| Susan Swecker | |
| Office: | Chair of the Virginia Democratic Party |
| Term Start: | June 28, 2015 |
| Predecessor: | Dwight Clinton Jones |
| Birth Name: | Susan Reid Swecker |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Education: | Mary Baldwin College (BA) Washington and Lee University (JD) |
Susan Reid Swecker is an American public affairs consultant serving as the chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia since 2015. She was chairwoman of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
Swecker was raised on a farm in Highland County, Virginia.[1] She grew up in Stuarts Draft, Virginia. She volunteered in the Jimmy Carter 1976 presidential campaign.[2] Swecker served as chairman of the democratic party of Highland County for six months. She earned a B.A. in political science at Mary Baldwin College in 1977.[3] She completed a Juris Doctor degree at the Washington and Lee University School of Law.
She began working as a legislative aide for state senator Frank W. Nolen following his special election win in 1977. In January 1978, Swecker conducted her first visit to the Virginia General Assembly. She worked on the 1978 U.S. senate campaign of Andrew Miller. She moved to Blue Ridge, Virginia in 1978. In 1980, she was a field operations assistant with the United States Census Bureau where she supervised crew leaders and enumerators. The position ended in mid-June. In June 1981, she was elected first vice president of the Blue Ridge Democratic Women's Club.[4] On December 3, 1981, Swecker, a member of the Augusta County Democratic Committee, was elected to serve a two-year term as its chair.[5] [6] From 1986 to 1988, she was the executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia.[7] She served as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's southern caucus. In 1992, Swecker served as the campaign manager of Steve Musselwhite, a first-time candidate for Virginia's 6th congressional district.
In 2000, Swecker was chairwoman of the Virginia delegation to the Democratic National Convention.[8] She successfully lobbied the Virginia General Assembly for the 2004 Virginia Democratic presidential primary to occur in February, prompting visits by its candidates. She was the state director of the John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign.[9]
Swecker was chairwoman of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.[10] In 2013, she served on the transition team of Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe. She was a member of the Democratic National Committee. In 2015, she was elected as chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, succeeding Dwight Clinton Jones.[11] In 2022, she was reelected as party chair. During her tenure, the party expanded from four full-time staff and an annual operating budget of under to 15 unionized full-time staff members and a budget of over .[12] She is a public affairs consultant and the president of Dividing Waters Public Affairs LLC.[13]