It started with two women asking one question.
November 2016. Trump had just been elected. Stair Calhoun and Katherine White looked at each other and asked: “What are we gonna do?”
The answer came quickly — get organized, get moving, and get to work. The two women founded Network NOVA and threw themselves into organizing Virginia for the Women’s March. Somewhere in that whirlwind of buses and banners and phone calls and spreadsheets, they learned something that would change everything: there were 17 Virginia House of Delegates districts where Hillary Clinton had won — districts held by Republicans — that Democrats had never seriously challenged before.
Seventeen seats. Seventeen opportunities. Seventeen chances to change Virginia history.
The Church Basement Where It All Took Root
In March 2017, Luisa Boyarski — founder of the Virginia Grassroots Coalition — held a meeting that laid out the framework for what would become the Adopt a Candidate program. The Virginia Grassroots Coalition began gathering in a church basement in Arlington, and what started as a handful of committed activists quickly became a movement.
Katherine and Stair took Luisa’s framework and ran with it — organizing, building, recruiting, and connecting. All spring and summer, they held events at Clare and Don’s Beach Shack, where the energy kept building and the vision kept sharpening.
The lightning bolt moment came when Delegate Marcus Simon looked at the numbers and said it plainly:
“Yes, Stair — 17 plus 34 equals 51.”
Everyone knew about the 17 seats. But to hear it said out loud — that flipping those 17 could give Democrats a majority in the House of Delegates for the first time in a generation — that was the moment the possible became the mission.
The Virginia House Democratic Caucus was prepared to support five seats. The grassroots said no. They were adopting all seventeen.
June 24, 2017 — The National Conference Center, Leesburg
Eight women organized it. Twenty-three volunteers made it run. And hundreds of activists from across Virginia showed up.
The First Annual Women’s Summit for Political Engagement: Flip Virginia Blue opened its doors at the National Conference Center in Leesburg — originally built in 1974 as the Xerox Conference Center, now transformed into the unlikely birthplace of a movement. The program was printed on glossy purple and white paper with the pink WE VOTE WE WIN logo — a logo that would become one of the most recognizable symbols in Virginia grassroots politics.
The organizing committee was eight women listed alphabetically on the back cover as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world:
Stair Calhoun. Holly Hazard. Barbara Jones. Renice Leresche. Jane Materna. Vicky Moffitt. Robbin Warner. Katherine White.
Eight women. A borrowed conference center. A purple brochure. And an idea that was about to change Virginia.
The Program
Holly Hazard, our Emcee opened a day that moved from history to strategy to action.
Before the panels began, Dorri Scott — the group’s beloved poet laureate — took the stage and performed her original poem Ain’t I a Woman, a tribute to the strength, resilience, and power of women. The title echoed Sojourner Truth’s famous 1851 speech, and the room felt it. Dorri Scott is now Dr. Dorri Scott, and she is still fighting — these days on the front lines of the banned books movement.
The program continued with panels on women in political history, organizing to win, technology and messaging strategy, and — crucially — a workshop on winning the rural vote. In 2017. Before most national Democrats had even started that conversation.
Danica Roem — then a journalist running for the House of Delegates in Prince William County — appeared on a panel about unlikely victories and how commitment, organization, and strategy beat the odds. Months later she would become the first openly transgender person elected to a state legislature in American history. That day she was just another candidate betting everything on a long shot.
And then there was the candidate forum.
34 Candidates. One Hot Minute Each.
Everyone was a little nervous about this part of the program. Thirty-four delegate candidates lined up on stage, each given exactly one minute to speak. It could have been boring. It was electric. It was their hot power minute.
Senator Barbara Favola introduced them one by one. The crowd was not what she was used to — this was not a typical Democratic Party event. This was something rawer, louder, more alive. The room was packed. People were on their feet.
Kathy Tran of District 42 — one of the most watched candidates of the cycle — had arrived at the Summit with her newborn daughter, Elise Minh Khanh. Elise was named to honor her father’s family, who passed through Ellis Island fleeing anti-Semitism. Minh Khanh is Vietnamese for “bright bell,” inspired by the Liberty Bell. Neither of them knew it yet — but they were already part of the movement.
Danica Roem, who had already appeared on a panel earlier in the day, tried to steal the show during the candidate forum.
The Lunch
After the forum, everyone sat down to a lunch where the tables had been staged — one for each of the Adopted Delegate districts. Candidates, organizers, and volunteers gathered around tables that represented the specific piece of Virginia they were fighting for. It was not just a meal. It was a declaration.
A Surprise Guest
At the end of the day, Jill Caiazzo of the Virginia Democratic Women’s Caucus had arranged a surprise. Justin Fairfax walked in and spoke to the room. The energy was extraordinary. Photos were taken — the eight organizers and Justin, full of hope and possibility, standing together at the end of a day that none of them would ever forget.
He went on to win the Lieutenant Governor race that November. We will leave it there.
All Summer Long
The Summit was not the end. It was the beginning.
The grassroots supported seventeen candidates! Fundraisers. Canvassing. Phone banking. Postcard writing. All summer. All fall. Right up to November.
November 2017
Fifteen of seventeen seats flipped blue. Eleven were women. Virginia turned purple. Democrats picked up more House of Delegates seats in a single election than at any point in a generation.
One race did not go their way — and the story of how it was lost still makes the blood boil. Shelley Simonds ran in her district and won — or should have won. The race ended in a tie. It was decided by a draw of two film canisters from a bowl. Everyone watched. It took several minutes to learn about the fine bowl before drawing. Shelley lost the draw. She lost the seat by the contents of a film canister.
She came back in 2019. Won her seat. Has been connected with Network NOVA and the Women’s Summit ever since.
What They Built After the Wins
The team did not rest. They immediately started thinking about how to support the newly elected delegates — and how to build something that would last beyond a single election cycle.
They developed the VA Plan — a framework for encouraging everyone to contact their representatives. Over time that became the Calls to Action sent out during every legislative session. And the Working Groups of the Virginia Grassroots Coalition. The infrastructure that would power every fight that followed — Medicaid expansion, redistricting, reproductive freedom, labor rights, voting rights — was built in the months after November 2017 by people who refused to stop just because they had won.
The Sponsors on That Easel
One more detail worth noting. The easel on that stage at the National Conference Center listed three sponsors:
Women Effect Action Fund. Bledsoe and Associates. Humane Dominion.
Eight women put on a Summit. They found sponsors. They printed glossy brochures. They staged a candidate lunch. They brought in 34 delegates. They filled a ballroom.
And they did it for fifty dollars a ticket — which included a vendor table if you wanted one.
What started with the Women’s March has emerged as a grassroots movement rolling across Virginia, united in a single message for 2017: When we vote, we win.
They were right!
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