We are thrilled to announce our second wave of 2019 endorsements. These five new candidates for the Virginia State Senate and Louisiana House of Representatives join our existing slate of 10 candidates running for the Virginia House of Delegates and Mississippi House of Representatives. Supporting these 15 incredible candidates helps us achieve two of our strategic goals: flipping chambers blue, and making inroads into badly gerrymandered states.

We have matched these candidates to one of our 75+ volunteer teams for support throughout the entire campaign cycle. Our teams are already getting to work with fundraising to provide critical early money, and engaging in field operations including phonebanking and writing postcards. We are also working with campaign staff so that our volunteers can textbank and canvass for their candidates as soon as possible.

We supported two of our Wave 2 candidates — Cheryl Turpin and John Bell — in 2017 during their bids for the House of Delegates (which they both won!). We can’t wait to help Cheryl and John get elected to the Virginia Senate this year.

2019 Wave 2 Candidates

VIRGINIA

Cheryl Turpin — Senate District 7
Ghazala Hashmi — Senate District 10
Debra Rodman — Senate District 12
John Bell — Senate District 13

LOUISIANA

Tammy Savoie — House District 94

WHY IS VIRGINIA IMPORTANT?

2019 is a thrilling year for Democrats in the Commonwealth — just one seat down in the state Senate and two down in the House of Delegates, the party is poised to take control of the General Assembly and turn Virginia into a trifecta for the Democrats. New, court-mandated lower chamber district maps more fairly represent Democratic voters in Virginia, which means more Republican-held districts are now in play. And, these are all “Last Chance” races: the legislators elected in 2019 will be serving during the 2021 redistricting process.

In 2017, Virginia was one of the first states to hold a general election during the Trump presidency, and the historic “blue wave” of Democrats who won office was widely considered a bellwether of the Trump “resistance” movement. Sister District supported 13 races in Virginia in 2017, and we are thrilled to return to the Commonwealth in 2019 and help finish the job of flipping the legislature blue.

WHY IS LOUISIANA IMPORTANT?

Louisiana is currently under divided government: the Governor is a Democrat, while Republicans control both chambers of the legislature. The entire Louisiana state legislature is up for election in 2019, and these are all “Last Chance” races: the legislators elected in 2019 will be serving during the 2021 redistricting process. It’s critical for Democrats to make “blue inroads” in Louisiana this year, ahead of the 2020 Census.

Donate today to help Sister District flip states red to blue!