-old texts came well after early voting had been underway). 

With all 140 House of Delegates seats up for election this fall along with the roles of governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, Democrats are hoping to retain their majority in the House and take back the executive branch.

Democratic majorities will matter in advancing in-progress constitutional amendments next year so that voters statewide can formally weigh in. The proposals to enshrine same-sex marriage rights and to restore voting rights to ex-felons who’ve completed their sentences advanced this year with narrow bipartisan support, while an effort to cement reproductive rights met pushback from most Republicans only advanced because Democrats control the House and state Senate. 

National issues are also shaping Virginia candidates’ races. 

While both parties have emphasized addressing concerns about the cost of living and economics, Democrats  — particularly Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger — are also focusing on the Trump administration’s role in those issues. Spanberger and other Democrats have heaped scrutiny on new tariffs, job layoffs and forthcoming health care changes Congress passed this summer at Trump’s urging.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears has touched on these issues but much of her campaign’s focus has been on opposing local or state policies that have allowed transgender students and athletes to participate in sports teams and use  bathrooms aligning with their gender identity. 

The Mercury also has detailed policy breakdowns for both Spanberger and Earle-Sears, one of whom will become governor and sign off on future state budgets along with numerous laws that the legislature advances. 

“With this investment to turbocharge on-the-ground GOTV efforts across the Commonwealth, Democrats are preparing  to win big up and down the ballot,” Martin said.

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