Virginia is a Red state at heart, despite its occasional purple hue. But as Republicans in a state that borders the beltway, we face the ever-present burden of keeping it that way. Over the past several years, Chairman Pat Mullins has worked diligently to unite the Republican Party of Virginia and to expand our outreach to women, minorities and young people in colleges and high schools. Under his leadership, Republicans have attained a super-majority in the House of Delegates and now hold a majority in the State Senate. Meanwhile, Virginia Republicans have increased their majority in the House of Representatives. I join with many across the Commonwealth to express my gratitude to Chairman Mullins for his leadership in helping to make these gains possible.
These victories, along with the photo-finish election for the most recent U.S. Senate seat, make the compelling case that Virginia will be the battleground state in 2016. (as my colleagues have pointed out Virginia has experienced sizable shifts in the political landscape over the last decade. Republicans and Democrats are making trades in districts and state wide elections every year. Southwest and Central Virginia are now almost completely controlled by Republicans while Northern Virginia continues to make a Republican statewide victory challenging.
By now, we all understand the importance of good leadership. And with each leadership chapter we close, we turn the pages to a brand new chapter, and with it – new opportunities for growth. As we enter a new chapter in the Republican Party, we need to be laser focused on winning statewide elections. To do that, the State Central Committee needs to select a leader with vision, energy and a hunger for success. We need someone who is not just in the bubble of political operatives and party insiders but someone who can connect with every day people in the community. At the same time, the next Chairperson needs to be one of influence and wisdom to bring a unification of the grand ole party as we transition to the new republican party – founded on the same conservative principles of Ronald Reagan but capable of relating to younger generations and to the historically democratic and independent segments of our communities.
Producing a united GOP front will be critical to future statewide attempts, but it is not alone sufficient. I believe a Republican victory in 2016 will be contingent on an RPV Chairperson who understands the value of and fully invests in efficient data collection and management, effective messaging, expanded fundraising and explosive grassroots growth.
1. Ground Game: We spend millions of dollars and donate thousands of hours to gather data for voter identification, messaging and GOTV; yet the local unit loses that data the very next cycle and the victory staff change. We need a campaign tool that is easy to use and provides powerful analytic’s that can be given back to the localities to use in their local elections for school board, board of supervisors and city council elections. Giving this tool to the local level will cause the data to constantly be enhanced and help more conservative leaders to be elected at the local level. Additionally, we need staffers that are true believers and preferably from Virginia. An organization/team is only as good as its weakest link. We must recruit and retain solid, republican campaign staffers at year round victory offices if we really want to have an effective ground game.
2. Messaging and New Voter Development: We must continue the efforts of Chairman Mullins and Ed Gillespie in reaching new voters by going outside our circles for voter outreach. Ed Gillespie printed literature in a dozen languages so his positive message for economic growth could be more easily spread to more Virginians. Chairman Mullins was dedicated to encouraging the growth of our college and teenage republican organizations. We should partner with CRFV, , YRFV, & TARS to hire regional directors that work with these auxiliary organizations to recruit and retain young members. Organizations like College Republicans and Teenage Republicans experience extremely high turnover rates and therefore experience a lack of continuity. Field staffers could ensure constant growth and help curb the loss of data and experience in the youth centered organizations which would ensure greater recruitment into the Republican Party.
3. Fundraising: With the decrease in funding for RPV from the established donors we need to focus on conditioning new donors using more electronic and social media donation methods, making it easier to establish lifelong republican donors. President Obama raised hundreds of millions with $5, $10 and $20 dollar donors. The small dollar donations are not given without investment from the base in our cause/candidates and we need that grassroots level investment in winning. Of course this does not replace the need to continue courting larger donations and underwriting from more established donors.
4. Grassroots Recruitment and Committee Development: The next Chairperson should establish a sub-committee to assist with the process of implementing a more robust organization at the local level. The next RPV Chairperson should cast a vision for the party that creates purpose for every party activist that will reignite their passion and fire for winning elections for conservatives and turning our Commonwealth and Nation around.
5. Party Unification: While many of us are concerned with deficits in Washington the real deficit is that of character and in-effective leadership. As Americans, we face disappointment daily as we are seemingly immersed in dishonest, unfaithful and cruel people doing terrible things in all walks of life. Unfortunately, many of those people are our nation’s leaders, coaches, teachers, fathers, and public safety officials among many others. Our trust in society has become downright anemic, and that is why leadership and integrity matter today more than ever. Activists should lobby their SCC representatives to select an honest and capable individual who will unite the party with a common vision and lead with a deliberate and positive agenda for growth.
Virginia shocked the nation on November 4th 2014 when so many deemed us a loss and we came so close to winning. Sadly many republican voters and even activists all across Virginia decided that he couldn’t win and did not push the last few thousand votes we needed to win. May this serve as a painful lesson to never underestimate our nominees. It is time for Virginia to lead our nation again. We can do that by coming out strong for the Republican nominee in 2016. The decision for RPV Chairperson will play a pivotal role in determining our next President because a win in Virginia will be critical for Republicans. Forget Florida and Ohio – much like the country stared in wonder this past November, as if perplexed and most definitely worried, they will be watching Virginia again. Let’s show the country this time how red Virginia really is. More importantly, let’s show them that Republicans work harder, smarter and that our ideas are better for Virginians and the American people.
