FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 30, 2018
Contact: Emily Phelps | press@indivisible.org
Washington, DC—Today, the Indivisible Project’s State & Local Policy Manager Jiggy Athilingam released the following statement in response to the Virginia Senate’s vote in favor of expanding Medicaid:
“Today, Virginia Indivisibles and the broad coalition of health care advocates scored a major victory. After several months into a special session this year, the Virginia Senate finally voted to expand Medicaid, a long-overdue move that would bring healthcare to 400,000 Virginians.
“Democrats have been trying to expand Medicaid in Virginia for years, but they’ve been blocked by Republicans every step of the way — until now. This year was different because Republicans crossed party lines to do the right thing, in no small part due to the fierce activism of Virginian voters in the 2017 elections that kicked off the #BlueWave.
“Indivisibles showed up to knock doors ahead of elections. They showed up at the ballot box in November. And they have been showing up at the capitol consistently throughout the regular and special session. We can be sure they will show up again in 2019 to vote out the Republican Senators who voted against Medicaid expansion today.”
Virginia’s Indivisible groups and partner organizations have been leading the charge to press the state legislature for a vote on the budget that includes Medicaid expansion. Indivisible groups held four actions at the capitol in support of Medicaid expansion, including a “die-in” designed to highlight the dire consequences of failure to expand Medicaid. Virginia’s Indivisible groups have been active in the fight to expand Medicaid ever since November’s election, when their work on the campaign trail contributed to the unprecedented “blue wave” election that nearly led to a Democratic majority.
The Indivisible Project’s State and Local Policy program has been supporting them in their efforts. The Indivisible Project also collaborated with Data for Progress and Civis Analytics on a polling and analysis project that showed that Medicaid expansion is popular in every single state legislative district.
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About the Indivisible Project
The Indivisible Project is a registered 501(c)(4) nonprofit. Our mission is to cultivate and lift up a grassroots movement of local groups to defeat the Trump agenda, elect progressive leaders, and realize bold progressive policies. Across the nation, thousands of local groups are using the Indivisible Guide to hold their members of Congress accountable. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.