We are seeing signs of it everywhere. People who were previously content to merely vote Democratic are now getting active. I want to talk about the opportunities in Virginia as this will be an early test of just how much the country does not like Trump.
Democrats have seen a surge of candidates filing to run for office. These candidates, some weak, some strong, will all bring with them their supporters. This will have the effect of driving up the Democratic vote for our state-wide candidates. This is being aided by Competitive Commonwealth, a group of Democrats who will pay the filing fee and fee for access to the Democratic data base for any Democratic challenger. This will enable these candidates to use the data base for their campaign, add their supporters to it, and thus build our party for congressional gains in 2018.
If Democrats are energized, Republicans are not. We are seeing retirements, James Massie, Peter Farrell, and of course, Speaker Howell. While Republicans have recruited candidates for these districts, retirements are an indication of which way the wind is blowing.
But the biggest indicator of the coming Democratic tsunami is all the people coming forward to join their local Democratic committee, and/or activist group. I was at a meeting of Virginia Bernie supporters last January and was blown away by the number of people there, and I am reliably informed that there are other kinds of groups equally large.
This is the kind of thing that polling does not pick up on. But once all these new activists set to work we will see shift in public opinion. Since their energy will be directed to local races it might not be picked up by national polling, but once the votes are counted this November, the ground will shift.
It would be nice if the Democratic National Committee would send some serious money into Virginia along with field operatives to teach all these newbies the art of precinct operations. Realistically we all know that is not going to happen, which is why I wrote my book The precinct captain's guide to political victory, described by one reader as “clearly written, right to the point and will certainly drive political campaigns to victory.” I did not write this book for candidates, nor campaign managers. I wrote this book for ordinary committee members with no or little experience and little institutional support from their local committee. It has everything you need to organize your precinct plus some tips for voter registration drives and how to fight voter suppression.