CRYSTAL VARNER PARKER

Maximizing grassroots communications for a school board candidate set to make history.

Challenge

In 2023, Rev. Crystal Varner Parker ran to represent the Fairfield District on the Henrico County School Board. If elected, she would have become the first woman to represent the district and the first Asian American (AAPI) to serve on the school board. As a mother and woman of color running in a local race, Crystal faced many systemic barriers with fundraising, name recognition and organization support. She needed strategic communications support and a campaign strategy to be successful in a competitive field.

Our Approach

Shannon Strategies redesigned the campaign logo and website, created branded campaign materials and developed policy messaging to elevate the candidate’s profile. We focused on building systems for the candidate’s majority-volunteer campaign to manage its own email marketing, social media and PR; such as:

  • Establishing workflow processes to centralize communications tasks and measure progress.

  • Reformatting the website to improve user experience, SEO and site navigation.

  • Revising the candidate’s bio and campaign talking points for stump speech, fundraising, grip cards and social media.

  • Designing templates for fundraising, canvassing, phone banking and endorsements.

  • Sharing templates for press releases and media advisories.

Results

As the only woman and mom in the race, Crystal ran a competitive campaign in a field with five candidates, with a vote differential of 1,659 total votes between the top four candidates. For context, the winner only acquired 26% of the vote and Crystal was within 472 votes of the next competitor.