Barnett is in a rematch with Del. Roxann Robinson (R-Chesterfield), who’s held the seat since 2010. He first challenged her in 2017, losing by just 128 votes in a district that Trump won by four points.
“I met Larry for the first time and became interested in doing something other than being frustrated by the current state of affairs,” said Shelly, 63, a Midlothian retiree.
[Some conservative Republicans get on board with certain LGBT bills in Virginia]
Scribbling out postcards alongside veteran activists, Shelly said she has no particular beef with Robinson. The Republican had broken with her party this year to sponsor bills supporting the federal Equal Rights Amendment and banning anti-LGBT discrimination in housing. But Shelly wants to flip the House because Republican leaders kept those bills — and measures to restrict guns — from reaching the House floor, where they might have passed.
“I think I don’t have any really negative feelings about her, but I do have negative feelings about what hasn’t been done because of the [Republican] control,” Shelly said.
[Gun debate ends abruptly in Virginia as GOP-controlled legislature adjourns after 90 minutes]
North of the river, another lifelong Democrat was getting her first taste of campaign work. Lorine Colletti, 76, teamed up with her next-door neighbors to co-host a gathering for two Henrico County Democrats. Both flipped seats in the 2017 wave: Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg, who faces Republican GayDonna Vandergriff; and Del. Debra Rodman, who is trying to unseat Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant (R-Henrico).
Colletti, a retired high school cafeteria manager who also plans to canvass for the Democrats, was almost apologetic as she explained why she was motivated to do more this year.
“I’m sorry to bring this up because this is just local people, but my big thing is the president,” she said. “What he’s doing to the children down there on the [U.S.-Mexico] border, how he speaks about women — I don’t know how any woman could vote for that gentleman. We can’t tolerate another four years.”
Her comment — that the legislative candidates are “just local people” — is central to the strategy of many Republicans trying to keep a distance from Trump, whose approval rating among Virginians was 27 percent in a recent Roanoke College poll.
Virginia has part-time lawmakers, many of them known in their districts for their community service or “day jobs.” GOP leaders say that nationalizing races against a local teacher, coach, pharmacist or doctor will be difficult.
To that end, House Speaker Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights), a retired teacher and baseball coach facing a challenge in a redrawn district from Democrat Sheila Bynum-Coleman, released a cinematic, 60-second TV ad celebrating his days as “Coach Cox.” Dunnavant, an obstetrician-gynecologist who has delivered thousands of babies in the area, plays that up in her campaign slogan: “Dunnavant delivers.”
[In Virginia, redrawn districts test Republicans — including House Speaker Kirk Cox]
“It’s super cool when you’re knocking on a door and they’re like, ‘Oh, she delivered my child! Do you want to meet my child?’ ” said Kristen Bennett, 22, Dunnavant’s volunteer coordinator. “It’s a very emotional connection.”
One of Dunnavant’s most devoted foot soldiers is a patient, Diane Schriewer, 71. She had an appointment the day after the doctor announced her 2015 bid and has been volunteering for her ever since.
Although they have so far emphasized broadly popular “kitchen table” issues such as K-12 education and college affordability, some Republicans eventually plan to raise more partisan issues to turn out the GOP base. They note that conservative activists have been fired up by Democrats’ unsuccessful effort this year to loosen restrictions on late-term abortions and restrict guns after a mass shooting in Virginia Beach. They also say that Trump has fans even in the suburbs, noting that a Women for Trump event drew a big crowd in August in deeply blue Fairfax.
But issues that most animate Republicans also carry a risk in the suburbs, where they have the potential to turn off swing voters and inflame Democrats. Most of that will come late in the cycle, in highly targeted mailings and digital ads, said one GOP strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss strategy.
“Once we remind them of the issues, they’re going to go vote,” the strategist said. “Guns and abortion, benefits for illegals — there will be tons of mail on that.”
Part of what motivates Democrats is how close they came to flipping the House two years ago. Even Democratic Party leaders did not anticipate wiping out the GOP’s 2-to-1 majority in the House, the only chamber up for election that year. Control came down to a single race and dumb luck, with a name drawn out of a bowl to decide a tie. The Republican incumbent won, allowing his party to hang on to the House.
[A rare, random drawing helped Republicans win a tied Virginia election, but it may not end there]
“We’re so close, you can taste it,” Robyn Sordelett, 32, a social worker who wants stricter gun laws, said at the event Colletti helped host for Henrico Democrats. “The Virginia that I want for my children, that my children deserve and all children deserve, is four seats away.”
Win or lose in November, Democrats say they will keep going. Twice a week, Cindy Sussan opens the first floor of her Midlothian house to volunteers.
About 30 were at work one recent Tuesday at her kitchen and dining room tables, and at six-foot banquet tables set up in the sun room and in what used to be a fancy living room.
The retired analyst did the same thing for Spanberger last year. Volunteers cranked out 10,000 postcards for the U.S. representative, who will be up for reelection in 2020.
This year, Sussan is focused on Barnett and other Chesterfield Democrats. Next year, she said, she’ll be back to Spanberger.
“The house stays like this. We don’t tear it down,” said Sussan, 68. “We’ll go through the election, we’ll take the rest of the month off, [plus] December and January. And then we’ll start up again for Abigail.”