Helping Democrats Rebuild and Win the Virginia House Majority

The Virginia House of Delegates was one of the most important state legislative battlegrounds of the Trump era. Democrats entered the period with a long climb ahead of them. By the end of the 2019 cycle, they had won the House majority for the first time in 20 years.

Trevor Southerland served in senior roles with the Virginia House Democratic Caucus during this transformation. His work included fundraising, caucus operations, campaign strategy, field, targeting, communications, and multi-district planning.

Trevor joined the Virginia House Democratic Caucus in 2014 as Finance Director, when Democrats held only 32 of 100 seats.

In 2015, Democrats made modest gains and broke the Republican supermajority, giving the caucus 34 seats.

In 2016, Trevor served as Acting Executive Director and helped defend a vulnerable district in a special election after a House member moved to the Senate.

In 2017, Trevor served as Deputy Executive Director and Finance Director. That year, Democrats flipped 15 seats in the House of Delegates and came within one vote (really, one actual vote) of a 50/50 split in the chamber.

In 2019, Trevor served as Executive Director. He developed the plan that helped Democrats gain six more seats and win the House majority for the first time in 20 years.

From Super-Minority to Majority

The 2019 Majority

The 2019 victory changed political power in Virginia. Democrats won control of the House of Delegates, and the result helped lead to the election of Eileen Filler-Corn as the first woman and first Jewish Speaker in the chamber’s more than 400-year history.

That victory was not the result of one tactic. It required a coordinated caucus program, strong candidates, disciplined fundraising, district-specific plans, targeted voter contact, and the ability to keep the broader majority goal in focus while supporting individual campaigns.

Lessons from Virginia

The Virginia experience reinforced several principles that still shape Trevor’s work:

• State legislative races deserve serious investment.
  

• Candidate recruitment and campaign infrastructure matter.
  

• Every district needs its own plan.
  

• Field, fundraising, targeting, direct mail, digital, and earned media must work together.
  

• Majorities are built over multiple cycles, not just one Election Day.
  

Virginia showed that disciplined legislative campaign work can reshape political power and create the conditions for governing change.