FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 12, 2023
CONTACT: press@turnoutpac.org
CHICAGO–Progressive Turnout Project is proud to announce the endorsement of 31 legislative candidates across Virginia. These candidates are essential to winning back the House of Delegates, maintaining the Senate majority, and fighting back against Governor Youngkin’s extremist agenda for the Commonwealth.
In addition to the organization’s endorsements, PTP will bring an investment of over $125,000 to select districts to support their voter contact efforts as part of PTP’s Campaign Fellows and Postcards to Swing States programs.
PTP’s Campaign Fellows will be paid staff members dedicated to voter contact. Adding these staff members can make all the difference, especially for down ballot races, which typically see less attention. This kind of direct voter contact is how elections are won—and PTP is thrilled to offer this level of support to campaigns.
PTP’s Postcards to Swing States program is designed to engage volunteers to write handwritten postcards to high partisan Democrats, who might need a nudge to cast their votes. Our volunteers across the country will write 882,800 postcards to Virginia voters. We expect this program to increase turnout by between 0.5% and 1%, based on past experiments PTP published with the Analyst Institute. That increase in turnout is roughly equivalent to 100-200 hours of additional canvassing per district, adding an estimated 50-115 votes per district.
“Progressive Turnout Project is proud to be back pounding the pavement in Virginia,” said PTP President Alex Morgan. “We learned a lot of lessons in 2021 and 2022 that have helped us refine our focus, and we’re confident that this year our team will deliver a much-needed check on Glenn Youngkin.”
PTP’s full list of endorsements is included below:
Senate Candidates:
Natan Mckenzie (SD-12)
Schuyler VanValkenburg (SD-16)
Clinton Jenkins (SD-17)
Victoria Luevanos (SD-20)
Angelia Williams Graves (SD-21)
Monty Mason (SD-24)
Joel Giffin (SD-27)
Danica Roem (SD-30)
Russet Perry (SD-31)
House of Delegate Candidates:
Rip Sullivan (HD-06)
Dan Helmer (HD-10)
Rozia A. Henson Jr. (HD-19)
Michelle Maldonado (HD-20)
Josh Thomas (HD-21)
Travis Nembhard (HD-22)
Fernando “Marty” Martinez (HD-29)
Lily Franklin (HD-41)
Amy Laufer (HD-55)
Susanna Gibson (HD-57)
Rodney Willet (HD-58)
Rachel A. Levy (HD-59)
Joshua Cole (HD-65)
Shelly Simonds (HD-70)
Jessica Anderson (HD-71)
Debra Gardner (HD-76)
Mary Person (HD-83)
Dr. Jarris Louis Taylor Jr. (HD-86)
Karen Jenkins (HD-89)
Phil Hernandez (HD-94)
Alex Askew (HD-95)
Michael Feggans (HD-97)
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Progressive Turnout Project is dedicated to mobilizing the Democratic Party and defending democracy. Our voter turnout initiatives are solely focused on motivating Democrats to exercise their right to vote. All our work at Progressive Turnout Project is to build power for the long term. Through data-driven research, we design, test, and deploy specialized voter turnout programs. We’re here to share resources, implement strategy, and offer our expertise for the advancement of Democrats and democracy itself. PTP is grassroots funded, with more than 2.3 million unique donors and an average contribution of $16.21.
