Electing Democrats & Winning Majorities

Southerland joined the Virginia House Democratic Caucus as Finance Director in 2014 when Democrats were a super-minority of only 32/100 seats in the chamber.
In 2015, modest gains broke the super majority and gave Democrats 34 seats.

In 2016, Southerland served as Acting Executive Director and defended a vulnerable district in a special election when a House member moved to the Senate.

In 2017, serving as Deputy Executive Director and Finance Director, the caucus rode the blue wave of anti-Trump sentiment and picked up a staggering 15 seats.
Southerland worked with then Executive Director Trent Armitage to ensure that Democrats across the Commonwealth were prepared and came literally one vote away from a 50/50 split of the chamber.

In 2019, as Executive Director, Southerland developed the plan that gave Democrats their first majority in the Virginia House of Delegates in 20 years, gaining six seats and leading to the election of Eileen Filler-Corn as the chamber’s first woman and first Jewish Speaker in its over 400-year history.

In 2021, Southerland took over as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee at a time when despite statewide wins in 2020 and predictions of a potential Democratic majority, Democrats had lost three seats, including their Leader, and were in a 12 seat minority, 90-113.

Southerland led the creation of the first ever off-year legislative deep canvassing program, hiring more off-year staff than most legislative caucuses have in on-years.
Southerland also led the effort for an improved polling program, a focus on using multiple sets of data, including one of the first ever uses of ad-testing at a legislative level and using a 203 district strategy to focus on local messaging.

The day before election day, forecasts from national Democrats predicted further losses in the Pennsylvania House, estimates predicting double digit seat losses.
However, on election night, Democrats surprised every pundit by picking up the necessary 12 seats to win the first Democratic majority in over a decade and paving the way for Joanna McClinton to become the first woman Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

In 2025, Southerland joined Mosaic Communications as a Strategic Advisor and the Director of Legislative Campaigns,
focusing on helping campaigns craft a paid communications strategy using direct mail, television, digital, radio and text to get their message to the voters.

Southerland has worked for various other candidates, organizations, and PAC's on fundraising, messaging and strategic advice via Trifecta Campaigns.

You can view more information on past work and stay up to date on current efforts on Linkedin.