Local Delegates Look Beyond Arlington Ahead of November Elections

(Updated 3:45 p.m.) Three of Arlington’s four members of the Virginia House of Delegates are without an opponent this fall.

Given the lack of locally competitive races in November, when the House’s entire 100 seats are up for grabs, the lawmakers are looking at opportunities to help fellow Democrats to pick up seats elsewhere.

Democratic Dels. Mark Levine and Rip Sullivan — who are unopposed, as is Del. Patrick Hope — say they have their eyes on the statewide races, and have thrown their support behind Democratic nominees Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax and Mark Herring, who are running for Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General, respectively. Additionally, in the House, local elected officials see real opportunities to make gains.

Republicans currently hold a 66-34 advantage in the House, but multiple Democrats point to the 17 districts won by Hillary Clinton in last year’s presidential election as pick-up opportunities.

So instead of having to purely campaign to defend their own seats, they have looked further afield to try and cut into Republicans’ advantage, particularly through fundraising for candidates.

Democrats now have 88 candidates for the House, including incumbents running for re-election. That list includes more women running than men, four LGBT candidates as well as African-Americans and Asian-Americans.

Sullivan, who is the House Democratic Caucus’ campaign chair, launched Project Blue Dominion, a Political Action Committee to help recruit, train and fund candidates across Virginia.

He has sent out regular emails entitled “Flip-a-District Fridays” profiling the new candidates, and the PAC reported to the Virginia Department of Elections that it received $4,296 in contributions through the end of the last filing period on June 30.

“We are very excited about our current position,” Sullivan said. “We have a remarkably diverse group of candidates, some very accomplished candidates. It is the largest group of candidates we’ve had in a long, long time… We are running in parts of the state we haven’t run in in a long time.”

Levine, meanwhile, has been fundraising too in an initiative he has dubbed “Mission 51,” so called because with 51 seats, the Democrats would have the majority in the House. He has held fundraisers for candidates like Donte Tanner for District 40 in Prince William and Fairfax Counties, while funds from his annual house party to watch the fireworks celebrating Alexandria’s birthday in early July also went to the cause.

“This is an exciting year,” Levine said. “I would say in 2015 when I first ran [in District 45], if we had gotten three seats, then I would have been thrilled. This year, if we get only four seats, I’ll be disappointed. That tells you the difference between this year and two years ago. I think high single digits is definitely in range. If we got double digits I’d be ecstatic.”

And Hope said he is focused on helping pick up seats in Northern Virginia, not only through fundraising but also phone banking and canvassing, especially after Labor Day. Hope said he has already been part of several events to help out candidates in Prince William, Loudoun and Fairfax Counties, and has more planned in the coming months.

“Northern Virginia does have a lot of pick-up opportunities, so particularly since it’s so close, you can bring in a lot of Arlingtonians going out to knock on doors and people to make phone calls,” Hope said. “It’s an area they can relate much better to, so they’re more likely to focus their attention there. We’ll be transporting a lot of Arlington grassroots people into other places in Northern Virginia, so I’ll be participating in that as well.”

The only local member of the House to face an opponent is Del. Alfonso Lopez (D), as he comes up against Republican Adam Roosevelt.

Lopez too has funneled campaign contributions from his war chest out to other candidates. In April, he hosted his third annual Democratic Party straw poll and raised around $12,500.

“We have been working so long and so hard to recruit excellent candidates all across the commonwealth,” Lopez said at the time. “So we want to be able to support them and make sure they can run the kind of campaigns that are worthy of Virginia and that will really help us take the House back.”

All noted a level of enthusiasm among Democratic-leaning voters they have not seen in some time, something Levine put down to objections to the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration.

“This is our year in a way that I’ve never seen,” Levine said. “I’ve lived in Virginia for more than 16 years now, and I have never seen an election like this one. I can’t claim it’s due to our brilliance or our wonderfulness — I’d like to, and I think we are brilliant and wonderful — but we know it’s the national climate, it’s the president, it’s the shock of losing in 2016. People are coming out of the woodwork.”