The Chair’s Newsletter Vol. 1 N o. 4
Week of September 21-27, 2024
RSVP to lexrockvadems@gmail.com
During the week we have been making plans and sending out emails for a Young Dems event here in Lexington at the great restaurant, Heliotrope on Monday, September 30, 5:30 – 7:00pm. Special thanks to our new Secretary, Laure Stevens-Lubin, who suggested this event, Leo Stevens-Lubin, her son, who is the manager of Heliotrope, and the owners as well. The event is designed for people who are 18-40, so please let all the Young Dems you know about this event by cutting and pasting this flyer and RSVP email address and sending it out.
Our Democratic Headquarters are humming. During the week we have been planning our second Volunteer Office Staff training also on Monday, September 30, 2:00 – 3:00pm at Headquarters and via Zoom at: https://zoom.us/j/5265162745.
We are stepping the number of people who volunteer, canvass and contribute to the Ken Mitchell, Kaine and Harris Campaigns. The Ken Mitchell campaign is being compared to the current Congressional race in the 38th District of Texas where a great Democrat, Melissa McDonough, is spending much less than the Republican incumbent. She is generating, like Ken Mitchell, great optimism that she can pull off a great upset. With Colin Allred pulling ahead of Ted Cruz in the polls and the Senate Democrat Campaign Committee finally agreeing to help fund Allred’s campaign with millions, I think Ted Cruz’s days are finally numbered.
The Combined Campaign will also be visiting our office on Monday to help plan Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts. Our Committee is getting a lot of attention because we Democrats in our area are showing up in numbers never seen before. We are canvassing, raising money, volunteering, phone banking, expanding hours at our office every day, selling lots of buttons, attending community events wearing Democratic labeled clothes and hats, and putting up signs on farms and lawns throughout our area. We are part of the revival of the Democratic Party in rural America, and we are leading that revival. Others have already begun to take notice.
We are beginning a Buena Vista Membership and Get Out the Vote Drive. We will hold a series of meetings at local venues starting October 9th and they will take place most every week on Wednesdays until right before the election. If you know of anyone we should invite from Buena Vista or the areas surrounding Buena Vista let me know at herb@herbrubenstein.com. I am building a data base of Buena Vista area folks that we should be in contact with on a regular basis. If you know a person with whom we should be in contact, please send me their name and any contact information you might have.
This Buena Vista outreach is part of our building a large ecosystem where we Dems attend huge numbers of community events, participate on a regular basis with groups in our area, and show up as area wide community leaders, not just Democratic Party leaders.
Our office interior has been improved and we are getting more and more signs from candidates. We have paid for a lot of signs this year. We are focusing our large sign effort on Rockbridge County and Buena Vista and thanks to Louise Ward, our Large Sign Coordinator, Will Towns, Allen Pickens and others helping us secure large signs and putting them up in high profile, easy access locations. If you know of a good location and a property owner or renter who might be willing to have a large sign for Ken Mitchell or Vice-President Harris, please let me know.
This election will determine the future for our Young Dems, our children and even our grandchildren. It will define this country for the next generation. Encourage your friends and colleagues to vote. This is a “voter turnout election” and Virginia generally has over 70% of its registered voters actually vote in Presidential years. We Dems are seeking a 80-90% turnout of Dems for this election. There will be people who say that this is not possible. And there are people who will work to make this a reality. We work to make this a reality. Thank you for all you do to help elect Democrats, help build a sustainable local committee that supports Dems at the local, regional and national levels. We are in a new place now and the new place is LexRockBV. There is still a lot of work to do. Begin thinking about becoming a candidate since our area is not nearly as red as some believe it to be. Working together, we will prove that.