Unite Virginia is the Virginia affiliate of Unite America, a left-of-center election policy advocacy group based in Denver, Colorado. The group advocates for  changes to Virginia’s congressional redistricting process, ranked choice voting, and expanded vote-by-mail systems. ¹

Unite Virginia supported two Democratic and two Republican candidates in the 2019 Virginia primary elections. ²

Activities

Unite Virginia was established in 2019, an election year for state legislators in Virginia, in an effort to support candidates in the primary elections who intend to advance the political system changes advocated for by Unite America and its affiliates. ³ These reforms include changes to Virginia’s congressional redistricting process, ranked choice voting, and expanded vote-by-mail systems. ⁴

Unite America focuses on electing Independent candidates, but with major Independent losses in 2018 state elections in places like Alaska,⁵ Colorado,⁶ and Maine,⁷ Unite Virginia instead chose to support ostensibly “independent-minded Democrats and Republicans.” ⁸ Unite Virginia supported two Democrats and two Republicans, and awarded each with a “Unity Award,” the first time any Unite group did this, for “working across the aisle to solve problems.” ⁹

As of March 2020, the websites for Unite Virginia and Unite America make no mention of each other. ¹⁰

Funding

Unite Virginia received $250,000 from Unite America in 2019. ¹¹

People

Matt Scoble is the Executive Director of Unite Virginia. Scoble has formerly worked for left-of-center organizations including Common Cause and American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. Scoble is the former Executive Director of OneVirginia2021, a redistricting reform organization. ¹² In 2016, Scoble was the head coordinator of Election Protection, a voting rights group run by the left-wing Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. ¹³

Steering Committee

Kyle McDaniel is a former policy director for the Fairfax County Government. ¹⁴ McDaniel became a member of the Virginia Republican party in 2008, and later left the GOP in 2018 over “anti-immigrant sentiment.” ¹⁵

Meg Heubeck is the Director of Instruction at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. ¹⁶

Mike Murphy is the Chief of Staff, and Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. ¹⁷

Todd Veazie is the director of Strategic Multilayer Assessment for the Joint Staff, and is the former Executive Director of Joining Forces in the Office of the First Lady at the White House during the Obama Administration. ¹⁸

Other members of the steering committee include Councilwoman and Vice Mayor of Hampton Linda Curtis and Retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Tom Church. ¹⁹

1. “Political Reform.” Unite Virginia. Accessed March 19, 2020. https://www.uniteva.org/politicalreform.
2. “Launching Unite Virginia.” Unite Virginia, March 27, 2019. Accessed March 19, 2020. https://www.uniteva.org/launching_unite_virginia.
3. “Launching Unite Virginia.” Unite Virginia, March 27, 2019. Accessed March 19, 2020. https://www.uniteva.org/launching_unite_virginia.
4. “Political Reform.” Unite Virginia. Accessed March 19, 2020. https://www.uniteva.org/politicalreform.
5. “Alaska House of Representatives Elections, 2018.” Ballotpedia. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://ballotpedia.org/Alaska_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2018.
6. “Colorado House of Representatives Elections, 2018.” Ballotpedia. Accessed March 20, 2020.  https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2018.
7. “Maine House of Representatives Elections, 2018.” Ballotpedia. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://ballotpedia.org/Maine_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2018.
8. Scoble, Matt. “Scoble: Virginia’s Path to Greater Political Unity.” The Roanoke Times, December 19, 2018. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://www.roanoke.com/opinion/commentary/scoble-virginia-s-path-to-greater-political-unity/article_0d5a5de8-79a9-50de-b28e-6eced131304d.html.
9. “Launching Unite Virginia.” Unite Virginia, March 27, 2019. Accessed March 19, 2020. https://www.uniteva.org/launching_unite_virginia.
10. “Partners.” Unite America, 2020. Accessed March 19, 2020. https://www.uniteamerica.org/partners.
11. “Virginia Department of Elections: Campaign Finance Reports. Unite Virginia.” Virginia State Board of Elections, 2012. Accessed March 19, 2020. https://cfreports.elections.virginia.gov/Report/ScheduleA/170588.
12. “Matthew Scoble.” LinkedIn, 2020. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-scoble-6906986/.
13. Morrison, Aaron. “In Pennsylvania, election observers are guarding against voter suppression tactics.” Mic, November 8, 2016. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://www.mic.com/articles/158823/in-pennsylvania-election-observers-are-guarding-against-voter-suppression-tactics.
14. “McDaniel, Kyle.” LinkedIn, 2020. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-mcdaniel-ba4656175/.
15. Nadeem, Reem. “Va. GOP Member Resigns, Renounces Party Citing Anti-immigrant Sentiment.” WTOP, January 17, 2018. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2018/01/va-gop-member-resigns-renounces-party-citing-anti-immigrant-sentiment/.
16. “Our Steering Committee.” Unite Virginia. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://www.uniteva.org/steeringcommittee.
17. “Our Steering Committee.” Unite Virginia. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://www.uniteva.org/steeringcommittee.
18. “Todd Veazie.” LinkedIn, 2020. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddveazie/.
19. “Our Steering Committee.” Unite Virginia. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://www.uniteva.org/steeringcommittee.