Democracy for America hires Virginia state director for Purple to Blue Project

Democracy for America (DFA) today announced the hiring of Kyran McCann as the State Director of its Purple to Blue Project in Virginia.  McCann was most recently the District Director of CREDO SuperPAC’s successful 2012 campaign to defeat Tea Party extremist Joe Walsh in Illinois 8th Congressional District.

DFA’s Purple to Blue project is a national, multi-year effort to win state House and Senate chambers across the country by making so-called “purple” state legislative seats decisively Democratic.

In 2013, DFA’s Purple to Blue project is planning on investing over $750,000 in five premier races for Virginia’s House of Delegates.  So far, DFA has endorsed in three of those five races, backing community leader Kathleen Murphy in District 34, local activist and stay-at-home mother Jennifer Boysko in District 86 and retired Air Force officer John Bell in District 87.

“With her experience taking down one of the most outspoken ultraconservatives in Congress, Kyran knows how to build the grassroots army we need to defeat the right-wing enablers we’re targeting in our premier Purple to Blue races in Virginia,”  said Nick Passanante, DFA’s Independent Expenditures Director.  “Virginians are looking to restore common sense to Richmond and we look forward to seeing Kyran and DFA’s over 21,000 members in Virginia and 1 million members nationwide to do that in Purple to Blue races all across the Old Dominion this November.”

In addition to her success defeating Walsh in 2012, McCann has an extensive background running volunteer-led field campaigns. She has worked on both issue campaigns — including the fight for marriage equality in Maine in 2011 — and several candidate campaigns ranging from state legislature to Congress.

“After talking to DFA members from Arlington to Danville, Norfolk to Roanoke, it’s clear that Virginians are ready to stand up and fight back against the radical extremism coming out of the House of Delegates,” said McCann.  “The Delegates DFA members will be taking on this fall helped their House colleagues wage wars on women, working families, and the right to vote and we’re looking forward to sending them packing.”