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Legislative Work

Recognizing that voters are not just voters, but potentially active community leaders with the capacity to mobilize their neighbors and sustain issue-based advocacy outside of an election, VNM integrates our members into local and statewide legislative campaigns.  The most powerful voice is that of a constituent. VNM’s members play a critical role in shaping our issue campaigns and educating elected officials through constituent meetings, legislative visits, and testimonies at public hearings. As advocates for a fair and just Commonwealth, we monitor and support legislation that supports the well-being of all Virginians.

Our Issues:


Immigration

Virginia is home to people from all over the world. As Virginia’s immigrant residents have grown in number, so has the backlash against immigrants in the streets and in our halls of government. We believe that Virginia must welcome all its residents and be a beacon of fairness to immigrants from around the world. All people must be guaranteed the right to work, attend school, and live productive, full lives. The Commonwealth must not participate in law enforcement programs that harass immigrants and make immigrant communities unsafe and unhealthy. Virginia must allow its residents to live free from the fear of discrimination.

Smart Growth/Transportation

The transportation package passed in the 2011 General Assembly and the funding mechanism developed by the governor favors new highway construction at the expense of bridge repair, secondary and urban streets, and transit. Transit and local street networks are critical for relieving metropolitan congestion, cutting energy and air pollution, and providing access to jobs for all socioeconomic groups.

Voting Rights

Voting is a fundamental part of a participatory democracy and should be made more accessible to Virginians. Polling hours should be expanded to allow for more time for voters to get to the polls; and Virginia should adopt “no excuse” absentee voting, allowing any registered voter to vote absentee without requiring the voter to state a reason for his/her desire to vote absentee. Additionally, over 400,000 Virginians are ineligible to vote due to the Commonwealth’s disenfranchisement law. There should be an automatic restoration of civil rights to convicted felons who have completed all of the requirements of their sentences.

Environmental Protection

In 1982, Virginia established a ban on uranium mining and milling in Virginia. Extracting uranium requires intensive use of water and chemicals, and leaves behind massive amounts of radioactive and toxic waste.  Virginia’s wet weather makes mining and processing uranium and storing this waste a risky experiment that could contaminate drinking water for downstream communities.

Voter Organizing

Virginia New Majority grows out of the best organizing traditions in the commonwealth. As such, we seek to win elections and shape public policy with an eye towards organizing communities and building power.

Our voter outreach program prioritizes building relationships with community residents and bringing neighbors together to create change, whether or not there’s an election on the horizon. We work with residents to organize their own neighborhoods in an effort to win policy victories, educate their friends’ and families about critical issues, and lead voter turnout operations.

Voter Organizing is at the heart of our organization’s mission. Our voter organizers are trained to identify and recruit leaders, motivate residents to take action, and educate voters about things they care deeply about. We believe that Virginia’s progressive majority can achieve it’s vision for a fair and equal Virginia when its organized and working together.

Want to be a voter organizer? Contact us here, and help build the New Majority.

Our Alliances

National Alliances:


Right to the City Alliance (RttC):

The RttC Alliance emerged in 2007 as a unified response to gentrification and a call to halt the displacement of low income people, LGBTQ, and youths of color from their historic urban neighborhoods. The RttC is a national alliance of racial, economic and environmental justice organizations, as well as resource allies and individual supporters

Inter-Alliance Dialogue (IAD):

The IAD includes five national alliances – Jobs with Justice, Right to the City Alliance,  National Domestic Workers Alliance, Grassroots Global Justice, and the National Day Laborers Organizing Network – that have come together to collectively work on issues and capacity-building initiatives.

New Majority Network:

The New Majority model is a strategic approach to power-building that that links micro-targeted electoral organizing with the ideological approach to community organizing developed over the last 20 years. The model is a power-building strategy that seeks to expand democracy in terms of who participates and maximize what democracy can look like. There are currently “New Majority” organizations in three states: Virginia, Florida and New Mexico.

State Alliances:


Virginia Civic Engagement Table (VCET):

The VCET helps grassroots organizations win shared policy and civic engagement victories by creating a common strategic framework and increasing the capacity of member organizations to create sustainable progressive change.

Cardinal Values Coalition (CVC):

The CVC is made up of progressive organizations, individuals and activists, who are working together to pool resources and strategies, win elections, sustain success, and forge a foundation in communities throughout the Commonwealth.

Better Choices for Virginia Coalition (BCV):

The BCV advocates for a government that is a full partner in supporting the health, welfare, prosperity, and competitiveness of Virginians, Virginia businesses, and Virginia localities. The BCV believes that Virginia’s future prosperity depends on a balanced approach that includes new revenue, rather than a cuts-only strategy that will cost jobs and slow down our economy.

New Majority Chapters

Are you ready for fairness and progress in Virginia? Join a VNM chapter!

Virginia New Majority chapters consist of a cluster of members in a town or neighborhood that are ready to work together for fairness, progress, and opportunity. They bring residents together to advocate for change in our state government and organize for change in their own communities. We currently have chapters forming in:

  • Herndon
  • Richmond
  • Arlington
  • Alexandria
  • Norfolk

Don't see one in your area? Start one today!

[Sign-up box, with two options: join a chapter, start a new chapter]

VNM chapters are the building blocks for the burgeoning progressive majority movement in the commonwealth. Chapters organize grassroots campaigns for progressive change, meet with elected officials, hold rallies, host citizenship clinics, do voter outreach during elections, and conduct information sessions to educate neighbors and friends about the issues that they care about.

Our Herndon chapter led and won a campaign to transform an anti-immigrant town ordinance. In Richmond, our chapter partnered with public housing residents to develop a strategic vision for their neighborhood. And we have more chapters forming on local university campuses and in communities across the state.

Start or join a chapter today!
You are the New Majority.

Our Work

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