Election day is November 4 and Virginia is more important than ever.
This off-year election gives us the chance to make the Old Dominion state the next Democratic trifecta. Not to mention that Virginia is a bastion of reproductive rights in the Old South.
Balloon Juice peeps have done our part so far.
- helped fund Four Directions in their expansion into Virginia to work with the Native vote there.
- raised funds for two flippable seats in Virginia.
- National Ground Game is the third leg of our stool in Virginia!
Dollars?
- raised over $30,000, plus $40k in matching funds for Four Directions
- raised over $8,000 for Kimberly Pope Adams, who is now projected to win. (fingers crossed!)
- raised over $5,000 for Virgil Thornton, who is on the verge of moving from toss-up to projected win by a very slim margin.
Side note: auction and raffle winners – have you received your quilts?
NEW @statenavigate.org poll in VA HD-86
GOV | 🔵Spanberger +5
LG | 🔵Hashmi +1
AG | 🔵Jones +1
HoD | 🔵Thornton +6statenavigate.org/new-poll-sho…
— Chaz Nuttycombe (@chaznuttycombe.bsky.social) October 21, 2025 at 12:58 PM
THERMOMETER REMOVED BECAUSE WE HAVE MET OUR GOAL, AND HAVE FULLY FUNDED THEIR ACTIVITIES FOR VIRGINIA. YAY YOU GUYS!
And in late-breaking news, Virginia Democrats are holding a special session tomorrow to draw a new Congressional map that could net us two or three additional seats in 2026.
Jay Jones, running for Attorney General, had a slight lead 4 days ago, but is slipping. He’s a complicated candidate, but he beats the hell out of any Republican. We need the AG in the Democratic column to actively support the new congressional map that could help us make up 2 or 3 of the seats the Rs are trying to steal with their TX gerrymandering.
All of this requires electing Abigail Spanberger for Governor and the Democrats retaining (and expanding) their razor-thin 51-49 majority in the House of Delegates. (Senate seats are not up for re-election until 2027).
Let’s talk more about the ground game.
We helped National Ground Game register and turn out voters in Florida’s two Congressional special elections in April.
We had started to raise money for their fun and creative effort to counter-program high profile Charlie Kirk rallies on Virginia college campuses. They were bringing in liberal influencers and Tik Tok celebrities with widespread youth appeal to counter the venom spewed by Turning Point USA (as well as register voters).
For obvious reasons, they needed to pivot in the wake of Kirk’s death. They stepped back temporarily out of respect for the situation and to avoid adding any fuel to the overwrought martyrdom fire. I stopped actively promoting the fundraising to give them time to regroup and make arrangements to get back into Virginia before the election. Nevertheless, to date we have raised $4,225 for Ground Game in Virginia.
And now we’re back in the game – and with our funds, National Ground Game is going back into Virginia! Ground Game has jumped the bureaucratic hurdles to obtain permission to hold a get-out-the-vote event on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg featuring.
The rally will feature, among others, popular live-streamer and political commenter Destiny, who is sure to be a big draw with the yutes. Although early voting has already started, the event will fire up college voters to turn up at the polls, provide them with late registration information, and sign them up as future volunteers.
So we are funding a big, celebratory Democratic presence on campus, days before the election!!
But wait, there’s more. Ground Game will circulate flyers promoting House of Delegates candidate and challenger Lily Franklin. Lily was highly recommended to us by Good Kim (see below) as an excellent campaigner and top-notch future representative. But Lily was (fortunately) well-financed without us, so we raised funds for Virgil Thornton, hoping for a flip there. Looks like we chose well because that seat has show as a toss-up until just a day or two ago. Anyway, this is our chance for us to help pull Lily Franklin over the finish line, as well.
With so many fingers crossed, it’s hard to type!
The National Ground Game projects a total cost of $6,500 to underwrite this event, which includes permits, insurance, transportation, security, some paid staff, volunteer meals and related expenses. I’ve set our goal at $7,500 because when does anything like this ever come in exactly at, or under budget?
We have a $500 angel in the wings! pat’s Angel Match has been met, thank you!
We can do this TODAY, I hope!
Here’s hoping we can easily raise the additional funds to completely fund this fun and inspiring event.
Things are looking good in Virginia. Virginia election forecaster Chaz Nuttycombe has predicted a narrow win for BJ-supported candidate Virgil Thornton and a 5-point margin for Kimberly Pope Adams (our “Good Kim”), flipping two Republican held seats (h/t Blue Guitarist). And he gives Democratic challenger Lily Franklin a 61% chance of flipping the Republican seat centered on Blacksburg and Virginia Tech.
There are 5 additional R-held seats projected to be very close – Consider volunteering to phone bank!
What they need are people to virtual phone bank from anywhere, and folks to canvass if you are in range to help with that.
Details at mobilize.us
Watch for a post early next year – and a zoom to meet the National Ground Game folks – to hear about their 2026 plans to resume counter-programming Turning Point rallies and organize stand-alone events of their own. This is creative and exciting stuff, targeted at young voters whose political ideology is still in flux!
No Regrets! That’s the name of the game.
