About Dave

Dave has been the Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA) Vice-chair for Technology and Communications since 2013. In that role he started the Tech Working Group, a thriving community forum for exchange of ideas and best practices among Virginia’s Democratic tech volunteers. Dave has been an invaluable asset to the state party staff, playing a very hands on and active role with the Tech, Data, and Digital departments. He also represents DPVA on the Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC) Tech Committee.

Prior to joining DPVA’s Steering Committee while still a Young Democrat, Dave was an elected member of the Central Committee from the 8th Congressional District. He also served for many years as Arlington Democrat’s Tech Director.

Dave has been active in Virginia Democratic politics since he was a kid, serving in his first role as President of his high school’s Young Democrats club in Virginia Beach. He has been active in just about every local, regional, and statewide election since.

Fun fact! This website utilizes the official Democratic Party of Virginia color palette. Dave helped design and deploy this new logo and branding in 2015 to all local committees and state caucuses.

Dave is the Director of Strategic Projects for Microsoft’s Defending Democracy Program. In his role, he works with campaigns and election management bodies in the US and internationally on tech and security best practices. Lately, that has meant a lot of Teams meetings with governments around the world as they figure out how to virtualize their work. And while the Defending Democracy team is strictly nonpartisan, Dave also represents Microsoft (in a strictly non sales capacity) to the Democratic Party and progressive tech vendors in the US. He also leads the Microsoft Democrats employee club and steers the company’s Civic Engagement efforts.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Dave was Vice President of Salsa Labs, a digital advocacy firm for progressive nonprofits and Democratic campaigns. Before that, he started the training and analytics practices at Blue State Digital and served as its liaison to the Obama Campaign in 2007-2008.

Dave is well-known in the halls of Democratic National Headquarters. He has worked closely with the last 6 DNC Chief Technology Officers, and advocates on behalf of Virginia to every Democratic political entity in DC. Dave is a frequent speaker and moderator at conferences like Campaign Tech and Nonprofit Tech. He is repeatedly asked by Committee leaders to write directional guidance memos and is a regular contributor to several publications like Campaigns & Elections Magazine.  Dave trains campaigns throughout Virginia, as well as other state Democratic parties, on campaign best practices for tech and digital.

Dave served a four-year term by appointment of Gov. McAuliffe on the Virginia Air & Space Center’s Board of Directors. He now serves by appointment of Gov. Northam on the board of the Online Virginia Network Authority.

Dave is blessed to be a husband, father to two wonderful daughters, rescuer to pups, son, brother, and devoted family man. He has been a Virginian for about 30 years, growing up in Virginia Beach and living in Arlington for the past 17 years. Dave chose to stay in Virginia for college, attending William & Mary where he studied Physics, Computer Science, and Math and developed one of the earliest online social networks in the world. Dave has an MS in particle physics from University of Washington in Seattle. In his spare time, he loves good food, good beer, hiking, biking, and getting his kids outdoors.