Photo by Erin Edgerton
Political observers around the country are closely watching the 7th District congressional race, as a potential gauge of the national mood. Republican incumbent Dave Brat won reelection two years ago with little trouble, but this time he faces a Democratic opponent with a formidable war chest and an army of volunteers.
“If Freedom Caucus darling Brat loses in such a generally GOP district, that means the Democratic wave is real and persistent,” says Rich Meagher, a political science professor at Randolph-Macon College.
“It’s potentially going to be very close,” says Geoffrey Skelley, a spokesman for the University of Virginia Center for Politics, noting that Republican Ed Gillespie won the 7th by a relatively narrow margin of 4 percentage points in last year’s gubernatorial contest in which Democrat Ralph Northam prevailed.
As the fall campaign season started, we tagged along with volunteers for each candidate as they made their pitch to voters.
The Brat Pack
Taylor DeSell (Photo by Grady Trexler)
Field organizer Taylor DeSell has going door-to-door down to a science. On an 80-degree Saturday in early September, he’s working the neighborhoods around Collegiate School in western Henrico County. The Virginia Commonwealth University senior is already a veteran, having assisted the Gillespie campaign last year. An international relations major, he hopes to land a job with the U.S. State Department when he graduates. He says he respects Brat for his economic experience and the fact that the Republican, first elected in 2014, has set himself a 12-year term limit for his time in Congress.
When someone answers the door, DeSell introduces himself and asks if the person knows who he or she will be voting for in the upcoming election. He hands them some Brat literature and continues the conversation if they seem to be interested. If no one answers, he sticks a flier in the door as securely as possible.
No one answers at the majority of houses we visit. The handful of voters who do answer their doors are mostly uninterested in talking. A few say they plan to vote for Brat; others don’t want to discuss their choice. One neighborhood resident, who introduces herself as Ms. Pellei, approaches us and asks for a sign to put in her yard.
Patrick Snow, a regional field director, says campaign volunteers are optimistic, but he acknowledges it’s a tough race. For DeSell, there is no doubt Brat will win. “I wouldn’t be out here,” he says, “if I thought we were going to lose.”
Virginia Chambers and Mary Alice Kukoski (Photo by Taylor Mills)
Team Spanberger
“I think the biggest accomplishment would be to have record high voter turnout,” says Virginia Chambers, a Spanberger campaign volunteer. “Obviously, we want Abigail to win, but I would say it would be a victory of a different kind blowing out any previous turnout on Election Day.”
Chambers and Mary Alice Kukoski, both with University of Virginia Democrats, are visiting several neighborhoods in Henrico County’s Brookland District. Besides Spanberger, they’re also stumping for Danny Plaugher, a candidate for the Henrico Board of Supervisors.
Volunteers break into pairs with pamphlets, street maps and voter lists to begin knocking on doors.
When talking with residents, they mention Spanberger’s history as a former CIA officer and her stance on issues such as health care, gun violence and education. One potential voter, Stephanie Van Saun, says that education is a priority for her. Others bring up infrastructure, health care and law enforcement.
“I am just excited to ... talk to potential voters and be able to tell them the importance of voting,” Kukoski says.
Bo Brown (Photo by Taylor Mills)
Walton for the Win
As a third-party candidate, Libertarian Joe Walton has a smaller volunteer base than the major candidates he is running against. At the Powhatan County Labor Day Parade, Walton is accompanied only by his family and the chairman of the Virginia Libertarian Party, Bo Brown.
“It would be nice to have a huge amount of support, but I don’t necessarily think that translates to votes,” says Walton, a former chairman of the Powhatan Board of Supervisors and a senior information technology auditor at VCU. As the November elections draw near, he and his volunteers will be more visible canvassing, he says.
One of the volunteers working on Walton’s campaign is Ray Betancourt, an industrial engineer who lives in western Henrico. He helps with the campaign phone bank, calling people to “get the word out about Joe” and the Libertarian Party. Many people he talks with do not know what Libertarians are, he says, adding that his main goal is to get people thinking. “We need to get the Libertarian Party a major-party status,” Betancourt says. “To get people to realize our entire system of government is not binary, it is not ‘A’ or ‘B.’ ”
Besides liking the Libertarian Party and its emphasis on personal freedom, Betancourt says he admires Walton as a candidate. “He hasn’t gotten into calling names, playing dirty or releasing dirty information,” Betancourt says. “He’s kept it clean and that is one of the biggest things I look for in a candidate.”
