Flipping the Tenth

The GOP, led by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, its soulless coldblooded undertaker, busily kept spading the Great Republic underground by putting on the Supreme Court a second sexual predator, making two on its male contingent of six, counterpoised by its three female justices all appointed by democrats, to go along with the faux justice the republicans added last year, occupier of the purloined seat stolen from the popularly elected President Obama the year before.  Depressing, yeah, but don't get mad, get even.  Into the breach, again.

So I drove 30 miles out to Manassas Park at noon to canvass for state senator Jennifer Wexton, who is running for Congress in the Tenth District opposing Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, a rare Republican incumbent in Northern Virginia.  After 5 minutes of group training, I was given a script, a tally sheet, a stack of campaign literature, and a dozen sheets of dedicated names and addresses of prospective democrats in a neighborhood.  An exclusive neighborhood full of half-million dollar homes 30 miles further west in Haymarket.  Future Congresswoman Wexton.

Finding the locale of winding roads and cul-de-sacs in this well-manicured neighborhood solely by dint of my car's Garmin, I spent about three hours canvassing the area alone, knocking on doors at about thirty specified addresses, finishing half my sheets.  The results were  surprising, especially given that this was definitely enemy territory for angry democrats.  Training.

Not so fast, this is what my limited sampling revealed to me at least, and it seems to me at least that the Donald's base is starting to fray, in educated, suburban coastal regions at least.  And I didn't experience anything but courteous encounters.  The target subdivision.

All tallies are approximate:

Knocks on doors:  30
No answer, whether somebody was home or not (left rolled-up literature on doorknob):  15
Self-declared Republicans definitely voting "independent" (for Wexton/Senator Tim Kaine):  3 (two of those households had couples who were both voting blue) (two of those households were minority occupants)
Household where the male was voting red and the female was voting blue:  1
Household where the male occupant was returning to a "straight party line vote" (blue) for the first time in a long time:  1
Definite No to Wexton:  1
The rest Undecided still, some asked for literature, many stated they would vote for Kaine at least.
Issues briefly discussed or stated as important:  Second Amendment, 3 (once strongly); Right to Life, 1; Local Traffic (it's horrible out there!), 1; coddling criminals (a smear campaign against Wexton, a former prosecutor), 1.

Some Notes:
The number of Undecideds for Wexton who stated they would vote for Kaine is probably due to two reasons--lack of knowledge about Wexton or her positions; and the ballot alternative to Democrat Tim Kaine is Republican Corey Stewart, a Stars and Bars waving faux-Confederate (he's from Minnesota) who is described in some circles as a racist.  The Rebel Heritage bit doesn't necessarily play well in Northern Virginia.
One passerby walking his dog signed a Pledge to Vote card after a discussion about traffic; guns; and criminal defendants.
I was going to engage from the sidewalk one man working in his driveway about Wexton reaching out to her constituents to see what issues were important to them, as an opener, till I saw the Comstock sticker on his parked BMW.  I walked on to my next listed address nearby instead.  It was the only openly partisan sign I saw in the subdivision.
Three persons reached out in a spontaneous handshake after our brief discussion.