Last week National announced that 8 teams had been nominated for Outstanding State Team of the Year. Virginia was one of the nominees.
The following speech written by Regional Director Grant Martin was read last night on a National Telecom Call to announce the winner:
The Virginia Team has truly been “The Man in the Arena” in 2023.
Up against a “Blue” Senate and a narrowly “Red” House of Delegates, the team courageously and thoughtfully developed a detailed strategy to ‘flip’ the Senate and strengthen their majority in the House of Delegates, setting the necessary conditions for COS Resolution passage.
All candidates were invited to complete a Survey on their COS position. Pro-COS candidates were successfully supported in the State Primary.
In the General Election November 7th, every State Senate and Delegate seat was in play, and the State Team, with National approval and funding, formally supported a total of 17 House and Senate Candidates.
Every COS tool available was used:
- Block Walking
- TelePatriot calling
- COSGOTV texting
- Email and Text Blasts
- Yard signs
- Polling place manning with permitted signage
Nationwide, volunteers from every state were invited to support over two dozen TP missions and COSGOTV campaigns.
By Election Day, the State Team had reached 61,501 voters:
- 3,666 doors had been knocked on by Block Walking
- 7,417 TP calls had been made
- 35,086 COSGOTV P2P texts had been sent
When the votes were counted, eight pro-COS Candidates supported by the Team were elected:
- Emily Brewer (SD 17)
- Danny Diggs (SD 24)
- Glen Sturtevant (SD 12)
- Mark Earley (HD 73)
- Ian Lovejoy (HD 22)
- Paul Milde (HD 64)
- Bobby Orrock (HD 66)
- Wren Williams (HD 9)
Nine lost, by a combined margin of just 3,000 votes.
The new balance of power in the two Chambers is now razor-thin in both:
- 51 Dem, 49 GOP in the House
- 21 Dem, 19 GOP in the Senate
To my knowledge, this has been the most ambitious COS effort to date to influence elections to obtain the required support for passage of the COS Resolution.
It very nearly succeeded.
Undeterred, the State Team is now engaged in a serious effort to sway the handful of Democrat legislators necessary to make passage possible down the road.
In the interim, legislative champions are being identified to introduce now and actively support the Faithful Delegate Bill and Resolution legislation package recommended by National.
Apart from this audacious legislative effort, the State Team has been superbly led by an immensely dedicated and capable leadership team that has developed and implemented a whole new tool kit for building the necessary Grassroots Army, now over 75,000 strong in Virginia.The State Director was even invited to share his management system on a National DC/Volunteer Webinar.
His weekly State Leader Calls use a pictorial ‘dashboard’ depicting RCs with their Regions, DCs with their respective Districts and training status, their target Legislators, and upcoming events by area.
Each RC briefs in turn the status of their DCs, including their completion of training, any new DC prospects, any legislator engagements, and preparation / execution of upcoming events.
The SD speaks very little except to give guidance where needed.
In addition to this weekly tool, the Team has developed a military-style annual campaign plan broken down into phases, which is reviewed and updated continuously and briefed to State leadership monthly.
This Team takes to a whole new level their mission set of recruiting, training, planning events, influencing the legislature, and, if necessary, changing it to achieve COS Resolution passage.
They are to be commended and emulated by us all, and the lessons they have learned should enable us to be successful nationally in 2024.
To see the big announcement check this video:
With every ounce of their being, Virginia volunteers activate instead of just complaining about politics as usual.
We invite you to join our COS Virginia team and help us make history, because we have the solution as big as the problem.
