ACRONYM is excited to launch FWIW Virginia, a weekly newsletter covering digital spending trends on both sides of the aisle in advance of Virginia's state legislative elections in 2019. Each week, ACRONYM will highlight competitive spending by Democratic and Republican candidates and organizations and spotlight issues or narratives frequently popping up in Virginians' social feeds. In 2018, ACRONYM ran the largest digital program in history focused on state legislative elections across the country and plans to continue that work in 2019 and 2020.

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FWIW Virginia: Towing the Republican Line 🚚

August 22nd, 2019

In a diverse, politically-changing state like Virginia, The Republican party has a decision to make. Do they embrace Trump and his national agenda, or do they tack to the center and follow the lead of successful state Republican parties in other “blue” states?

FWIW Virginia: The Best Things in Life Are Free 🤑

August 8th, 2019

Which campaigns are doing the best at engaging and expanding their social media audiences through organic content? And is it really impossible to grow your audience through organic posts alone?

FWIW Virginia: What Went Down at Jamestown

August 1st, 2019

President Trump’s speech at Jamestown went viral, but probably not for the reason he wanted...

FWIW Virginia: Add me on Insta? 📸

July 25th, 2019

Are candidates using Instagram to meet young voters where they’re at? Is there a difference in how Democrats and Republicans use the platform?

FWIW Virginia: Persuasion, list-building, events – oh, my! 🦁

July 18th, 2019

With both candidate committees and outside groups starting to spend more heavily on digital, how are they spending their digital budgets? Are they focusing on early persuasion, list building, or event building?

FWIW Virginia: Breaking Down the Special Session

July 11th, 2019

Who leveraged paid and organic social media around the gun debate and special session to build their lists, acquire donors, and persuade voters? We take a look in this week’s edition of FWIW Virginia. But first…

FWIW Virginia: Mind the Gap (In Spending)

June 26th, 2019

The campaigns may not be spending directly on digital, but there was still plenty of political spending on Facebook in Virginia this week.

FWIW Virginia: New districts, who dis?

June 20th, 2019

The field is set for the general election, not just because the primary is over, but also due to the Supreme Court’s ruling this week that upheld the eleven redrawn House of Delegates districts that had previously been racially gerrymandered.

FWIW Virginia: About that election on Tuesday

June 13th, 2019

The Virginia primary just wrapped up, so who spent the most on digital?

FWIW Virginia: 🚨Senate Primary Edition!🚨

June 6th, 2019

Virginia's primary election is next week, so we take a look at how campaigns are spending money in the race for the senate.

FWIW Virginia: Breaking Down the House

May 30th, 2019

There are less than two weeks until the primary, so we're breaking down the digital race in the most important House districts.

FWIW Virginia: The Democrats’ primary concerns

May 23rd, 2019

Particularly in competitive Democratic party primaries across the Commonwealth, which issues are candidates pushing online to turn out their base voters?

FWIW Virginia: Fundraising but make it digital 💰💻🌐

May 16th, 2019

The cash dash is on in Virginia, but who is using digital tactics to rake in extra dollars?

FWIW Virginia: Trouble in Prince William County

May 9th, 2019

The path to the majority in the House of Delegates and State Senate runs through Prince William County, and PWC Republicans may have just shot themselves in the foot.

FWIW Virginia: It’s All in the Ask

May 2nd, 2019

The June primary is fast approaching, so how are campaigns using smart digital strategies to reach out to supporters?

FWIW Virginia: 🔦 Spotlight on the Commonwealth 🔦

April 25th, 2019

The DLCC is making moves to take back the Virginia House and Senate, but how will their investment translate to Democrats' digital infrastructure?

FWIW Virginia: T-Mac’s Back 🐊

April 18th, 2019

Virginia dems have been outraised so far, but will that change now that Terry McAuliffe is focusing his time and energy on the 2019 elections?

FWIW Virginia: 2020 Vision 😎

April 11th, 2019

The 2020 presidential election is dominating national news, but how has it affected the race for the General Assembly?

FWIW Virginia: Virginians’ choice

April 4th, 2019

For the past few election cycles, Democrats have made reproductive health care a central issue to fight Republicans on in Virginia. But this year, it's Republicans who want to talk about it. We looked at how that's playing.

FWIW Virginia: Dems on Defense

March 28th, 2019

Democrats want to win control of the House and Senate, but they're fighting battles on Republicans' terms.

FWIW Virginia: Mapping out a new strategy 🗺

March 21st, 2019

The Supreme Court heard arguments about Virginia's new state house map this week, so we looked at how that might impact the 2019 state legislative elections.

FWIW Virginia: 🍂 It’s primary season 🍂

March 14th, 2019

Virginia is no stranger to incumbent Republicans primaried on the right (remember Eric Cantor??). So this week, we looked at a competitive Virginia state house district, where an incumbent Republican is facing a bruising (and expensive) primary from a challenger making Medicaid expansion a central issue.

FWIW Virginia: How Westboro backfired

March 7th, 2019

Last week marked the end of the fundraising blackout period for members of the General Assembly. While many incumbents will be focusing more time and resources running digital ads for direct contributions, we've seen a number of freshmen delegates take a different approach - and leverage their social media followings to raise some serious $$$.

🎉 Welcome to FWIW Virginia 🎉

February 28th, 2019

Welcome to the first issue of FWIW Virginia. Each week, we’ll look at whose digital spending is up, whose is down, and whose is non-existent across the Commonwealth. And this week, we dug into who's already using the Virginia legislative session to drive their message.