The Hill: GOP looks to expand state legislature candidate tracking program ahead of midterms
The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) earlier this month led the effort to flip seven seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates, returning the chamber to Republican control. As the Hill highlighted this morning, one of the many reasons for the committee’s success in Virginia was its first of its kind opposition tracking partnership with America Rising, something the RSLC will look to expand on in 2022.
GOP looks to expand state legislature candidate tracking program ahead of midterms
The Hill
November 15, 2021
Republicans running for seats in state legislatures are seeking to expand upon their tracking program in 2022, hoping to use recent victories in Virginia’s House of Delegates races as a blueprint going into the midterms.
In 2021, the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) partnered with America Rising, a national GOP research and communications firm, for the first time to track a number of Democratic state delegate candidates across the commonwealth.
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But Republicans argue their expanded program could open more doors for their state legislature candidates going into the next cycle.
“Our partnership for Virginia shows how this could translate to other states,” said Joe Gierut, communications director at America Rising.
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In total, the RSLC said America Rising tracked 573 campaign events and traveled over 15,000 miles for Virginia’s governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and 14 competitive House of Delegates races.
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Republicans cited footage that was caught of Del. Nancy Guy (D), who was defeated by her Republican challenger Tim Anderson last week, appearing to call some voters “stupid” and say they should be informed. The RSLC said Democratic candidate who lost was someone they tracked, though that could be a function of trackers focusing on competitive races.
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But Republicans are crediting the party’s tracking program, in part, with what was a close race for the chamber overall.
“We still barely pulled out these races and barely took back the majority,” said RSLC communications director Andrew Romeo. “What that tells us is campaigns matter, tactics matter, doing everything you need to do to run winning campaigns matters and we can’t just assume that the environment is going to be great in 2022.”
The RSLC says Republicans outperformed their expectations after losing a total of 22 seats over the past three elections in the House of Delegates.
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