In local political races, handshaking and door knocking are often the name of the game. But some D.C. candidates are reconsidering that calculation over concerns about the spread of coronavirus, especially in the part of the city that saw the District’s first case of COVID-19 and is among the most high-profile council races this year: Ward 2.

Supporters of Patrick Kennedy’s bid for the Ward 2 council seat received an email on Thursday morning: the Foggy Bottom Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner announced he would be suspending all door-to-door canvassing and meet-and-greet events for at least the next two weeks.

Like many people, Kennedy and other members of his campaign have been monitoring the situation in the District—Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a state of emergency on Wednesday in response to the coronavirus as regional cases continue to climb. While D.C. allows for no-excuse absentee voting, there’s still the question of how candidates will try to convince voters to choose them.

“It really started to hit home last weekend with the confirmed case of Reverend [Tim] Cole,” Kennedy tells DCist. Cole, the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the District, serves as the rector at Christ Church Georgetown. Since then, hundreds of people have been asked to self-quarantine if they attended the church during a timespan ranging from late February to early March. Kennedy notes that a large number of those people live in Georgetown and elsewhere in Ward 2. 

This year, there is no incumbent in the crowded Ward 2 primary, which is scheduled for June 2. That’s because Jack Evans, who held the seat for 29 years, resigned in January amid an ethics scandal, prompting the D.C. Board of Elections to schedule a special election on June 16. Now, Evans is among the candidates in both of those races.

After the news about Christ Church Georgetown, Kennedy’s campaign decided to move a canvass slated this weekend for Georgetown to another neighborhood, before deciding to stop going door-to-door altogether (he’s still trying to reach voters through phone banking and online). He says that many of the campaign’s volunteers are senior citizens, and his campaign manager’s daughter is among those in a vulnerable population. Plus, he’s seen a drop-off of volunteers in recent days.

While the D.C. Health Department advised on Wednesday that any non-essential gatherings of 1,000 people or more be postponed or cancelled, it would be extraordinary rare for a ward-level race to have an event reaching those numbers. (That doesn’t mean that smaller in-person events aren’t impacted—the Citizens Association of Georgetown postponed its Ward 2 candidate forum planned for Monday.)

Kennedy says that this is “the only decision I could really justify—I don’t think people are exactly eager to open the doors or eager to attend events. There’s a lot of concern in my ward.”

And he’s not the only competitor in Ward 2 making that choice. DCist reached out to all eight candidates in the Ward 2 primary and the additional Republican competing in the special election to see where they stood. All commented but Evans, who did not respond to our requests.

Jordan Grossman is among those postponing in-person campaign events, like a door-to-door canvass initially planned for this weekend. “Once the city had a state of emergency and I started seeing public health experts recommend that even smaller gatherings should be avoided, we made it clear we’re going to take as many precautions as possible,” says Grossman, a former Obama administration official.

As of Friday morning, Logan Circle ANC John Fanning, another Ward 2 prospect, is “suspending all campaign activity,” he says. He notes that fears over coronavirus “ changed the whole dynamic and approach with people” while campaigning. Rather than shaking hands, “we’re doing elbow bumps and some folks don’t want me to touch them at all … It does change a lot because voter engagement is a big part of campaigning”

Since collecting signatures at the Safeway in Georgetown last Sunday, Fanning has been wondering if he interacted with folks who had just attended service at Christ Church Georgetown. 

Brooke Pinto, a former policy worker at the D.C. Office Attorney General is also “suspending all campaign events and volunteer canvassing for two weeks in order to do our part to flatten the curve,” she says over email. “We are considering creative ways to get our message to voters and are trying to find ways to adapt in an environment that is impossible to predict. But most importantly, everyone must stay safe, healthy, and calm.”

Another Ward 2 candidate who is paring down her campaign is Yilin Zhang, according to campaign manager Jessica Bailey. Zhang “has cancelled all of her public fundraising events, suspended canvassing, and is minimizing public appearances,” Bailey says over email.

Bailey notes that this might put Zhang at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to collecting signatures for her special election petition, which is due March 18. She says that the campaign has reached out to the D.C. Board of Elections about extending the deadline.

The D.C. Board of Elections has not responded to DCist’s request for comment about whether they would consider extending the deadline past next week.

It’s not just special election candidates worried about the impact of coronavirus on their ability to collect signatures. A campaign to get the decriminalization of psychedelics on the ballot this November announced on Thursday that it was postponing the official issuance of its petitions until April.

“The combination of public fear, lack of testing, and an expanding shutdown of 2020 election activities has made it obvious this isn’t the time to be knocking on doors and engaging DC voters.” said campaign spokesman Seth Rosenberg in a statement. While the D.C. Board of Elections voted in favor of this postponement at its March meeting, it has yet to extend the deadline for the Ward 2 special election petitions.

Kishan Putta, a Georgetown ANC rep, said that while his campaign is not organizing or attending large gatherings, “I do think that we’ll continue to knock on doors, and if people are not comfortable coming to their door, that’s totally fine … Neither the [Centers for Disease Control] nor the mayor have said anything about not venturing out of your house.” 

Putta counts former surgeon general Vivek Murthy among his supporters, and says that the experts he has consulted with say “it’s okay to canvass and [literature] drop. We met neighbors yesterday to talk, not touch.”

Daniel Hernandez, a Microsoft employee trying to represent Ward 2 as a Democrat on the council, also planned to knock on doors this Saturday—a tactic that he says has been his campaign’s primary focus. “I do feel like just knocking on the door, keeping distance, and no contact still gives you the opportunity to see each other face to face and exchange a few words,” he says. “But obviously if people are uncomfortable with that, then we’ll avoid it.” 

But at least one candidate, Republican Katherine Venice, doesn’t tend to go door-to-door much. “I have generally preferred to avoid knocking on doors as it felt to me to be somewhat invasive of people’s privacy,” she says over email. “My preferred method has been to canvass on the street … I love doing it this way because it allows people the freedom to easily walk straight past or choose to stop if they are so inclined.” She says she is currently evaluating whether she will continue her street canvassing.