IRVINE, Calif. _ Robert Farnsworth is a moderate Republican voter, someone who thinks climate change is real but who's skeptical about raising the minimum wage.
He also hates Donald Trump _ a man he labels a "coward," "unpatriotic" and a "racist."
And yet, fury over a chaotic and polarizing presidency has not made Farnsworth _ or a few million Republican voters like him _ a sure vote for Democrats trying take the House. While he thinks Republican Mimi Walters in California's 45th Congressional District has been too deferential to Trump, the alternative is not a centrist Democrat palatable to right-leaning voters.
It's Katie Porter, an unapologetic liberal who has co-authored two books with Elizabeth Warren, attacks big banks, and advocates a single-payer health care system that would cost trillions to implement.
"If Katie Porter won," Farnsworth says over chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant on primary day, "I would have to take a hard look at it."
All across the midterm election map this year, voters will be torn between a visceral disgust of Trump's perceived racism and misogyny and a deep-seated concern that Democrats will over-tax and over-regulate the country. And nowhere is that tension more evident than in California's 45th District.
Indeed, the hesitation Farnsworth expressed is driving both parties' political strategies in districts that are home to many affluent, well-educated suburban voters. It has given Democrats new opportunities in once deep-red districts, ranging from Houston to Richmond, Va.
In Orange County _ once the beating heart of the modern GOP that until Hillary Clinton hadn't backed a Democratic for president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt _ Democrats are targeting four seats represented by Republicans.
"Trump was a shock to the system," said Tim Burns, a Democratic activist from Orange County. "That's why there is a congressional race here. This was not a place where serious Democrats would bother running or think it was even plausible to get into the race."
But like Farnsworth, many of the voters Democrats need to win over here are far from liberal. Republicans think they can still sway many of them with pocketbook arguments _ especially, they hope, against a big-government Democrat such as Porter.
