Jess Brown, the chair of the Competitive Commonwealth Fund (an organization co-founded by none other than our own Thomas Bowman), joins the show to discuss the Fund's mission: to invest in Democrats running in strongly Republican districts, closing election margins in hopes of flipping seats.

Episode Transcript

Michael Pope: I'm Michael Pope.

Thomas Bowman: I'm Tom Bowman.

Michael Pope: And this is Pod Virginia, a podcast that's taking a look at Democrats who run in red districts. Really red districts where they've got no chance of winning.

Thomas Bowman: Those are the districts where it can be difficult to find Democrats to run. Who would wanna challenge a safe Republican? Someone like Roxanne Robinson or Rob Lockem, or Ellen Campbell.

Michael Pope: Candidates who have support from the Competitive Commonwealth Fund, that's who will run in those races, and that's why we're joined by the chairwoman of the Competitive Commonwealth Fund. A longtime listener of Pod Virginia. Jess Brown, thanks for joining us.

Jess Brown: Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Thomas and Michael.

Thomas Bowman: Jess, it's an absolute trip to have you on and talk about this. I'll turn the floor over to you, but I guess we should probably get out there that this is an organization that I helped co-found, of course, long before you were involved, right?

Jess Brown: Yes, that's right. I got involved at the end of 2018. But you were one of the founding members, Thomas.

Michael Pope: Thomas, before we start with Jess Brown, explain the early history. Why was the Competitive Commonwealth Fund created? What was the purpose?

Thomas Bowman: All right. So a lot of aids right now are done with the session, and they're finding themselves with hopefully a lot of free time on their hands. And when I was in a period like that When I worked for one of the members, we wanted to do some research and question what at the time was considered party dogma, which was political dogma, I should say, which was that when you have Democrats running against safe Republicans, then it just makes it easier for them to raise money and spit it against you and you being other Democrats that actually could win in their analysis. I ran a bunch of numbers and realized not only was that not true, but when you actually have Democrats run against, I'll say, someone like Terry Kilgore, for example, sure, Terry Kilgore might raise a lot more money because of that, but people like him are spending all that money on themself rather than giving it to other caucus members.

And so we realized, oh, wait for a second. It would behoove the. To have Democrats running for office in every district if possible. And this is long before run everywhere, or shortly, I should say shortly before run everywhere. The numbers worked out where it actually was of a Moneyball situation. And so that was the mechanism that sparked the creation of CCF.

Michael Pope: All right. So I wanna understand the Competitive Commonwealth Fund by taking a look at three different campaigns over three different years. So let's start at that beginning year, the inaugural year, 2017. This was the founding year of the Competitive Commonwealth Fund.

So the. Your organization, Jess Brown. I know this is before you were involved in it, but the CCF at that time had about a dozen candidates on the ballot that year that you were supporting, including one who was running against incumbent Delegate Roxanne Robinson of Chesterfield. And so that was a candidate by the name of Larry Barnett, Jess Brown.

Tell us about Larry Barnett and that 2017 campaign against Roxanne Robin.

Jess Brown: That's right. Larry Barnett missed by 128 votes in 2017, so he came very close in 2017 and ran again in 2019. We endorsed him in both years in 2019; he only lost by 189 votes. So both times, he came within a fraction of 1% of winning. And the 2019 result was the closest race in Virginia to flip. So he ran in the really challenging territory, but the new district lines make the old 27th and now the new 76th a much better district for a Democrat to win.

And now Deborah Gardner is in the new 76th district. So yeah, I think he felt that CCF supported him when he was running in a much more challenging district. And we recognize that the closely competitive races often are able to garner a lot more money and attention and volunteers from all of the D organizations on the ground. Larry told me that he really appreciated the backing of a group that wanted to invest in and promote races like his, as the 27th had been 59% Republican and 41% Democrat in the cycle before he first ran in 2017. So the close election result in 2017 really sent shockwaves through Virginia to a lot of volunteers and activists, and it was then viewed as a much more competitive district in 2019, and it got a lot of attention. So Larry felt that CCF was there in full support of him both times, promoting and giving his race a lot more visibility.

Michael Pope: Was that race closer than you had expected?

Jess Brown: I, yeah, I think that it just goes to prove the point that Thomas was making, that when you support candidates like Larry in districts that look like they're safe Republican seats. I think what happens is sometimes these unexpected surprises happen. He almost flipped that seat, and I think because he came so close in 2017 to flipping the seat, we, he was one of the first candidates we were talking about in 2019.

We wanted to support him again because nothing would make us happier than to watch one of our endorsed. Flip one of these seats because they're just, they're the candidates who are not receiving all of the volunteers and all of the attention and all of, all of the donations and funding. So it was really exciting.

And yeah, he came close again in 2019. We haven't had any of our endorsed candidates win yet, but we really believe that if we stick with this; eventually, one of our CCF-endorsed candidates will be sitting in elected office.

Thomas Bowman: Michael, I think it's really important to interject here with some more context. So one of the things that we found out when we started trying to find out, or when we started trying to understand why Democrats weren't running in these seats back in It, was really 2016 when we were doing this research.

One of the things we found is that these candidates faced significant financial obstacles, especially when trying to run for office. Trying to get them to pay some of those startup costs to become a candidate is what, in many cases, was preventing anybody from being interested in even trying to take on a very safe, entrenched Republican.

And addressing that issue is why Morgan Jameson and I founded CCF. So, the idea was to get this organization to we found 15 Democratic candidates at the time. Larry Barnett was one of 'em, and we gave 'em each about $3,000 or so in funding to cover those startup costs. So that's gonna be websites filing fees for some of those essential promotional materials. they were, this group of, after so many years, has been able to really see candidates like Larry filter through and get lucky but also prove the concept. When you actually pay attention and challenge established narratives, you might be able to just shake the right branch loose.

Michael Pope: Very interesting. Let's move on to 2019, when the competitive Commonwealth Fund support. Phil Hernandez against Delegate Rob Bloxom of Accomack. So that was, of course, viewed as an impossible race at the time. Rob Bloxom was very safe. I think there's a town in his district that's named after him or something like that or named after his family.

Anyway, so I clearly was somebody who was not only safe but had extensive family connections here in the district. Talk about an impossible race. This was one of them. Explain a little bit about that 2019 race and what happened.

Jess Brown: Phil is a fantastic candidate. We were really happy to be able to endorse him in 2019. He came very close to beating Bloxom in 2019. The margin was 881 votes. Again, Bloxom was considered a very safe seat in that race. He had a very strong ground operation. He knocked on thousands of doors.

Some of us from CCF in Northern Virginia came out in Canvas Forum, too, because we were so excited about him, and I think he really took pride in elevating voices that felt left out of political debates in Richmond during his campaign in HD 100. Nobody came closer to bleeding and beating blackham than Phil Hernandez did before or after 2019. Phil almost flipped that seat. So again, it was real; it felt really rewarding to take the time to go out there. Have a fundraiser for Phil Canvas for him. Give him that funding and support him. So there's no doubt that now because of that 2019 election, he's in a much stronger position in his current race for the House of Delegates.

For the House of Delegates. He said he learned a lot about how to run a campaign. 2019 was his first-ever election. He built a lot of strong relationships with locals. And he's been really diligent about making an impact outside of the public office. He does a lot of work, too, on policies that help families thrive at a think tank in Virginia.

But there was another important part about 2019 that turned out to really position. Too it has positioned him to do well in 2023. He did very well in the city of Norfolk, winning it by nearly 65%. And in the new districts, there's a big footprint of that part of Norfolk in the new 94th district that he's running in now, and more areas of the city to the east and the west.

So he knows this area really well, partially because he ran for office and learned how. Be a candidate in 2019. And so now he's really building on all of that organizing that he did in 2019 that will hopefully make him our first CCF endorsed candidate to win elected office in 2023.

Michael Pope: Important footnote there not to be overlooked. Phil Hernandez. It is on the verge of becoming the first CCF-endorsed candidate to win. So we'll be following that in 2023.

Thomas Bowman: All right, but let's move on to the third and final example, the 2023 special election to fill the seat vacated by the late Ronnie Campbell. Jess, you supported well; CCF supported Jade Harris in that election against Ellen Campbell. So what happened there?

Jess Brown: That's right. We found out about this special election. It was right before the holidays. And on our board meeting, like we just voted unanimously to endorse Jade Harris. And she really had a short turnaround time. I think she won the Democratic caucus to run for the seat maybe a week before Christmas.

And she, I think, had three weeks to run her special election. So we got we sent her an endorsement check immediately, and she was able to buy yard signs. She was able to get boots on the ground. She was able to put postcards and mailboxes with the CCF donation. We made sure all of it had a union bug on it.

And the outcome was this exciting young Gen Z candidate improved 10.64 10.64% over the last Democratic candidate and about 4% better than Joe Biden in her house district. So she had some really impressive outcomes, and it just speaks to the power of supporting candidates running in these safe Republicans.

Michael Pope: So important footnote here for Jade Harris. Much like Phil Hernandez. She's made; she's now a second-time candidate and is currently running for the Senate district where Chris Head is the likely Republican candidate. Talk a little bit about the campaign that Jade Harris is currently.

Jess Brown: So I think she had a positive experience running for the House of Delegates. I think she decided to run for the State Senate, and now she has a full election cycle to go out and run in the general election. She doesn't have to; she doesn't have a primary this time. And I think that the CCF donation really empowered this young, exciting candidate.

I think she was the vice mayor of her town in the State Senate district. It really gave her the confidence and the resources to go out and get her message to all of the voters in the Senate district. I know there's a college in that Senate district. I think she was able to talk to a lot of.

College students. I think she made use of the same-day registration that was passed through Virginia, and she was able to register a lot of Democratic voters. And I know she's been working a lot with Linley Thorn in Rural Ground Game. And really connecting with all of the Democratic voters sitting in that state Senate district.

And it's just a really important strategy in helping us win these statewide offices in 2025 like we need to make sure that we're going out there and that we're identifying all of the democratic voters in these red House of Delegates districts and state senate districts. Because of this, this will turn out thousands of more democratic voters in the statewide elections in 2025.

So the contribution they're making is really valuable, and I think it's not easy going out there into the wilderness and running for office in these red districts. I think that we. Try to support and honor how hard that is, and we really appreciate what a positive contribution it makes to help us win a Democratic majority in the House of Delegates and to maintain that Democratic blue wall in the state Senate.

Thomas Bowman: Now Jess, I understand it's too soon to say who many of the people you might be supporting. Or CCF might be supporting, and 2023 will be because we haven't had, of course, any of the primary seasons yet. That said, can you give us a hint at some of the things that you are looking at and that CCF is considering as far as current projects and what its objectives might be in this 23 cycle?

Jess Brown: There are currently 26 Republican House of Delegate seats that are uncontested. And there are actually five uncontested Republican seats for the State Senate. So we know the filing deadline for candidates is on Thursday, April 6th, and two, about two weeks. And we're going to; our candidate recruitment and endorsement committee is really working hard to recruit candidates.

To make sure all of these seats are contested. We will send out candidate questionnaires to any candidates running. In red districts that do not have a primary, we really, as a policy, stay out of Democratic primaries. So if you are running uncontested after April 6th, we will be sending out the candidate questionnaires, and then after the primary in June, we'll send out the rest of the candidate questionnaires.

We'll be announcing our endorsements in July, and we're, and each class of endorsed candidates gets just so exciting and inspiring. You meet just incredible leaders, and you realize that this is an incredible way to build the bench of progressive leaders statewide. Not just in the urban crescent of the state.

 I think I've just met the most incredible people. As a movement, we are short-changing ourselves. If we miss out on these young candidates like Jade Harris who are running in Republican seats, they like Jade Harris might be the next Phil Hernandez, on the verge of winning a seat in the House of Delegates.

Michael Pope: There are 26 house seats that have Republicans and no Democrats running against those 26 Republicans, and then five uncontested seats in the Senate. So for our listeners out there, there are a lot of races that have zero competition right now, and your organization is hoping to put some candidates in these deep red districts.

So what would you say to our listeners right now who might be actually thinking about this? What would you say to them, and if they're interested, what should they do?

Jess Brown: There's plenty of data out there indicating. Running candidates in all 100 districts has the ability to drive thousands and thousands of Democratic voters to the polls statewide, that otherwise would have no reason to vote, who would otherwise sit out of the election altogether and just. To drive so many more voters out on election day is something that's going to build the entire party, not just your community, but the entire Democratic party in Virginia.

And we know that it is not easy to put your name on the ballot, but we are here to support you. To support incredible progressive talent and to make sure that you don't feel like you're alone out there. Like we bring all of our candidates together, we have fundraisers together. I know Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan came to our last fundraiser, and she was really mentoring all of the candidates who were running. We brought them all together in a Zoom-like fundraiser, and she just stayed after on Zoom and was. Giving them advice and really giving them just good feedback on how to improve as candidates and what other kinds of strategies they could try for fundraising, voter outreach, for communications.

And it just makes you realize that even if you don't win this first time out, you are. Setting the stage for a bigger career and potentially winning a seat like Jennifer McLellan ran for governor just because she didn't win. It was still a wonderful use of time because she organized and she built up a lot of volunteers and a network. And so she really positioned herself to win a seat in Congress once that opportunity presented itself. So you just never know where your campaign might lead you one day. It could lead you to make a really positive change into becoming a really successful force for good within Virginia Democratic politics.

Thomas Bowman: Jess, where should people go if they're interested in learning more about CCF or contributing to support its underlying mission?

Jess Brown: Absolutely. So you can find us at competitivecommonwealthfund.com. You can also find the Competitive Commonwealth Fund on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Thomas Bowman: All right, let's leave it there. This has been another episode of Pod Virginia. Don't forget to check out our website and follow us on social media for war updates and discussions on Virginia politics.