As the spring campaign season heads into the final stretch, candidates are rolling out endorsements.
From the primary for governor all the way down to your local City Council race, candidates across Virginia want you to know who is supporting them. The endorsement game is now in full swing with dozens of new endorsements every day.
Democratic strategist Ben Tribbett says candidates often keep the ace card in their back pocket for the right moment. "Then you want to hold it for a time in the campaign when you're going to get maximum attention, and in a state-level race like this, you usually want to hold endorsements until the spring at the earliest because people just don't tune in to this until they get much closer to the primary. And so you're starting to see now for the Virginia primaries coming up, people really starting to push these endorsements out there."
Former Republican Delegate David Ramadan, now at George Mason's Schar School, says these endorsements are often just a sugar buzz for candidates. "That is a short-term face value that expires within minutes in today's world. However there are also long-term value to some endorsements, especially those that become actionable."
If the endorsement is just an email, the value is limited. But, he says, if the person making the endorsement shows up at events and becomes an ambassador, the endorsement will have a much more lasting value.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
