Sacramento Sister District Project helped turned tide in favor of Dems in Virginia

The Sacramento region had no major elections on Nov. 7. Still, Democrats in the area played a critical role in one of their party’s biggest wins on election night this year.

In the weeks and months leading up to the election, Sacramento-area Democrats phone banked, fundraised and sent postcards in support of two Democrats running for the Virginia state legislature, Lashrecse D. Aird, who was running for 13th Senate District, and Michael B. Feggans, who was running for the 97th District in the House of Delegates.

Both won, with Aird defeating Republican Eric F. Ditri with 60 percent of the vote and Feggans besting Republican Karen S. Greenhalgh with 52 percent.

Their victories helped Democrats secure majorities in both houses of the state legislature, sending a sharp rebuke to Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who had been gunning for GOP control to enact his agenda (and maybe to raise his national profile for a last-minute presidential run).

Sacramento Democrats were able to come to the aide of their cross-country comrades through a grassroots progressive organization called the Sister District Project. Co-founded by San Francisco attorney Lala Wu, the Sister District Project pairs volunteers from deep blue districts with targeted races in competitive, swing districts in state legislative races across the country.

The goal of the Sister District Project is to ensure that Democratic candidates in competitive races in battleground states have all the manpower they need to win.

Or, well, make that womanpower, as the Sister District Project is a “proudly” woman-led operation, now 70,000+ volunteers strong (although their volunteers aren’t all women).

“We keep it really targeted,” Wu said. “We look at really close races.”

District Captain Phyllis Cauley, who leads the roughly 900 Sacramento-area volunteers of the Sister District Project, said the Sacramento team adopted Feggans in April and Aird in June, after she won her primary. (The Sister District Project doesn’t get involved in intraparty contests.)

Candidate Lashrecse Aird with SD Sacramento Leadership Team: (l-r) Brittany, Yvonne Inouye, Sue Tabadisto, Ellen Schaefer, Lashrecse, Phyllis Cauley, Peggy Blair, Linda Noland and Marsha Kilian (holding banner). Missing from photo: David Paul. Image courtesy of Sister District Project

From then on, Sister District volunteers in Sacramento called and wrote voters in Virginia and raised money for Aird and Feggans’ campaigns through local events in Sacramento, including several hikes and Yoga in the Park outings. Aird and Feggans even visited the Sacramento area for house-party fundraisers.

In all, the Sacramento team raised $13,000 for Aird and $27,000 for Feggans, with all of the money funneled through the Democrats’ ActBlue platform. The Sacramento team also made more than 34,000 phone calls in support of the candidates and mailed about 2,000 postcards.

The Sister District experience, however, is more than just campaign volunteering. Cauley said the Sacramento team holds regular meetings with guest speakers, with the idea to not only educate people on the political issues, but to foster a sense of community.

“We think as a side effect of that people get more interested in local politics,” said Cauley, who became involved in the Sacramento branch of the Sister District Project in 2018.

The umbrella organization was founded two years earlier, in the wake of Donald Trump’s surprise presidential victory over Hillary Clinton. Wu, then working as an environmental attorney, linked up through Facebook with other women who were distraught at what Trump’s election could mean for democracy.

Eventually, the Sister District Project was born. It was founded by Wu and four other women. At the time, Wu said, the founders were mostly strangers to each other, but united in their desire to do something to spark change in the American political process.

Wu described Sister District organization as “obsessed” with state legislative races because that’s where it believes it can make the most impact.

One reason Sister District keys on state legislatures, Wu said, is because competitive legislative races are often close contests and just a few extra resources can not only help push Democratic candidates across the finish line, but can also flip entire houses, as in the case in Virigina.

Second, Sister District is keen to ensure Democrats win at the state legislative level because state legislatures often handle redistricting. While redistricting is still years away, Wu made it clear that Sister District is already thinking about how to ensure Democrats are in power in critical states when new district lines are drawn.

Sister District’s mission is no less than to “save our democracy,” said Wu, who quit her job as an attorney to work for the organization full time. She serves as its executive director.

Cauley is equally passionate about the organization, saying she volunteers for Sister District roughly 20 hours a week, or the rough equivalent of a half-time job.

Cauley is a former state employee, having worked for nearly three decades for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Like Wu and the other founders of Sister District, Cauley said she wanted to get involved because of her concerns over Trump.

Working for Sister District makes her feel as though she’s making a difference.

“I feel like I’m doing something,” Cauley said, “not just swearing at the TV.”