SANTA ANA, Calif._Saturday morning at the Tustin corporate office park headquarters of Katie Porter, volunteers ready to knock on doors ranged in age from a 1-year-old strapped to his mother, to a woman who said she was "old enough that I remember World War II."
Britta Lindgren, who did not want to give her exact age other than to say she was in the last quadrant of her life, had driven an hour and half from her home in West L.A. to volunteer for Porter, a first-time Democrat challenging Rep. Mimi Walters, R-Calif., in a district that has never sent a Democrat to Congress.
"I remember Hitler and Mussolini. I don't want to be alarmist but it feels the same," she said.
She said she was particularly affected by last Saturday's mass shooting that left 11 dead at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
"This caricature of a president hasn't taken proper notice of this tragedy," she said. "I'm alarmed at what we've become."
Luka, who just turned 1, was riding in a cloth carrier worn by his mother, Raisa Orleans, 32. Orleans, who has always been a registered Democrat, said she has canvassed dozens of times over the last decade, but the enthusiasm for this campaign season felt different.
"This is incredible energy, I've never seen this before," she said. "The stakes feel more important."
Also getting ready to knock on doors was 7-year-old Neko Hall and her trusty colorful stuffed-animal hamster, Neon. It was the first time canvassing for Neko with her father, 49-year-old Landon Hall, but she had plenty of experience going door to door and talking to strangers selling Girl Scout cookies.
Landon Hall said it was the deadly high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that compelled him to get actively engaged, especially as a father with two young daughters. After nearly a decade of living in Lake Forest, which is conservative even for a district that has traditionally been a Republican stronghold, this election feels different, said Hall, who works for an alternative energy nonprofit.
"It feels like it's within reach," he said. "It should send a message if a Democrat wins in a district like this."
Paul Samuels, 66, said he'd last knocked on doors in 1964 for Lyndon B. Johnson as a precocious 13-year-old in Winnetka, Ill, influenced by his Republican father. As an adult, he's always been a Democrat but never got personally involved other than voting and donating small amounts, he said.
"This election is different, it really matters," Samuels, a semi-retired business litigator, said. "I get sick watching the news; I'm sick of the lies."
Things had changed, he discovered, in the five decades since he last canvassed _ he was struggling to figure out the app that would tell him which doors to knock on. He had to head back to the campaign headquarters twice for help with the app. Once he got that figured out, talking to voters won't be a problem, he said _ he's good with juries.
