Political Activist and Writer Kim Drew Wright Named 2019 VPC Newsmaker of the Year

Community organizer, political activist, change agent and writer Kim Drew Wright has been named the 2019 Virginia Professional Communicators Newsmaker of the Year.

Wright, of Chesterfield County, Virginia, received local, state and national media attention for her work as an activist following the 2016 presidential election, including from The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and CNN.

She turned her anger at the election of Donald Trump into “a grassroots community of mostly women, who have come together . . . to support and advocate for each other by growing our understanding and involvement in local, state and federal government,” Wright said.

Prior to November 2016, Wright, a wife and mother of three, had given up an advertising career. She says she “got serious about mops, baked goods and curtains” and devoted time to seriously writing, getting her works published in literary journals and setting up a freelance business. After publication of The Strangeness of Men, her award-winning book of fiction and poetry, Wright planned on completing another book within the year, “but then Trump happened and that plan got completely derailed,” Wright said.

Her post on Facebook after the election seeking other angry and disenfranchised liberals resulted in 90 like-minded people forming what would become Liberal Women of Chesterfield County & Beyond. As founder of LWCC, Wright has focused her time and efforts on connecting and educating citizens to be active in their own government.

Some of the results of the LWCC actions include:

• Helping fuel a blue wave in the Seventh Congressional District during the 2018 midterm elections. Wright’s efforts, stretching from Culpeper to Nottoway, are credited with helping elect political newcomer and former CIA-agent Abigail Spanberger, who defeated the incumbent Tea Party candidate Dave Brat.
• Becoming the impetus for U.S. Representative Dave Brat complaining that activist women at his public appearances were “in his grill.”
• Using postcard-writing parties to get voters energized and engaged to go to the polls.
• Accepting applications from across the country to start branches of Liberal Women.
• Knocking on more than 50,000 doors before Virginia’s 2017 statewide election.
• Helping to staff all of Chesterfield County’s 75 polling places for the 2017 election, something that hadn’t occurred in modern times.
• Helping the Democratic candidate for governor to carry Chesterfield County for the first time since 1961.

Wright led the charge though LWCC despite personal and family challenges, including her daughter’s diagnosis of Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome and her own diagnosis of breast cancer and subsequent treatment. “I feel like this past year has been going from one doctor appointment to the next between the two of our illnesses,” she said.

Regardless, Wright has continued her work to lead LWCC in the fight to make Virginia the 38th state to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and drive voters to choose change in the fall 2019 General Assembly elections. Other LWCC volunteer efforts include stocking local high school food pantries for needy teens throughout Chesterfield County.

VPC’s Newsmaker Award is given to a nominee who has made significant news in the past year or throughout their career. Recipients are either from an under-represented group, such as women, minorities, LGBT persons or people with disabilities, or serve an under-represented group through their vocation. Recipients are selected on the basis of newsworthiness, public service, personal sacrifice, risk-taking and/or inspiration to others. The recipient must either live in Virginia or have spent part of their life in Virginia. VPC members nominate candidates for Newsmaker.

“Virginia Professional Communicators is impressed by Wright’s drive to be an agent for change not only in her community, but also beyond. Her efforts have inspired others, and her communications strategy led successful outreach campaigns,” said Gail Kent, VPC’s awards chair.

Wright will accept her award and deliver brief remarks around 11 a.m. Saturday, April 27, at the VPC Spring Conference at the University of Richmond. Conference registration is required, and the cost is $35 for guests. Learn more on the VPC website: http://vapc.org/.

###