A Campaign Plan to the June 15, 2027 Virginia Primary

This plan is for candidates seeking a party's nomination in a Virginia primary on Tuesday, June 15, 2027: candidates for the House of Delegates, the Senate of Virginia, a county constitutional office, a board of supervisors, or another office where the party chooses a primary. It runs in six phases. You prepare in November and December 2026, collect petition signatures from Friday, January 1, 2027, file with your party chair between noon on Monday, March 15 and 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 1, build support in April, work the early voting period from about the start of May, and finish on primary day.

The June 15 date is on the Virginia Department of Elections (ELECT) schedule. The filing dates and voter deadlines are computed from state law and marked "based on state law," because ELECT had not posted its 2027 candidate bulletins when we checked. Door counts, volunteer numbers and weekly goals are examples only. If you are running as an independent, for school board, or as the nominee of a party-run process such as a convention, your timeline is different; our guide to running for local office in Virginia explains those routes.

The dates this plan is built on

• Friday, January 1, 2027: petition signatures may be collected from this date.
• Wednesday, February 10 to Tuesday, March 2, 2027: parties tell ELECT which offices will have a primary (based on state law).
• Monday, March 15, 2027, noon: primary filing opens with the party chair (based on state law).
• Thursday, April 1, 2027, 5:00 p.m.: primary filing deadline (based on state law).
• Tuesday, April 6, 2027, 5:00 p.m.: extended deadline in a race where the incumbent did not file (based on state law).
• Around the start of May: early in-person voting begins, about 45 days before the primary.
• Friday, June 4, 2027: last day to register to vote, and the 5:00 p.m. deadline to apply for a ballot by mail (based on state law).
• Saturday, June 12, 2027, 5:00 p.m.: early in-person voting ends (based on state law).
• Tuesday, June 15, 2027: primary day; polls open 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Confirm each date with your general registrar or ELECT. Our Virginia 2027 election calendar lists every date in order, including the November election.

Phase 1: Prepare (weeks of November 9 to December 28, 2026)

Use the weeks before January 1 to settle every question that could keep you off the ballot.

• Weeks of November 9 and November 16. Confirm that you are registered at your current address in the district and that you meet the residency rule: one year in Virginia before the election, and for the General Assembly, age 21 and residence in the district. If you plan to text supporters, note that Campaign Verify requests made on or after Sunday, November 15, 2026 last until January 31, 2029.
• Weeks of November 23 and November 30. Ask your party's local chair, Democratic or Republican, whether the party expects to nominate by primary for your office, and when it will decide. Parties must tell ELECT by Tuesday, March 2, 2027 (based on state law).
• Weeks of December 7 and December 14. Write a short statement of why you are running. As an example, list 50 people who might sign, circulate, volunteer or host a coffee.
• Weeks of December 21 and December 28. Print ELECT's Petition of Qualified Voters (form ELECT-506/521), recruit your first circulators (the people who collect signatures), and line up a notary, because every circulator signs an affidavit on each page in front of one.

Phase 2: Collect signatures (weeks of January 4 to March 8, 2027)

You need 125 signatures for most offices and 250 for the Senate of Virginia. ELECT recommends collecting at least one and a half times the number required, so this plan uses 190 as the example target for a 125-signature office.

• Week of January 4. Signatures dated on or after January 1 count. Hand each circulator pages with the candidate section already filled in. File your Certificate of Candidate Qualification, which may be filed any time after January 1, and pay the primary filing fee (2 percent of the office's minimum salary) to the treasurer or director of finance where you live.
• Weeks of January 11 to February 1. Set a weekly goal. As an example only, five circulators who each collect 10 signatures a week reach 200 in four weeks. Collect pages after each weekend, check every line, and have circulators sign their affidavits before the notary. A signer's date may not be later than the notary's date, so notarize a page only after its last signature.
• Weeks of February 8 to March 8. Fill gaps in parts of the district you have not reached. Bring a separate sign-up sheet that asks whether people would like campaign texts, with a dated line. The petition is not a texting list.

For a full walkthrough of the form and the circulator's affidavit, see the Virginia candidate petition guide on Beacon, our canvassing app's site.

Phase 3: File (weeks of March 15 to March 29, 2027)

• Week of March 15. Filing opens at noon on Monday, March 15. File your Declaration of Candidacy, signed before a notary or before two witnesses who are registered voters of the district, with your first petition pages and the fee receipt, with the party chair. ELECT's bulletins name the chair of the locality where you live for a local office, and the chair of the House district for a House of Delegates seat.
• Week of March 22. File the remaining petition pages. ELECT allows pages throughout the window, but filing early leaves time to fix a problem. File your Statement of Economic Interests, if your office requires one, electronically with the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council.
• Week of March 29. The deadline is 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 1. ELECT says papers must be received by then, and a postmark does not count. Keep copies of everything. Check with the Department of Elections for any other filings that apply to your campaign.

Phase 4: Build support (weeks of April 5 to April 26)

• Week of April 5. If the incumbent in your race did not file, other candidates have until 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6 to file (based on state law). Ask your party chair who filed in your race.
• Weeks of April 12 and April 19. These are the main door-knocking weeks before voting begins. Return first to the households that signed your petition or asked for more information, then to voters who take part in primaries. As an example only, a candidate and four volunteers who each knock on 50 doors a week for three weeks reach about 750 doors.
• Week of April 26. Early in-person voting begins about 45 days before the primary, around the start of May. Ask your general registrar for the first day and the hours, including the weekend hours the law requires before an election.

Phase 5: Early voting (weeks of May 3 to June 7)

• Weeks of May 3 to May 24. Keep knocking on doors, now focused on supporters who have not voted. Any qualified voter may vote in a primary, but only in one party's primary, so tell supporters which primary you are in.
• Week of May 31. The last day to register to vote, and the 5:00 p.m. deadline to apply for a mailed ballot, is Friday, June 4 (based on state law). ELECT says voters may still register in person after the deadline and vote a provisional ballot.
• Week of June 7. Early in-person voting ends at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 12 (based on state law). Confirm your volunteer schedule for primary day.

Text your supporters during early voting

The early voting weeks are when a reminder helps most. Set up texting in CampaignCNX+ in February or March, so it is ready when voting begins.

1. Committee and Campaign Verify. Campaign Verify confirms to the carriers (the mobile phone companies) that a political sender is a real campaign. It needs a 527 committee (the federal tax status of a political committee) with an EIN (the committee's federal tax ID number) and a filing with an election authority that is published online. Check with the Department of Elections for the filings that apply to your campaign and confirm that yours can be viewed online before you request; ask Campaign Verify Support if it cannot. It costs $95, a request made on or after Sunday, November 15, 2026 lasts until January 31, 2029, and Campaign Verify decides eligibility.
2. Registration. CampaignCNX+ files your carrier registration, as 10DLC (the registration for texting from a standard local-style number) or toll-free, and files your Campaign Verify token with it. For a toll-free number, the carrier review usually takes about three business days.
3. Your supporter group. Add only the people who agreed in writing on your sign-up sheets, and record the consent date and source in a custom field.
4. Scheduled reminders. Schedule texts for the first day of early voting, the Saturday before the primary and primary day. Texts send only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient's time zone, and STOP replies are handled automatically. For example:

Hi [First name], it's [Name], running in the June 15 primary for [Office]. Early voting is open at the registrar's office. Reply STOP to opt out.

Today is the primary. Polls are open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thank you for your support. [Name]

100 free SMS included. Your number is $5 a month. For more wording, see our campaign text templates for local races, and for campaign texting in general, see our political texting page.

Phase 6: Primary day and the week after

• Saturday, June 12. Early in-person voting ends at 5:00 p.m. Confirm who will greet voters at which polling places on Tuesday.
• Tuesday, June 15. Polls are open from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Thank your volunteers by name.
• Week of June 21. If you won, plan for Tuesday, November 2, 2027: the last day to register is Friday, October 22, and early in-person voting ends on Saturday, October 30 (based on state law). If you lost, remember that your Declaration of Candidacy stated that your name would not be printed on the November ballot for that office (Va. Code § 24.2-520).

Begin in November

The candidates with the easiest January are the ones who confirmed their residency, their party's method and their notary in November. Start Phase 1 this month. When you are ready to keep supporters informed through early voting, start a CampaignCNX+ trial.