Norfolk Del. Jackie Glass speaks at a town hall about a new brewery coming to the city. (Image: Zach D. Roberts)

My work puts me in conversation with state legislators across the country, and I keep meeting leaders who make me think “the rest of the country needs to know about their incredible work.” This is the first segment in a new recurring series that features those leaders and their ideas. It begins with Delegate Jackie Glass of Virginia, who created Pitch to the Legislators, a contest that belongs in all fifty states.

Her contest puts resident policy proposals in front of a judging panel of sitting lawmakers along with legislative staff and lobbyists and advocates at Old Dominion University.

Glass served in the Navy from 2002 to 2013, then settled in Norfolk and worked as a community activist. She won the 89th District seat in a January 2022 special election after former Delegate Jay Jones resigned, and voters in the redrawn 93rd District, which covers part of Norfolk, elected her in 2023 and reelected her unopposed last November.

In her invitation to the Virginia legislative delegation, Glass describes the event as “Inspired by the popular show Shark Tank” and writes that it will “bridge the gap between citizens and their government.”

Glass and the other judges accepted entries from Virginia residents of any age. Submissions may not exceed 1,000 words and must include a problem statement, a proposed solution, an implementation plan, and the expected impact. A preliminary panel reviews every submission and selects the finalists, who present for five minutes each before the legislator judges at the Webb University Center on the Old Dominion University campus in Norfolk.

The contest runs inside her Summer School for Certified Doers, a one-day program where attendees learn how to advocate and how to legislate. The Policy Pitch Contest follows the training in the same room, the finalists pitch on the spot, and then everyone celebrates.

The judges score each pitch against three questions published in her rules: “Can the proposal be realistically implemented?” for feasibility, “What is the potential benefit to the community or state?” for impact, and “How creative and original is the proposal?” for innovation. Winners receive recognition and the chance to “work with legislators to develop further and promote their ideas.”

Glass needs only a room and a free online form, plus colleagues willing to judge for an afternoon. An office that gathers those three pieces can replicate the design.

In a standard town hall the official presents and constituents ask questions. Delegate Glass reassigns the roles: residents present while lawmakers question and score.

This year’s pitches came from everyday people and stayed close to home: teacher safety and flooded roads in the region, plus fixing the benefits cliff so that transitioning off public assistance stops punishing the people who do it. One participant pitched a state bank to generate revenue for Virginia without raising taxes, an idea they’d learned about from the articles here at The Existentialist Republic, and wrote about the experience on Substack.

This type of contest isn’t without precedent.

In 2014, two Massachusetts legislators organized a pitch contest for technology workers and committed to filing a bill based on the winning pitch. A Utah advocacy group followed this past June: 115 applicants entered its first competition, and the winner received $10,000.

Now I want to tell you more about why this segment exists, and why I hope you share it elsewhere. I’ll start by saying the name “Ted Cruz.” Anyone who follows politics knows that man’s name. But “Jackie Glass” is a name that is mostly known among her former coworkers in the military, her activist friends who were thrilled to support her successful runs for office, her enthusiastic political supporters, and her peers in the VA House of Delegates.

I’m going to now switch from “writing an article” mode to “researcher and activist talking to you about why this matters” mode.

The more we can find people like Delegate Glass, and shout their successes all over the place, the more they will gain traction, valuable name recognition, and the more they can start to increase their influence among their colleagues.

The fact is, and we see it play out with people like Bernie Sanders and AOC, it isn’t easy being a voice for people over profits in most legislative bodies. In legislatures particularly, you’ll find nearly all of the Democrats will fight for your rights, they just want to make sure that fight doesn’t interfere with corporate profits. I wouldn’t say that always puts them in the “evil” bucket. In my experience it usually puts them in the “you matter to me but also I won’t do anything that disrupts the flow of donor money” bucket.

The thing those corporate folks always tell themselves is “I can’t win a race without donor class and corporate backing. And what good can I do for our community if I can’t win the race?”

For a long time, they were right in noticing that the balancing act of corporate and donor class interests was a near necessity for winning office; unless you were independently wealthy or already had substantial support from something such as holding a leadership position with an influential organized labor group.

So how do we change things?

We get more of the politicians you love when we change the political math, and today the math says that those corporate politicians are usually correct. What tomorrow says? That's on us. All of us. You read this and me writing it, we are that us.

By sharing this article and learning about the people you’ll see in this weekly segment, you strengthen the influence of people who are both tenacious and kind. That’s what we need, isn’t it? Folks who have the resilience of character and effort while also holding a deep compassion for the human condition?

You do not have to live in Virginia to support Delegate Jackie Glass. Her Substack is @jackiehopeglass.

Adopt a Lawmaker is the working name for this segment, and our team is in love with the name, even though the features will not cover lawmakers exclusively. If you have other name ideas, please comment them and let us know!

We want to promote more of the people who are doing things right: state legislators, city council members, county and state chairs, and the leaders of activist organizations. If you want to be considered for a feature, just send me a direct message here on Substack.

This whole machine is largely funded by subscriptions on Substack. The Existentialist Republic community is largely volunteers, drafting legislation, talking to representatives, doing legal research, and expanding our free library of books and booklets. Don’t let this be the reason you skip a meal or miss rent, but if you can subscribe, just know you’re literally the reason all this can continue. We need fuel for the metaphorical fuel tank, and that tank’s fullness determines the speed with which we can progress!

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CALL TO ACTION

Category: State legislation

Difficulty Rating: 1/10. One call or email, five minutes.

One pitch at Glass’s contest asked Virginia to charter a state bank modeled on the Bank of North Dakota, and the idea belongs in every statehouse. That bank has held North Dakota’s deposits since 1919. It partners with local community banks and returns its profits to the state’s general fund. That’s revenue without a tax increase, and it keeps the state’s money working inside the state instead of feeding the balance sheet of a megabank headquartered a thousand miles away.

Who you are contacting: Your state representative and state senator. Find them at openstates.org.

What you are asking for: A bill chartering a state bank modeled on the Bank of North Dakota.

If you get a form letter back, write back once and ask again.

WHEN YOU CALL OR WRITE, cover these points in your own words: your name, your town, that you are a constituent, that you want the state to charter a public bank modeled on the Bank of North Dakota, why that matters to you personally, and that you want a written answer on whether they will support it.