63 Magazine - Issue 1

A Day in
the Life
with Nia Bentall
My name: Nia Bentall
I work as a field organizer for: Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia (PPAV).
My job is to: 1) Educate Virginians about how the actions of their state legislature affect
Planned Parenthood and affect themselves; 2) lift up the stories of Virginians to members of the
state legislature; 3) build power for Planned Parenthood through volunteers.
This day in the life follows me through: Get Out the Vote (GOTV) for the Virginia state
senate elections. PPAV coordinated with the state party to organize around the race in Senate
District 10, an open seat.
This day in my life matters because: If we had won, the Democrats would have taken back
the Virginia senate. With a Democratic majority, the senate could have passed a Medicaid
expansion that would have provided healthcare for over 400,000 Virginians. We didn’t win,
but our work doesn’t stop.
Some extra context about this day in my life: GOTV was so bizarrely calm for me because
we worked so hard leading up to it. We had done full dry runs for GOTV each of the three
weekends prior to the final four days. After practicing everything so much, I was most useful
knocking on doors and letting my staging location director run the show, like she’d been
trained to do.
Following this day(s) in my life, I will: Continue my work as a field organizer. The good news
after this loss is that Planned Parenthood remains open. And now that we’ve built such an
incredible team of volunteers, we’re ready for the upcoming General Assembly and for the 2016
election. In Virginia, there are important races every year, so we always have something to
work for. People with a stake in movements don’t give up.