Harrisonburg is in Play!

For those who work, live, or do business in Harrisonburg, you already know the city has been Democrat blue and leaning more to the Left every year.  Conservative voices have been shut down and bullied into silence.  But not anymore.

This November, Kaylene Siegle was re-elected to her seat as the lone Conservative voice on the Harrisonburg School Board.  We need additional City residents with a passion to improve our test scores and keep our children safe to run for the School Board. Kaylene needs additional support on the Board — her 1 vote has very little impact.  

This November, Javier Calleja was only 465 votes short of winning a much-needed Conservative voice on the Harrisonburg City Council.  How did he come so close? He had a clear vision to take the City forward in a sensible and sustainable way.  So, how did we get this message to the voters which would translate into him getting more votes than Donald Trump (6,266) or Ben Cline (6,415) and ending with an impressive total of 6,674 votes.  

To win in the City we must:

Messaging:  Promote better messaging to the public which unfortunately costs money. 

Get Conservatives to vote: Sadly, many simply do not vote.  

Connect with swing voters: Many agree with Conservative values but are hearing a more compelling (albeit false) message from the Dems.

Our Plan:

By March 2024, no candidate for City Council had emerged.  So, the Harrisonburg City Republican Committee decided to act.  With only 4 unpaid volunteers, we started knocking on doors of known Conservative voters to connect with them and hear their concerns.  With so few volunteers we had to focus on just 1 of Harrisonburg’s 8 precincts.    As soon as the candidates declared, our focus changed to promoting them.  We were able to focus on a 2^nd precinct after a volunteer offered to help in her home precinct.  As we focused on these 2 city precincts, we expanded our door knocking to include swing votes.  Once the Trump Campaign came into our area, we partnered with them to ensure Harrisonburg City door knockers also promoted our 2 local candidates – Kaylene and Javier.   That allowed our 2 candidates time to focus on swing voters and even some typical Democrat voters who were unhappy with our current council.  Our candidates ran a campaign on ending the Democrats’ “Political Pet Projects” which drive up property and sales taxes for our citizens.  

In addition, we conducted training for our poll greeter teams. These volunteers offered a strategically designed Republican Sample ballot to voters.  Training allowed our greeters to:

1. Understand the law so the Dems could not spread “misinformation” and stop our greeters from talking to voters. 
2. Inform voters about our candidates as party affiliation is not listed on the ballot for the local races.  

The plan worked! Our 2 candidates won in both precincts we had the manpower and money to intensely focus on (see exhibit A & B).  Just imagine what we could have done with a little more manpower and money to promote our candidates in the other 6 precincts.

Our goal is to expand our door knocking efforts to the other 6 precincts so that in 2026  we can win all 4 open seats on the City Council and School Board.  Together, we will take back our City.

Looking at 2025

Did you know that Virginia is 1 of only 2 states that has a major election every single year?  That really challenges our unpaid volunteers and drains our Committee’s limited funds that we use to promote campaigns.  The only solace of this fact is that it actually provides you and me with a chance to perform and improve each year.

For 2025, you and I now have 10 months left until voting starts for the Governor’s Office and many other state level positions.  This year allows us to prepare for local elections in 2026 while supporting our statewide races.  Republicans have historically had difficulty winning Virginia’s statewide races in the year following the election of a Republican President. I believe we can break that cycle next year. With the progress we made by door knocking and the increased volunteers this year, we can expand our volunteer base and make even more progress next year.

How can you help make this goal a reality?

• Volunteer just 2 hours a month to perform any one of numerous things.  You won’t be alone.  All tasks are done within a team of other Conservatives like you.  And even if you have any physical limitations, please know that most tasks do not involve door-knocking.
• Donate to your local Harrisonburg City Republican Committee.  Every $1 we receive goes solely to the effort of getting prepared to elect our candidates.
• Run for office under the system we’ve built for you. If you are interested in running for one of these offices in 2026,  send me a text and let’s talk.   

Barbra Knupp

Director of Operations

540) 435-9825.      

Mailer:  Funded this mailer for GOTV 1