Situation Report: October 2020
How We Got Here
The situation in Virginia is a very complex one, but at the statewide scale it boils down to the Democrat Party having received many millions in out-of-state cash, modernized and organized effectively, and put together a consistent turnout operation that could achieve near-Presidential-year turnout on the formerly low-turnout state election cycles; while on the Republican side precisely the opposite was happening: infighting and lack of leadership creating vicious cycles that in many cases entirely disabled major party unit committees, and generally led to poor levels of performance throughout the state. Terrible Democrat candidates could win contested districts because the Democrat Party provided a robust organization for every candidate, while GOP candidates were lucky if they didn't have to fight their own people before the opponent.
That is, if a GOP candidate existed at all. Over a quarter of the legislative seats in Virginia were not challenged by the Republican Party. Democrats had to compete for fewer than a quarter of overall seats to gain a majority - and the robust organization allows them to shift volunteer and donor resources from uncontested district to a more competitive one easily.
In November 2019, these trends culminated in the ultimate conclusion: Democrats swept all statewide offices as well as claiming both chambers of the legislature. Republicans were left with no say whatsoever in Virginia's governance, nor any hope or prospect of changing that in the future. The defeat and demoralization was so complete that there was even a "Transition VA" group set up for Republicans to accommodate themselves to permanent Democrat rule.
They Are That Crazy
What followed, for those aware of the true nature of today's "Democrats", has been as horrible as it has been predictable - the entire radical Left agenda is being implemented at lightning speed. Their opening salvo of unconstitutional gun laws, declaring a state of emergency in response to 2nd Amendment protesters, and passing five election fraud enablement acts seems almost quaint now, in consideration of what has followed it.
What Virginia Democrats have done is so shocking that we wouldn't believe it ourselves, if not for the overwhelming evidence to prove each and every example. Here's a sample of some more of the insanity the state has endured in less than a year of Democrat rule:
- Ended mandatory reporting of classes of sex crimes against children in schools, because those laws conflicted with their transgenderism-for-kids agenda - even outright refusing to state their rationale when directly asked for it by GOP Minority Leader Todd Gilbert on the floor of the House of Delegates;
- Not only encouraged the rioting and chaos that wrecked Richmond's revival and caused destruction throughout the state, but multiple Democrat legislators were, unbelievably, personally involved in leading riots (one has been charged with two felonies yet remains in office);
- Knowingly allow the state parole board to continue to act in open defiance of law, even after an Inspector General report that had to be 95% redacted declared it unlawful in the most severe terms; this was prompted by the unlawful release of a cold-blooded cop killer who premeditatively executed a 22-year Richmond police officer;
- Destroyed the #1 high school in America by ending admissions standards, in the name of the far-left "equity" agenda;
- Allowed Northam to rule the state by arbitrary and ever-changing emergency decrees in complete abdication of the role of the legislature;
- Used the state attorney general's office to intervene in suits against citizens who asked for their basic liberties, such as the right to worship in church, be respected.
I could go on for some time. The situation is that bad.
The Path Back to Sanity
Here's the good news: In the year that the Virginia Project has been operating, we have completely turned the situation around. Our mission gave Virginia Republicans a path to victory.
It has been so influential in a short time that the newly elected state party Chairman largely adopted it as his campaign platform, and won. As a result, the state party is now in complete alignment with our mission - this is a go, for the first time in over a decade the state party will no longer be fighting itself, but now has a universally unifying platform to rally behind. Multiple new Virginia PACs have been created to independently further aspects of the Virginia Project mission, including Grow Our Party (ground-level fundamentals), Let's Win, Virginia (candidate recruitment), and Virginia Rising Action (holding the opposition accountable). We are regularly finding people who are knowingly working to further our mission objectives independently, without us even being aware of it.
The Democrats are absolutely petrified of us because they know our formula effectively counters everything that has made them a success, and they can't develop new tricks as fast as we can nullify or defeat them.
There are many more details to this story, so many that it would be unreasonable to share them all in one message.
If this has earned your interest, please contact us, donate, or volunteer to help the effort as much as you can.
We thank you in advance for your support and assistance.
David Gordon
Director, The Virginia Project
October 28th, 2020