Until it underwent redistricting, my corner of Virginia, which has a distinct partisan lean in one direction, was custom-carved into four little fiefdoms for the opposing party. That meant challenger candidates needed all the help they could get. When a great candidate stepped up to throw herself against those carefully drawn barriers to election, I happily pitched in.

Over two different campaign cycles, I compiled several extensive opposition research dossiers on her opponent, tracking his comments in public and later, his votes in the legislature. I made sure to add research and context that would help the candidate explain why these votes tended to hurt people more than they helped. In a third cycle post-redistricting, I did likewise for the district’s new incumbent — until, realizing the new borders (as opposed to the previous ones he’d personally drawn to guarantee his election) would ensure the folks who lived here actually got represented, he dropped out of the race and the legislature.

And when a candidate needed more details on a given issue, I sprang into action. For an explainer on Medicaid expansion, I trawled research and interviewed industry  spokespeople. To assemble a backgrounder on the controversy over Confederate monuments, I found primary-source records of pro-Confederate speeches, plumbed the archives of the American Legion, and discovered the Wikipedia page for the memorial to Stonewall Jackson…’s severed arm.