Matt Royer 🤘🏼

Ranked Choice Voting Just Makes Sense 🤷‍♂️ More options. Less negativity. Real representation.

"The fact is, our electoral system is not perfect. We have room to grow to build a democracy that is more representative and reflective of those who live in it.

That is why #RankedChoiceVoting should be adopted in the U.S."

– @mattroyer.bsky.social

🚨 Democrats: You don’t need a $20M study or your own Joe Rogan to reach young men.

You need to show up.

Real organizing > influencer content.
Conversations > content.
Trust > trends.

🧵 New with ‪@gurtling.bsky.social‬. Why Dems keep getting this wrong ⬇️ open.substack.com/pub/bythebal...

Democrats’ pick to replace Rep. Connolly wants to carry forward his legacy James Walkinshaw, a Fairfax supervisor who served as the late lawmaker’s chief of staff, won a primary to replace him in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District.

I had the pleasure of weighing in on @jameswalkinshaw.bsky.social’s win on Saturday with @washingtonpost.com.

Suffice it to say, it’s hard to run for office and determine larger voter trends with one of the most informed, policy wonky electorate in the entire country:

Now unlike the statewide primary, this was clearly a scenario where RCV wouldn’t have even mattered, much like the 2021 Gubernatorial primary.

Nothing like getting my vote in at the very last minute!

Proudly cast my vote in the 11th CD Democratic Primary at Herndon Fornightly.

Now time to count!

Y’all pls, VA-11 Democrats are tired.

30 pieces of mail in like 2 weeks.

Okay we’ll vote, just pls

It’s clear: messaging about affordability wins elections.

The old guard Democrats throwing millions and support behind an unpopular disgraced sex pest of a former governor who doesn’t run on what voters really want does not.

One thing on the messaging front that I can say for certain is that messages about opportunity and economic viability for all people is definitely one that wins resoundingly here. Just saying “I want to make this city affordable for everyone” is an incredibly popular message.

Regardless of the final outcome, Democrats should be looking at the tactics taken by Zohran’s team, and what decisions were made to get there because this is truly a campaign meeting the moment and campaigning to the people he is trying to represent.

The only thing that can get Dems out of this national rut is a Mamdani W. Having a young, progressive candidate as the party choice for the most liberal city in the Country bodes well for Dems this year.

Strapping in for multiple rounds of tallying but signs are looking up.

seriously, which would you rather have as your statewide ticket heading into November?

Saying that rural america is “ignorant and bigoted” is actually what is ignorant and bigoted

In Prince Edward County, Barbara Johns started the student strike that eventually led to Brown v Board of Education.

The Shenandoah Valley has been one of the designated areas for refugees and has a rich diverse culture because of these communities.

For example, our rural communities in Virginia are some of the most diverse areas in the Commonwealth.

Danville is a majority Black city in rural Virginia that where MLK spoke on civil rights.

This is the exact type of shitty take that sets us back and makes rural folks distrust politicians.

People who don’t know anything about or have never travelled to those areas write them off as “ignorant and bigoted” and then claim we’re all just lying if you don’t agree.

For example, our rural communities in Virginia are some of the most diverse areas in the Commonwealth.

Danville is a majority Black city in rural Virginia that where MLK spoke on civil rights.

Yesterday I commented on the 11th CD mailers, but allow me to continue:

Some of y’all need to turn the frequency of your Meta digital ads WAY down.

It’s been the same ad every time I open Instagram on my feed or on my stories for the past 24 hours.

The Road to Election Day 2025: A Strategy for Virginia Democrats Rural Votes, Campus Votes, and the Future of Our Party

From dorm rooms to dirt roads—we win Virginia in 2025 by organizing everywhere.
Unite the party. Reach the ignored. Don’t repeat 2021.

Here’s the strategy:

We Get It, Nancy. You’re Worried. How Dems are losing the digital fundraising war and our voters through text.

What do AOC and MTG have in common (apart from their 3 letter abbreviations)?

They’re part of only 0.2% of Congressional members who get the majority of their money from small dollar donors.

And your onslaught of texts aren’t getting you into that 0.2%.
bytheballot.substack.com/p/i-get-it-n...

I went to my mailbox today. Is there a special election in VA-11?

I hadn't noticed.

If anything, this primary is a prime example of why Ranked Choice Voting is incredibly necessary in future Democratic nomination contests. Though we are lucky to have Senator Hashmi, we would have seen the truest democratic result

In 2021, our LG nominee Hala Ayala won with 37% of the vote but still 13 points higher than the runner up Sam Rasoul

Last night, our nominee Senator Hashmi won by 0.75% over Levar Stoney and was only 1.06% higher than the 3rd place finisher Aaron Rouse. That is insane.

I have looked VPAP and ELECT maybe 1000 times since last night and I still have not gotten over how close this result is.

An image of Ghazala Hasmi with the virginia capitol in the background: “Democratic Nominee for LT. Governor - GHAZALA HASHMI”

An image of Jay Jones with the virginia capitol in the background: “Democratic Nominee for Attorney General - JAY JONES”

Congratulations to @senatorhashmi.bsky.social and Jay Jones for securing the Democratic nominations for Lt. Governor and Attorney General!

Young Democrats across the commonwealth are excited to support this ticket and we can’t wait to celebrate on victory night! Let’s fight together for progress!

Congratulations to Senator Ghazala Hashmi and Jay Jones!

So excited to see y'all represent our ticket and win in November. Let's go to work!

So if you’re mad as hell, keep showing up and keep raising hell, but take care of yourselves while doing it. We can make a huge impact if we have the human power to do so and we need everyone to do that.

We can’t afford to burn people out by making them feel like they’re not doing enough. We’re human, we’re not machines.

4 years is a long time in politics, it’s going to feel tiresome and feel frustrating but there are many things you can do in the meantime if you keep at it and give yourself and other’s grace as well to rest at times.

One of the myriad of reasons why we are back in this mess and worse off for it was because we allowed ourselves to burn out in the first administration so that by the time we got to 2020, too many of us hung it up and went home.

This is not a sprint. It’s a marathon.

If we want real systematic change, we need all of you to continue to organize and continue to show up. But in a prolonged, sustainable way.