New Virginia Majority
New Virginia Majority (NVM) is a nonprofit, 501(c)(4), political advocacy organization. The group was formed by 30-year veteran organizers with Tenants and Workers United (see more below) in Alexandria, VA in 2007, and has been described as a catalyst in Virginia’s progressive movement.
NVM register, mobilize, and engage with the public in order to “get out the vote.” They organize among Latinx, African-American, Asian-American & Pacific Islander, and youth communities, so-called “new Americans,” and purposefully center the demands and leadership of working class women of color in order “to end mass incarceration, build just economic policies, protect immigrants and preserve the environment.” NVM envisions “a Virginia that centers the needs and struggles of working class people, people of color, immigrants, women, and young people to build a real democracy rooted in racial and economic justice” (About New Virginia Majority 2019; Our Campaigns 2019).
Campaigns
The organization’a platform articulates specific policy demands in the realms of economic justice, criminal justice, and environmental justice, as well as in housing, education, healthcare, strengthening voting rights, and in securing freedom from hate and fear for marginalized communities, “regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, immigration status and more.” (Our Campaigns 2019).
Organization
New Virginia Majority’s work is distributed across its various constitutive chapters, as well as semi-autonomous projects & organizations in the state. To elaborate:
Chapters
NVM’s chapters reflect specific locales or campaign initiatives working as directly representative of the organization. For example, Richmond is the site for two NVM initiatives fighting for immigrant justice and voting rights. The former initiative fought to secure the right to drive for all Virginia residents from 2018–2020. At present, they advocate for affordable housing and improved living conditions for all Richmonders, most notably in the working-class Southwood Apartments complex, “Richmond’s largest Latino neighborhood.” This work is currently represented in the Latino Virginia project through two interviews. The first, a one-on-one with NVM organizer Elena Camacho, and the second, a roundtable featuring a number of her colleagues and individuals from Richmond’s Latinx and immigrant communities (About 2019; Richmond Immigrant Justice 2021; Moreno & Robinson, “In Richmond’s largest Latino neighborhood, people live among mold, mice, roaches. The landlord says tenants are to blame.”).
Hubs
Where NVM consider populations as “distinct because of their histories, culture, race, nationality, geography, age or station in life,” the organization has introduced a more horizontal, diffused arrangement of power sharing in addressing those communities needs. This “hub” model allows for groups to draw on NVM as a central support and align with their partners in collaboration, while also maintaining distinct, independent organizing methods for building political power. These groups include:
- Tenants and Workers United (TWU), the regional predecessor to the statewide NVM, which organizes Latinx and immigrant communities in Northern Virginia.
- Virginia Student Power Network (VSPN), a web of students organizing at public university campuses across the state.
- Virginia Black Organizing Collaborative (VA BLOC):, Black-led organizers centered in Newport News and Hampton Roads.
- Asian Pacific Islander Civic Engagement Collaborative (ACE Collaborative): Organizing diverse Asian groups and communities, with a focus on Northern Virginia. (About 2019).
Sources
“About New Virginia Majority.” New Virginia Majority. (2019). Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.newvirginiamajority.org/about.
Moreno, Sabrina and Mark Robinson. “In Richmond’s largest Latino neighborhood, people live among mold, mice, roaches. The landlord says tenants are to blame.” Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA), December 30, 2021. https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/1873C072977468E8.
“Our Campaigns.” New Virginia Majority. (2019). Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.newvirginiamajority.org/ourwork.
“Richmond Immigrant Justice.” New Virginia Majority (2021). Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.newvirginiamajority.org/richmond_immigrant_justice.