2017

In our first election cycle in 2017, The Hometown Project partnered with People for the American Way to support four campaigns in crucial state and local races in Virginia. All of the candidates we supported at The Hometown Project won their races!

In Virginia, we worked with actor Mark Ruffalo to create a video for House of Delegates candidates Kelly Fowler and Danica Roem, and actor Jason George created videos for Kelly Fowler, Jay Jones, and Lt. Governor candidate Justin Fairfax.

In the weeks leading up to the election, the tweets and videos from our Energizers Jason George and Mark Ruffalo received exponentially more visibility than anything else the candidates had previously posted, particularly in Kelly Fowler's close win. The Virginian Pilot ran a piece featuring the videos and with just 12 days until Election Day The Virginian-Pilot went on to endorse Fowler’s campaign to represent District 21 in the House of Delegates. This race was a toss-up with The Hometown Project videos along with a critical endorsement momentum began to pick-up in Fowler’s favor.

Traditionally Fowler’s candidate videos on social media were averaging 200 views, and these videos had over 20k views- in a race she went on to win by just 1,300 votes.

Overall it was a successful pilot of The Hometown Project, working together with partners like People for the American Way to start to turn the tide in Virginia. We need continued engagement at the local level. What happens at city hall and on school boards impacts people far more than what happens in Washington. With further investment in Virginia in future years we can shift the majority in the statehouse to really have a long term impact.

For artists involvement, Jason George shared that The Hometown Project made it easy to volunteer. Even in the middle of a hectic shooting schedule, the team made it easy to plug into three different campaigns, and unplug and return to work, while still having a huge impact in his hometown.

With a focus on key swing states and districts, where state house and senate races, mayoralships are flippable, and the margins are narrow, targeted strategies like this can really have an impact.