A member of Missy Cotter Smasal’s congressional campaign staff has filed a lawsuit against her asking to be paid for the time that he worked for her. Smasal ran as a Democrat and lost in Virginia’s Second Congressional District to Rep. Jen Kiggans in November.
Dawann Steagall said he was paid for his work in September but never received money for working in October and November.
In his text messages with Smasal’s campaign manager Brenna Crombie, Steagall asked her if the pay situation had been resolved.
Crombie responded by saying, “No unfortunately [to be honest] Missy is holding about 5 people’s pay hostage right now…”
Steagall then asked Crombie if she had been paid yet.
“No not yet,” she responded.
Steagall told Virginia Scope that he then decided to ask Smasal directly.
Smasal responded to his inquiry by starting a group chat with Steagall and Crombie.
“Dewann, thanks for reaching out,” Smasal wrote. “Brenna did not have authorization to hire a contractor during October and November, and told me that she made that clear. Brenna told me on multiple occasions that you were volunteering and trying to be helpful, and not officially working for the campaign. I think the two of you need to have a candid conversation. I’ve been told multiple times that you already had.”
Steagall said at no time was he ever under the impression he was a volunteer. He also points to the text messages from Crombie saying she was trying to get him the money he was due.
Steagall shared several pictures of calendar invites sent to “all staff” with his name included along with his campaign email, [email protected].
He said in his experience as the DCCC constituency organizing director for VA-02 in 2022, the campaign manager for Alex Askew in 2023 and as the constituency director for Michael Feggans in 2023, he has never seen volunteers do the work he was doing.
He staffed Smasal at multiple events, which is something volunteers do not do, he said.
After Smasal started the group chat with Steagall and Crombie, Crombie messaged Steagall separately.
“Buddy… you went directly to Missy? I just lost all of the power I had to get you that money by tomorrow. I’m sorry but now I no longer have the ability to do that.”
Steagall said that she quickly unsent the message, but he had already screenshot it.
“This is the part that kills me about this whole thing – I was called and offered the job – never applied,” Steagall said in an interview. “They reached out to me saying they needed help with some field stuff, some constituent work. And I, at the time, was like, you know, I’m down.”
Crombie and Smasal did not respond to requests for interviews to be included in this story.
The lawsuit was filed in the Virginia Beach General District Court.
Smasal lost to Rep. Jen Kiggans by four percentage points.
Smasal spent $3.2 million on the race, according to VPAP.