• Home
  • Independent Voter News
  • Quizzes
  • Election Dissection
  • Sections
  • Events
  • Directory
  • About Us
  • Glossary
  • Opinion
  • Campaign Finance
  • Redistricting
  • Civic Ed
  • Voting
  • Fact Check
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Big Picture>
  3. big picture>

Bloc of Virginia candidates pushing democracy reform as a blue wave generator

Sara Swann
October 10, 2019
Suhas Subramanyam (left) and Rodney Willett

Reform-first candidates Suhas Subramanyam (left) and Rodney Willett are running in safely Democratic Virginia House districts.

Suhas Subramanyam and Rodney Willett

With elections for every seat in Virginia's Legislature less than four weeks away, a coalition of progressive candidates is hoping to sway voters with the promise to push democracy reform.

In a letter being sent Thursday to every member of the General Assembly, 32 Democrats vying in November — about half with a realistic hope of winning — underscored their commitment to advancing an array of campaign finance and voting rights proposals if they get elected.

"We write to you today to put Richmond on notice. We are determined to reform the broken system and spark a restoration of confidence should we be granted the honor of serving our respective districts," they wrote.


Two years ago, Virginia elected Democrat Ralph Northam governor and flipped 15 seats in the Legislature from red to blue, the biggest such partisan shift since 1899 and a herald of the big Democratic gains nationwide in the 2018 midterms. But Republicans still maintained narrow control, with two-seat majorities in both chambers.

If Democrats manage to win control of both chambers in November, the next two years would mark the first period of total Democratic control over Virginia's government in a quarter century. An array of stalled progressive policy ideas would presumably get on the agenda, and at a minimum the Democrats would control the drawing of the state's 11 congressional districts and the legislative boundaries for the next decade.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Eight of the candidates who signed the letter are challenging Republican state senators, with a subset of three running in battleground races in part because Northam carried their districts in his gubernatorial win.

Eighteen are challenging GOP incumbents for the state House, including eight in races where voter patterns give the Democrats a reasonable shot. The other six House candidates are running for open seats, two with a reasonable chance to flip districts from red to blue.

Just two of the letter-signers are lopsided favorites to win by holding deep blue House seats: Rodney Willett of Richmond and Suhas Subramanyam of the Washington exurbs, who won his primary this summer by running on a democracy reform platform pushed by the cross-partisan group Unite America.

The letter-signers pledged that if elected they would push bills to:

  • Establish contribution limits for campaigns in Virginia to dilute the influence of big-money donors.
  • Ban corporations from giving money to elected officials in the Statehouse.
  • Increase transparency around the original sources of political spending in the state.
  • Put before the voters a measure that would turn redistricting of the state over to a nonpartisan commission.
  • End policies seen as making it too difficult to vote.

The candidates say these reform initiatives must pass first "to set the stage" for work on other issues, such as gun control, health care, education, climate change and the economy.

"If Virginians do elect a Democratic majority this November, we must heed their call to create a New Virginia Way that works for everyone — not just for big donors and special interests — and to restore trust in our government. It is time for Virginia to lead the nation toward a new birth of democracy and freedom," the letter reads.

From Your Site Articles
  • Bipartisan 'good government' trio win Virginia legislative primaries ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Searching for Hints About 2020, All Eyes Turn to a Reshaped Virginia ›
  • Virginia's November Elections May Finally Cement Its Status As A ... ›
big picture

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Texas leads the way

Lawrence Goldstone

Why the Founders would be aghast at the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling

Beau Breslin

Risks and rewards in a polarized nation: Businesses face tough choices after Roe v. Wade ruling

Richard Davies

The economic blame game, part 1: Blame your opponents

David L. Nevins

How a college freshman led the effort to honor titans of democracy reform

Jeremy Garson

Our poisonous age of absolutism

Jay Paterno
latest News

Video: David Levine & Georgia Election Official Joseph Kirk Discuss 2022 Primary

Our Staff
19m

Wait, what? Democrats are also funding election deniers?

Damon Effingham
3h

Podcast: The crucial role of political centrists

Our Staff
4h

Busy day ahead with primaries or runoffs in seven states

Richard Perrins
Reya Kumar
Kristin Shiuey
22h

The state of voting: June 27, 2022

Our Staff
22h

Video: Faces of democracy

Our Staff
27 June
Videos

Video: Memorial Day 2022

Our Staff

Video: Helping loved ones divided by politics

Our Staff

Video: What happened in Virginia?

Our Staff

Video: Infrastructure past, present, and future

Our Staff

Video: Beyond the headlines SCOTUS 2021 - 2022

Our Staff

Video: Should we even have a debt limit

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Did economists move the Democrats to the right?

Our Staff
02 May

Podcast: The future of depolarization

Our Staff
11 February

Podcast: Sore losers are bad for democracy

Our Staff
20 January

Deconstructed Podcast from IVN

Our Staff
08 November 2021
Recommended
Video: David Levine & Georgia Election Official Joseph Kirk Discuss 2022 Primary

Video: David Levine & Georgia Election Official Joseph Kirk Discuss 2022 Primary

Elections
Doug Mastriano

Wait, what? Democrats are also funding election deniers?

Podcast: The crucial role of political centrists

Podcast: The crucial role of political centrists

Leadership
U.S. and Texas flags fly over the Texas Capitol

Texas leads the way

State
Founding Father John Dickinson

Why the Founders would be aghast at the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling

Judicial
Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey

Busy day ahead with primaries or runoffs in seven states