There have been many of these heartening stories in the diaries, but they're always uplifting so here goes mine.
I have always been the one unabashed left wing Democrat in a Republican family. How Republican are they? My mother, although a wonderful person in most other ways, was not at all upset when JFK was assassinated. And although she raised my brother and I from a very early age by herself after a divorce, and has always had to work for a living and still works at the age of 84, she still thinks the Republicans have her best interests at heart.
My brother was a proud frat boy, got a degree in nuclear engineering and became a mechanical engineer. He was never a right wing fanatic, but made good money and thought the Republicans had the best policies for his circumstances. (And he was probably right, for a while.)
I first voted in the 1972 Nixon-McGovern election and have voted the Democratic ticket every time, which has not made me a winner all that often over the years. My mother voted Republican every time, as did my brother until 2004. It was my brother who started to change first, as he became increasingly disgusted with George W. Bush and the direction the country was taking. He voted for Kerry in 2004, and I'm glad to say that he's for Obama this time to the extent that he sends money regularly to the campaign. And although I have always voted Democratic, I must note that this is the first election in which I have been motivated enough to put a candidate's bumper sticker on my car or give cash donations.
My mother - well, that will be harder. I was excited when she said a couple of months ago that she might vote for Obama (she has never liked McCain.) But recently I fear that she's been listening to right wing friends and media, and now she says she still has "questions" about Obama and doesn't think she can vote for him. My brother and I are still working on her, and we can only hope for another miraculous conversion.
But to end on a positive note, my wife and two daughters (the latter too young to vote, unfortunately) are passionately for Obama, so the family is getting bluer every day.