As part of the NEW Dominion, Stafford County delivered 46% of its votes for Barack Obama...in 2004, only 37% voted for John Kerry. The remarkable and indefatigable work of the Campaign for Change coordinator, David James, is cited and praised herein.
The numbers are staggering on the face of it, but not wholly unexpected:
In 2004, Bush beat Kerry, 28,500 to 16,623, 62% to 37%.
In 2008, McCain beat Obama, 29,221 to 25,716, 53% to 46%.
That is an astounding shift. McCain gained only 721 votes over what Bush received in 2004. Obama gained 9,093 votes over what Kerry received in 2004. Truly, 2008 might be the year that Virginia seceded from The Confederacy!
From my perspective as a Precinct Captain on Election Day (pace Paul Begala, Election Day is The Olympics for out-of-shape people), I knew we were seeing an extraordinarily heavy turnout. Counting absentees, we got around a 79% turnout, over 75% in the county as a whole.
In 2006, when Jim Webb upset George Allen (and how HUGE does that look now?), Stafford delivered 43.09% of its vote for Webb. I knew that if Stafford could top 44%, Obama was going to win Virginia. When we got word that night (heck of a great party, too!) we'd delivered 46%, it was a lead-pipe cinch.
It could not have happened without the incredible effort of young David James.
David is the godson of a close family friend, he is a tall, good-looking young man of 20 whose father is British and whose late mother was American. He attends Oxford and was here on sabbatical organizing the effort in Stafford County. He did more than yeomanlike work, he was a true Stakhanovite. He worked, almost literally, 24-7; our friend would frequently find him asleep over his keyboard, on the nights when he came home. I was very pleased that the Campaign for Change gave David a paid position, but he was so committed he would have volunteered his time. He is an enormously talented, resourceful, and charismatic young man who demonstrated real leadership.
He, along with the thousands of other Obama staffers and volunteers around the nation, midwifed the birth of this new Democratic Majority.
We Stafford Democrats are trying to see if we can get David hooked up with a White House Internship for the Summer of 2009. If you have any insight and can provide any assistance, please let me know.