Democrats look to ride anti-Musk sentiment to victory in Virginia next

Democrats are making Elon Musk their top political target in Virginia, hammering the tech billionaire in a new campaign blitz in the systems’ off year elections.

The message channels the anti-Musk playbook Democrats used successfully in Wisconsin last week, where the Democratic-aligned candidate defeated Musk's choice for the state Supreme course by a nearly 10 percentage point margin.

Building on their victory in Wisconsin, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is announcing a seven-figure investment in Virginia House of Delegates races, first obtained by POLITICO. The DLCC also rolled out its initial list of “spotlight candidates,” a group of four Democrats in closely divided districts who will now get increased fundraising and visibility from the national group.

Democrats believe they have an even stronger argument against President Donald Trump and Musk's government-slicing Department of Government Efficiency in Virginia, where the state economy depends heavily on the business of Washington, D.C. and thousands of federal workers are facing layoffs.

“This is where DOGE is on display,” said DLCC President Heather Williams. “Virginia is sort of an epicenter for the DOGE destruction and its impact on workers and communities.”

The state has historically been a strong bellwether for the midterms, and Democrats believe that the map for them has significantly widened less than three months into Trump's second term — a reflection of how theparty views battlegrounds across the country in the days after Musk’s involvement with the Wisconsin race backfired for the GOP.

Democratic campaign leaders now see deep-red Virginia districts that Trump won by double digits as within reach. Democrats say recruitment has exploded in the last several weeks, with candidates filing in a record 97 out of 100 districts.

The investment builds on $350,000 the DLCC has already given to the Virginia House Democratic Caucus, which has been running anti-Musk ads since late February and intends to keep targeting Republican candidates for supporting the Trump administration. The caucus has spent five figures on negative ads spotlighting the tech billionaire in twelve districts with GOP incumbents – and plans to ratchet them up as the election approaches.

“Between now and November, there will be lots of ads featuring Musk as he takes a chainsaw to our economy and our democracy, and the Republicans who are too terrified to stand up to him and Trump” said state Del. Dan Helmer, the Democratic campaign chair for the Virginia House of Delegates.

Musk, who Trump has said will step away from his role as a special government employee in the coming months, has indicated he intends to invest heavily to promote Republicans in the Virginia and New Jersey elections, along with the midterms, and the party may have a hard time turning it down.

“If somebody came up to me with a ten million check from Elon Musk, I would be very, very hard pressed to say no,” said one veteran Virginia Republican operative, granted anonymity to speak freely. “Toxic money can buy a lot of TV ads.”

Democrats hold a razor-thin one-seat majority in the state House. They hope to build on that majority and deliver the party a trifecta by winning back the governorship, with presumptive Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger facing likely GOP contender Winsome Earle-Sears. The gubernatorial matchup is expected to be close, and the fight for state House control could be another nail-biter: Democrats returned to power in 2023 thanks to just 975 votes.

But Virginia Democrats are taking a spree of special election wins – including in January, when a pair of Democrats outperformed in Northern Virginia – as a sign that voters across the political spectrum disagree with the direction of the country under Trump. Democratic campaigns intend to make Musk and the axe he has taken to government jobs central to their argument against the Trump administration.They plan to link what they are calling an agenda of chaos and carelessness toward the middle class to Virginia Republicans.

“The MAGA brand is a dying brand, but they just don't know it yet,” said House Speaker Don Scott, a Democrat. “And so we're going to help send that message in Virginia.”

Democrats have set their sights on ousting vulnerable Republicans in the suburbs of Northern Virginia to Hampton Roads to rural areas around Blacksburg. “We see all as part of the map now, as the impact of Musk’s evisceration of the federal government workforce becomes clear,”

In one mostly rural district encompassing Petersburg, Democratic candidate Kimberly Pope Adams is facing off against Republican incumbent Kim Taylor for the second time since losing to her in 2023 by just 53 votes. Adams said that in her conversations with both Democratic and Republicans, those voters are worried about potential cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare – and many are unhappy about Musk’s influence over the federal government.

“I’m hearing anger because people didn’t vote for Elon Musk yet he seems to have such decision making power, and it's really upsetting to the voters in my district,” Adams said.