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Jean R Donovan's avatar

This is a great article. I have been door knocking for candidates in Virginia. I met a couple of people who were not registered. I mentioned everything you wrote in your article. As I tell everyone we have to build the base.

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Matt Royer's avatar

Exactly! The more people see the impacts of the legislatures the more invested they will be and stop chasing national headlines.

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Jean R Donovan's avatar

It wasn’t until 2017 did I truly understand why it was important to grow our base. Living in the DC area I focused my energy on the congressional races. After Trumps first election I focused on the state elections.

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Laura Lattimer's avatar

Thanks for the article. I see the logic in flipping seats at state houses. But it seems to me as another short-term fix. The opposing party will just respond in kind, maybe not this year, but eventually. This continual ping-ponging just rachets up the level of *fighting* we do, instead of *listening* and *governing* to make better decisions for our beautifully heterogeneous communities. What suggestions do you have for shifting the focus from ongoing fundraising and politicking to more expansive and productive policymaking?

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Karen Fletcher's avatar

Great article, so important. I’ve been working with Sister District on this very same project. Especially good for those of us in safe blue states like Oregon to help our sister states like Virginia.

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