Billionaire has a $30 million plan to replicate Virginia's blue wave in midterms
A preoccupation with things millennials love helped NextGen America, the liberal advocacy group founded by hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer, elect a wave of Virginia Democrats in 2017 — an outcome he hopes to repeat in the midterm elections nationwide.
He has committed $30 million in 10 states including Virginia, where he will spend at least $2 million to try to unseat Republican Reps. Barbara Comstock of Northern Virginia and Scott Taylor of Virginia Beach — two priority seats for both parties this year.
Six months ahead of the general election, NextGen has 47 paid staffers in Virginia, seven of whom are full time, and a presence on 17 college campuses. That will swell to 60 staffers and 30 campuses by Election Day.
This commitment to turning out young Democrats comes at a time when, polls show, President Trump is unpopular among young people and Virginia Republicans have no single donor who can match Steyer’s investment in their age group.
“That is a game changer, what they’re doing,” said Morton Blackwell, the GOP national committeeman from Virginia who has been organizing young voters since the early 1960s. “It remains to be seen if there are going to be resources available to in some way at least get into the same order of magnitude, if not to match, what the left is doing.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/fidget-spinners-and-chocolate-chip-cookies-democrats-tap-millennials-for-midterm-races/2018/04/07/c942caac-3427-11e8-8bdd-cdb33a5eef83_story.html?utm_term=.5307f439aa1f
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