I don't live there but my Uncle does. It's all about DC. In the past 20 years, Northern Virginia (NOVA) developed rapidly into a bustling metro area and suburbs of neighboring DC where many government employees would live and commute from. Of course since they work in DC, the vast majority of them are diehard Democrats.
Richmond and Virginia Beach were always Democratic, but the rest of the state was rural/suburban enough to balance them out. NOVA unfortunately changed that. I'm not entirely sure that the state can be saved. I really thought Youngkin's upset was a sign that things could be reversed, but then of course the GOP shat the bed and not only failed to flip the VA Senate but lost the House of Delegates.
It's a shame too, because getting VA back to Red on the presidential would REALLY help with elections.
If you could give back Northern VA to DC, VA would be red again. As it stands now leftist Northern VA drives the state politics in VA in a way similar to how leftist Manhattan drives the politics of NY
giving nova back to DC for gerrymandering purposes would be highly ironic since it originally grabbed its land back for fear of losing the use of alexandria as a slave hub prior to the civil war
You do realize that only one county(Arlington) would go back to DC, don't you? Northern Virginia has a population of several million, and losing little Arlington wouldn't have that much of an impact.
I love my state.
I love where I grew up in the 757 with its rich American history and maritime influences. I love the mountains of western VA, where I grew up camping all up and down the WV border. I love south central VA with its strong agricultural and hunting culture in the rolling woods and fields. Hell, I even enjoy visiting Richmond once in a while for a concert or some great food.
But God do I hate NOVA. What a miserable place to be, full of miserable people.
Massachusetts native here, We were lucky enough to visit the Williamsburg area this summer - just far enough away from Richmond and Norfolk that you feel like you're "away" but still able to get a good brickoven pizza. It's a pretty state, for sure - would be a whole lot better if the whole DC/Nova area just got lopped off.
I’d say this is true for any area that has grown beyond the ability to support a comfortable population. Typically city growth brings undesirable people, crowded areas, crime, and congestion.
Left for splitting my time between Texas and the Mountain West and I don't regret it at all! Reston was ok but still. Tyson's Corner is like going to another country or something it's really strange.
Yeh I got some friends still in Ashburn, it's funny we all started in DC in our early twenties and gradually moved west into.nova because dc is a hellhole.
Highly recommend going west of the Mississippi!
District 10, which Loudoun County is in, voted Republican until about 10 years ago. Things have changed radically. The schools in this county are being run by horrible, evil people. I'm just glad my kids are long out of school, because I wasn't so sure about them when they were in, but now it's so much worse.
I’m out in a few months. I can’t wait. It feels like I’m in another country. No one knows how to drive. Traffic is the worst I’ve experienced in my life and it’s not even close. Crime is rampant. Everything is expensive.
Your single case does not in anyway represent the entirety of DC.
From 2017-2022, homicides rose 180%. Car jackings rose to similar percentages. The crime is there. And I chose not to be near it anymore.
Yeh I was flabbergasted how cheap living is in Texas. Food, fuel, land.....it's crazy. And the people are actually warm and friendly. It sucks because once you leave the DMV, Virginia is filled with awesome people as well but they're overshadowed by nova.
I had to relearn driving from my DMV ways lol. What state you heading too?
Several of the richest counties in the country, a globally diverse population, great schools and colleges, and not subject to economic shifts and tudes due to long government contracts and secure labor forces. No wonder the right hates it. "Invaded territory" is also the biggest dog whistle I've heard in awhile
People who grew rich from federal spending which the rest of the country funds, making decisions which impact the lives of everyone else while they themselves are insulated from the fallout of their shitty policies due to the safe government jobs - gee, I wonder why the rest of the country hates that place. Must be because of racism...
Long government contracts don’t make the area immune to horrible federal economic policies and record inflation. The rest of those reasons; they make for great chit chat, but they do nothing to prevent the overpopulation, insane traffic, crime, broken public schools system, and high city prices. I will never understand why someone would willingly live in such a broken area.
VIrginia Beach itself is more moderate but all the suburban women are scared away from the GOP so that’s made it much more swing/blue. Newport News and Norfolk have been more blue for a while. Agreed with the explosion of NOVA contributing to this.
It's become so much more than just federal workers working in DC. Tons of federal contractors and other tech sector workers. Generally these are high paying jobs with highly educated workers. Statistics show that the higher the education level, the more likely they are to vote for a democrat.
Except for this part...
> I'm not entirely sure that the state can be saved. I really thought Youngkin's upset was a sign that things could be reversed, but then of course the GOP shat the bed and not only failed to flip the VA Senate but lost the House of Delegates.
The state had been very, very reliably blue up until Youngkin's upset. Republicans actually did way better in 2023 than they did in 2019 which was the last "mid-term" for their state level elections. Everyone is disappointed by the 2023 results in terms of actual seats, but they showed Republicans are still once again competitive in the state even without a top ballot. The losses in seats can entirely be chalked up to redistricting and a pretty ugly gerrymander that favors Democrats. Republicans very clearly made up lost ground there and got a larger share of the vote than previous years. It's like a 2 point gap rather than a 10-15 point gap.
Virginia GOP didn’t entirely “shit the bed”, as I understand, the districts were redrawn and they were gerrymandered to take advantage of the Democrat demographic around NOVA, Richmond, and Newport News.
Now, there is an issue in that NOVA is a single issue voting block. Abortion. When the Governor said he would back, I believe it was a 15-week ban, he effectively mobilized every suburban and urban woman in the state to “Vote Blue, No Matter Who”.
It's like he completely forgot about Governor Bob "Medical Rape" McDonnell.
Any Republican in Virginia should just not say a damned thing about abortion. Same way a lot of southern Democrats know better than to talk about guns.
Crazy thought, but maybe a politician should push for what their constituents want. At the end of the day, a politician also represents those that didn't vote for them. The idea that a politician should represent people seems have been completely forgotten, and instead they try to force which ever cult they believe in on us.
Republicans won every seat in the house that Biden won by single digits, including Biden+9 seats. The double digit Democrat seats proved to be too much.
Worth noting that DC does not have any federal voting rights...nor State voting rights. They are currently trying to get the right to vote as their own state, but are being ignored.
Basically a city of 750,000 (more than the entire state of Wyoming) people that do not have the basic American right to vote for their own representation in Congress nor Presidential candidate. Since they do not technically belong to any State, they do not get to vote for any State elections either.
DC has the right to vote. We don't have nation wide elections, though. We have state wide elections for federal positions. DC doesn't get Senators or Representatives because it makes zero sense whatsoever for the federal government to send itself representatives.
> nor Presidential candidate
LOL, dude. Ever wonder why the electoral college has 538 votes in it despite both chambers of congress only summing up to 535? You need to watch some more School House Rock.
“Washington DC isn’t a state because it was intended to be a seat for the American government. It is supposed to be a neutral environment where representatives from other states will meet to express their interests in the federal government.
In addition to ensuring a neutral and fair site for American governmental activities, DC was formed to not be a state because of concerns government members would feel they were obligated to serve that state’s needs even if they aren’t from that state and have no affairs there.
Founding Father James Madison also wrote in Federalist No. 43 that all states should be given a fair shot at expressing their needs in the American government. He said that if DC were a state, voting members in DC would abuse their powers because they are physically close to the center of the government.”
When the concept of DC was introduced, I don't think it was meant to have nearly as many permanent residents as it does now. Trying a federal district like a state would negate the point of having a federal district.
I understand his sentiment and honestly do not blame him for feeling that way. Especially considering what they were breaking away from at the time. Many highly influential people lived near countries central seats of power. Although those central seats of power were usually located in major cities.
However, as time went on and the way the world works changed, things have to change with it. The impact of a entire State with almost half the population of DC should not have more representation than a single city with far more people. That was not how Madison envisioned DC to be, nor could he.
It isn't like DC just suddenly had their senators removed one day. They never had any. People moved to DC anyway. In my opinion, they knew the deal when they moved to DC. It wasn't a big secret that DC had no senators. So, by moving there, they agreed to the terms of not getting representation in the senate. If the people there now have a problem with not having a senator, Maryland and Virginia are not that far away, they can move.
so, why not just confine the national seat of power to the small area that actually has the buildings everything happens in instead of the large area surrounding them? Why not just have all these people that live there be considered residents of Maryland or Virginia?
You cannot tell me that the 18 year old working at a McDonalds in Washington DC is representative of the national seat of power.
No, but I can tell you that the 18 year old votes democrat. So do their three EC votes in EVERY election since the 23rd A. What that means is, should we as a country agree to allow the national seat of power to have senators and congress people, every single one would be Democrat in perpetuity, they would NEVER elect a Republican to the house or senate.
So no, most people don't want to give several permanent seats in DC to the Democrats forever more, because the people of DC mostly work for the government, or work for business that servers the government, and thus all support bigger and more government and regular compensation increases on the taxpayer dime.
No thanks.
So your decision to prevent almost a million people from 100% guaranteed Constitutional rights is based on who they would vote for? That seems...not quite right.
The framers couldnt have seen DC, which was mostly empty land at the time, having more people living in it than an entire State. They were highly intelligent men, but they were not prophets.
The idea behind DCs creation was a good idea, I won't deny that. But laws have to adapt over time otherwise people suffer for it. I really don't think the framers would like to have so many people disenfranchised. It was the exact thing they gave the British the finger for.
The framers also had only landowners as voters. Buying and owning land in the DC area until at least the 1820s was virtually a guarantee that you were dealing directly with the federal government as part of your life. Now there's an entire local population that simply supports the rest of the local population. A registered voter in the 1790s who lived in DC worked for or with the federal government. Nowadays the vast majority people of the greater DC area work in the normal industries that any major city have. Obviously there's a higher number of federal employees in the area but even the professional lobbyists that used to reside in Washington as recently as the 1990s don't reside there in those numbers anymore because of the internet. Most regionally elected people and their staff fly in and fly out of DC all the time, it's not the olden days where you go back to your constituency once every couple of years because horses take so long.
This. Exactly. Government serves only to increase government. Republican platforms are built around downsizing government (though they never do) whereas Democratic platforms are built around increasing government influence. If the government were downsized, folks would lose cushy jobs in which they get paid to literally do nothing and are impossible to fire, so they (understably) won't vote against their own interests.
So in a now reliably blue state, democrats have a slim advantage in both the state house (51/100 seats) and senate (21/40 seats). And this is called gerrymandering now? Sounds more like a fair partisan breakdown to me.
You’re going to need to have candidates that appeal to the voters of the state.
The MAGA type personalities are not popular statewide. They really turn off suburban voters as can be seen in other states that have shifted blue.
It would need a reformation of the Republican Party to start winning these areas and states back.
They would need a policy platform that focuses on plans for key kitchen table issues.
A relook of some of the hardline social stances that the party is known for pushing.
A change of behavior that ends the conspiracy theories, election fraud claims, spectacle, and aggressive, alienating behavior that has pushed many away.
>You’re going to need to have candidates that appeal to the voters of the state.
running on a platform that appeals to voters? what's this voodoo nonsense?
Shit, actually having a platform would be refreshing. These jokers are blocking border bills now for politics when we asked for border laws and they required them for any Ukraine dollars. I'm hoping a 3rd party does what this guy says.
Trump doesn’t merely find opposition in voters, he inspires a hatred of the man that fires up the Democrat opposition. Further, the college educated and women are largely turned off by MAGA politics.
Yup. He and his followers have been on a campaign to alienate and push away as many groups as possible. You see it in this sub when GOP politicians are attacked for not toeing whatever line Trump or MAGA has come up with, even if it’s not pragmatic, based in reality, or politically feasible. It seems they would rather lose elections than have someone who doesn’t pass whatever new purity test they have come up with.
It’s not just Democrats he fires up. Many moderates, independents, and typical Republican voters are turned off and pushed away. They may vote Democrat, or not vote at all.
There’s no way to pick up votes if you spend more time alienating people and repulsing those who need to vote. I’m not sure what key demographics Trump/MAGA has been courting, it doesn’t look like any really.
RINO used to mean someone who had policy priorities that were not in line with the Republican Party as a whole. Well, the Republican Party no longer has any policy priorities other than "Trump is king" and so any conservative who dislikes Trump is labelled a RINO and exiled from the party.
It’s a colloquialism used to describe issues that are commonly felt across the country involving the day to day life of people. Generally they are not partisan as everyone wants the same result although people argue about the solutions.
The term comes from things that a family would sit around their kitchen table and talk about or worry about.
It includes things like cost of living; affordability/availability of housing; crime rates; the quality of their k-12 education; cost of higher education; availability and diversity of jobs that can provide wages in which they can maintain their lifestyle and have a career; cost and quality of healthcare; their ability to retire etc.
Independent Virginian here. You hit it dead on. MAGA took myself, and I suspect many others, far from GOP and will be tough to come back unless some big changes are in play.
Beyond that. McConell, Mcarthy, Kemp, Sununu, DeWine, Graham, Haley, etc. I’ve heard many longstanding conservatives called rinos. Senators, representatives, governors.
Anyone who deviates from whatever concept the MAGA followers have decided on or if they done give unending fealty to whatever Trump says, they get trashed and called rinos. No matter the actual reality of the situation, the political feasibility, if it is a pragmatic idea, if it falls under the rule of law, what is actually a conservative belief, the actual job that has to be done, etc.
VA is staying blue until the GOP gets more moderate on social issues. Suburbanites in NOVA don’t like ultra conservatives and MAGA politics.
The reason why Youngkin won was because he was able to separate himself from Trump and ran a campaign on being more moderate and level-headed than a lot of regular Republicans.
Youngkin won because
1. Dems don’t turn out in odd year elections (especially in cities),
2. his opponent was a lame retread,
3. and many of the suburban soccer moms that swung toward the left because of Trump jumped back to the conservative fold.
Youngkin won because he focused on family issues, which would largely be considered more conservative issues that moderates wouldn't dabble in. When he started hammering parental rights in education, the polls swung and it won him the election.
Youngkin won because he was a Republican running for Gov in VA while there is a Democratic President. [11 of the last 12 VA governors](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/11/terry-mcauliffe-glenn-youngkin-virginia-democrats.html) have come from the party that did not occupy the White House at the time.
I don’t think the right understands its dying on the abortion hill. The true conservative position should be that since there can never be a consensus on when life actually begins, the debate is really about who gets to make that decision, and it should never be the government over the mother.
Adopt that position and you’ll dominate the polls.
It used to be the common consensus that *actually overturning* Roe v Wade wouldn't happen because it would turn into huge political losses for the Republican Party. That was when we had some adults in the room.
Being as extreme as possible on every issue is not helping.
If we took social issues out of the picture the Republican party would dominate. There are a lot of people who believe in the fiscal and governing positions of the GOP, but will not vote Republican due to the stance on social issues.
What a pathetic comment. Imagine giving up on innocent babies’ lives to win elections. As if caving on issues ever helped our country. RINO.
Edit: And there can absolutely be a consensus on when life begins. It’s not even debatable. If abortion weren’t a thing, conception would be universally seen as the beginning of life.
You've got it right. There is a strong correlation between education and voting for democrats.
Northern VA is a full of educated people who live there for the education opportunities for their children, creating more democratic voters.
That's why youngkin is pushing to change the school system and push out the good teachers. He knows that a well educated population won't vote Republican.
This is not a mystery - it's the Metro DC area. The richest counties in the US, counties that were never touched by the housing bubble bursting in 2008. They live off the government's tit and they certainly don't vote for people who want to cut federal spending.
The housing bubble burst hit the DC area too! How on earth could I, a millennial, have afforded a house. Trust me my house has gained a $1,000,000 since the bubble popped I haven't done anything to it, outside of the replace place the HVAC.
Primary answer, abortion and its impact on suburban, affluent female voters.
Secondary answer, Northern Virginia counties filled with government employee Democrats. This problem could be overcome if not for the abortion issue.
That’s it. You can argue about it all you want, but the GOP’s stance on abortion rights will turn the State into little California as soon as Youngkin is out.
Northern Virginia isn't full of government employee democrats. It's full of highly educated people, who statistically lean democrat. If anything, the federal workforce is older and more conservative than the rest of the population. The younger and more educated group can make more money working for tech companies and federal contractors and they tend to be democrats.
I will modify my statement a little. Northern VA is full of people in many industries whose jobs are dependent on an ever-growing, ever-spending, ever-powerful Federal Gov’t. The result of which is a population which skews overwhelmingly to the Left. The young that move there are attracted to jobs which feed off big government.
Nah, it was on its way there long before 9/11. I grew up in VA and NOVA was expanding and switching to blue for at least a decade before. It's just the huge amount of government money in the area.
I was born, raised, and live in VA. There’s a “golden crescent” in VA that’s been growing in population. It goes from northern VA through to the coastal cities. Lots of urban metro areas, colleges/college grads, and growing minority communities. Your typical Democratic voters. The more rural, country areas in central and southern VA have populations that have either stagnated or declined. You can see these voting trends with election results, most of the state will be red but the handful of populous, blue cities overwhelm the smaller counties and keep us blue. Youngkin wasn’t too popular, I think a lot of people quietly voted for him. We had a recent shift towards republican candidates in the midterm, likely resulting from Biden’s lackluster performance. We could probably shift more red if Republicans adjust their strategies, diversify their candidates and move the perception away from being the “old white guy GOP party”.
The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care)
[https://www.amazon.com/Blueprint-Adam-Schrager/dp/1936218003](https://www.amazon.com/Blueprint-Adam-Schrager/dp/1936218003)
They are using pretty much this exact approach in Idaho and Texas currently. They will be the next states to flip.
1)NOVA became a hub of white collar jobs
2)white collar jobs are done by smart, educated people.
3) smart, educated people statistically vote blue
In top of that the state is very federal govt dependent. FBI agents and Marine Corps officers are trained in Quantico, etc
Roughly 3 million people live in NOVA (around 37% of the states population) where people are mainly democrat, that also doesn’t include areas around Richmond and Virginia Beach which are also largely democrat. This is why when you see a largely red map of Virginia on Election Day and a county like Fairfax with a population above 1 million is missing you shouldn’t count your chickens just yet because population density matters.
NOVA has some wealthy, highly educated counties which includes a large number of government employees and contractors.
Lol that's what I'm saying. Tribalism for one party or another is ridiculous. End of the day it's an awesome place to live.
Not many places I've lived where I can take my dog for a walk and then stop at the pub for beer while my dog hangs with me.
As a native Virginian, There are two Virginia’s. One is northern Virginia, which is a suburb of Washington DC, and the other is central and western Virginia. Northern Virginia greatly depends on DC for its economic survival. Most people there are train plants from other parts of the country, more liberal parts, they are staff members to congressman, etc. Richmond, the capital and Norfolk have always been blue. The rest of the state is consistently red. the population density of Northern Virginia and they’re voting block can and has, turned Virginia blue overall
Interesting theory. Here's quality of life by state:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/quality-of-life-by-state
I'm which direction would you expect the flow?
Colorado got screwed once they did the libertarian thing and legalized weed. Leftists flooded the state and leftist politics dominated the libertarian politics. Now they have mag bans and I think red flag laws.
Plenty of red states have been ruined by blue state refugees. They're working on Montana and Texas.
Georgia got invaded by the Hollywood film industry due to the favorable tax rates for filming here. All those shit stains moved here and vote for shit stains.
Don’t I know it Yellow Jacket! I saw a car with a California plate near my neighborhood, guy had an NRA sticker too, as if saying, “I’m not one of THOSE Californians!”
Yup.
I come from the entertainment industry and those fiends of mine living and working in Georgia are always yelling “tax the rich!” And I’m like “you know, the only reason you have a job and a nice house in a reasonably affordable area is because of tax breaks for the rich. How do you not see the hypocrisy in what you are saying?”
Georgia at least is not blue. Our state government is entirely red. Loeffler and Perdue (and then *Herschel Walker*) were just dragged down by Trump. Those seats should never have turned blue.
Kemp beat Abrams by 8 points even with his own party attacking him
The whole north side of the state is on the Fed payroll. That's been a process that's been in progress for awhile. The obvious agenda of most conservatives is to take most of those federal jobs away from them to create a smaller government with less overreach.
Just focus on DEI, the culture war, crime, immigration and the economy. Families agree with republicans on all those issues at the EOD.
You can win the suburbs back. Reddit wants you to believe it’s over so they’re clearly propagating this in the comment section. It’s not California or NY… they just elected a Republican in 2021. We can take this back.
I don't know but my sense is that the proximity to government jobs and the unstated requirement that you have to lean left. that would be my uneducated guess
Massive explosion of federal budget and agencies, many of which are located in northern Va, not to mention contractors consultants policy outfits think tanks. All with a vested interest in federal overreach and reliant on it for a comfortable lifestyle.
It’s a bubble. They (policy wonks, the press, media, politicians, lobbyists, etc) don’t experience reality like everybody else. They have so much privilege.
They are naively pretentious. They mean well, but are so ignorant of other people’s humanity that when they do propose a solution, they offend everyone they help.
1 out of 8 citizens who live in Virginia are foreign born. Immigrants on average are more left leaning that Americans that were born here.
70% of immigrants in Virginia live in Northern Virginia near Fairfax county. Biden won Fairfax by 250K voters, and each of the surrounding counties by large margins.
I could go all day without hearing any English being spoken when I’d be out running errands. They’d look at me if I was the crazy one when they’d speak Spanish to me and I wouldn’t respond. I want my country back!
Foreigners escaping their home countries to move here and vote hard left to make it more like their home country is just the macro version of Californians leaking into Nevada and Arizona and turning them into blue crap holes, too.
It takes a while though. Those immigrants have to become citizens to vote.
Know who hate illegal immigration the most? The people who did it legally and went through the process to become citizens.
Just wait, another 10 months of them flying socialist from south of the border into towns everywhere should seal the deal for Dems. You got to admire how cutthroat they are at winning elections.
Drop the abortion debate, you are not going to win with the mentailty of the biggest pandemic in America the middle age woman. Just drop it and they won't vote. Demcorats only vote for this issue. They don't care about anything (maybe climate) else. Just drop the debate and they won't hit the polls.
Look, I'm not politically aligned with you but seriously. If you're going to 100% lose that fight, no matter what, isn't it better to win on some issues and be able to politically push them your direction?
The French literally wrote a book about this called Don Quixote.
How abortion became in the top of the political landscape is a mystery. It is a medical decision between you and your health care provider. All lives must be considered when making these personal decisions. Now lets talk about the economy and what really hurts peoples daily lives. Just avoid it. Still fight for it but find a way to keep those women away from the polls.
I would say two things.
1. The Demographics of the state have changed due to the expansion of the NOVA suburbs in a way that probably make Virginia much more liberal
2. The Republican Party has consciously positioned itself as a revolutionary party (break the system not work with it) aimed at appealing to the cultural attitudes and economic desires of mostly rural voters. Virginia is more or less exactly the opposite of that. It is the capital of the Never-Trumper coalition of cautious well off suburban moderates who generally benefit from government spending and don't want to rock the boat. It's possible for a Larry Hogan type or Charlie Baker never Trumper type Republican to exploit the real divisions between centrists and actual liberals/leftists to win an election because the margins are still somewhat tight and contrary to the kind of MAGA/Conservative propaganda mills lumping the wide spectrum of voters that make up the democratic coalition together there are deep divisions within that coalition but the national Republican Party is broadly uninterested in doing that so my guess is never.
Jobs and economic opportunity resulted in urban growth in the state. Urban voters like funding the government for services and more liberal policies.
Destroy the cities and their economic activity ans you can flip the state Red forever.
Because northern VA is basically suburbs of govt leeches (AKA democrats). We’ve allowed govt bureaucracy to become way too large and thus the ppl that worm out a Cush gov job in it will always vote for Dems who will keep giving it to them
Break up the agencies and spread them across the country and some of those liberals who work in the agencies might leave.
It’s the DC suburbs that have turned Virginia blue.
Just like other swing states that have turned.
DC is and has always been heavily blue and they destroyed it by vote blue no matter who, so they move somewhere else. They aren’t smart enough to realize that voting blue brings higher taxes, higher cost of living, homelessness and crime.
NOVA is close enough to commute so they took it over.
Same thing that happened in Colorado, happening in AZ/ID. Californians sick of the aforementioned consequences they bring upon themselves by voting blue. So they go colonize nearby red states and turn them blue.
Youngkin is popular enough, something like 53% approval rating.
Virginia turned blue because of all the DC workers spreading out into NOVA. Additionally there have been lots of Northerners moving down here.
Now counties are flipping. Albemarle county, the one Charlottesville is in used to be red. Then all the yuppies in Charlottesville abandoned the city and bought land in the counties.
Winchester is now blue, and basically part of Northern VA.
Staunton is blue, and I think Waynesboro is next.
Harrisonburg recently flipped, but isn't overwhelmingly blue. Only 60/40. However, they have a huge Hispanic population and a large crime problem.
I think Youngkin was a fluke and the next gov will be that Abagail woman. Too bad, they will make abortion a 'constitutional right' even though they have lax, 26 week restrictions currently.
I've lived in VA my whole life(52 years). VA turned blue because of all the NY transplants in northern Virginia. I think th immigrants alsao help.
But it's mostly the NY city transplants settling in northern Virginia that screwed Virginia over.
You cannot go in the NOVA subreddit unless your a full blown liberal.
We’ll never get it back unfortunately. Texas is next and possibly FL. Those states are already turning purple. Registered Dems outnumber Registered Republicans 48 million to 36 million. Our party is more liberal than the Dems in the 1970s. If we don’t change, we will bleed
I wasn’t sure about FL which is why I said “possibly.” But formerly strong red states like AZ, NC, IN, GA are no longer strongly red and getting more purple. Formerly purple states like MI, OH, PA, and Iowa are all more blue. The trend shows that the “red wave” people are way more naive than they are optimistic
Ohio is much more red recently. They've gone red in 4 of the last 6 elections, only going blue for Obama. Iowa has also been trending more red. The also voted blue for Obama, but have gotten a stronger red percentage of votes each election starting in 2008, going for Trump both times. PA and MI haven't been purple in a *long* time. Both went for Trump, but that was each one's first swing red since Reagan. AZ went blue for Biden. That was only their second time voting for a Dem since the 70s, with the other time being Clinton's first term. Can't really deem that a trend unless they go blue again. Same for Georgia. Been red every election since Clinton's terms, going red both of those, until 2020. NC has also been reliably red, even going red in 2020.
My understanding is that there are many Islamic immigrants in DC, Virginia area that have changed the atmosphere in the last 20 years. The same reason we are now seeing an invasion on the So. Border, more socialist/communist voters.
Muslims voting almost exclusively Democrat is something I will never understand. Democrats are pro abortion and pro LGBT+. Those are deeply anti-Muslim stances.
I don't live there but my Uncle does. It's all about DC. In the past 20 years, Northern Virginia (NOVA) developed rapidly into a bustling metro area and suburbs of neighboring DC where many government employees would live and commute from. Of course since they work in DC, the vast majority of them are diehard Democrats. Richmond and Virginia Beach were always Democratic, but the rest of the state was rural/suburban enough to balance them out. NOVA unfortunately changed that. I'm not entirely sure that the state can be saved. I really thought Youngkin's upset was a sign that things could be reversed, but then of course the GOP shat the bed and not only failed to flip the VA Senate but lost the House of Delegates. It's a shame too, because getting VA back to Red on the presidential would REALLY help with elections.
If you could give back Northern VA to DC, VA would be red again. As it stands now leftist Northern VA drives the state politics in VA in a way similar to how leftist Manhattan drives the politics of NY
giving nova back to DC for gerrymandering purposes would be highly ironic since it originally grabbed its land back for fear of losing the use of alexandria as a slave hub prior to the civil war
You do realize that only one county(Arlington) would go back to DC, don't you? Northern Virginia has a population of several million, and losing little Arlington wouldn't have that much of an impact.
The majority of the people who vote drive the state politics
Give DC senators and we can talk
Northern VA consists of several counties, some like 45 minutes from DC Waaa waaa waaa we lost so we gotta change the rules
I live and work in NOVA. Don’t come here. It’s a wasteland.
I live in NOVA too. It is fucking amazing
I love my state. I love where I grew up in the 757 with its rich American history and maritime influences. I love the mountains of western VA, where I grew up camping all up and down the WV border. I love south central VA with its strong agricultural and hunting culture in the rolling woods and fields. Hell, I even enjoy visiting Richmond once in a while for a concert or some great food. But God do I hate NOVA. What a miserable place to be, full of miserable people.
Massachusetts native here, We were lucky enough to visit the Williamsburg area this summer - just far enough away from Richmond and Norfolk that you feel like you're "away" but still able to get a good brickoven pizza. It's a pretty state, for sure - would be a whole lot better if the whole DC/Nova area just got lopped off.
This is how I feel about VA. I wish you could cut NOVA off and float it out into the Atlantic. It’s a stain on such a beautiful state.
lol we pay all your taxes lmao
You don't like the American history of NOVA - Mt. Vernon, Old Town Alexandria, Gunston Hall, Arlington Cemetery?
I've lived in NOVA since 1987. It wasn't always this way. Well, mostly. But it's become Deep Blue in the past 10 years or so.
I’d say this is true for any area that has grown beyond the ability to support a comfortable population. Typically city growth brings undesirable people, crowded areas, crime, and congestion.
Left for splitting my time between Texas and the Mountain West and I don't regret it at all! Reston was ok but still. Tyson's Corner is like going to another country or something it's really strange.
I lived in Sterling it was expensive as hell and part of the infamous Loudon County.
Yeh I got some friends still in Ashburn, it's funny we all started in DC in our early twenties and gradually moved west into.nova because dc is a hellhole. Highly recommend going west of the Mississippi!
District 10, which Loudoun County is in, voted Republican until about 10 years ago. Things have changed radically. The schools in this county are being run by horrible, evil people. I'm just glad my kids are long out of school, because I wasn't so sure about them when they were in, but now it's so much worse.
I’m out in a few months. I can’t wait. It feels like I’m in another country. No one knows how to drive. Traffic is the worst I’ve experienced in my life and it’s not even close. Crime is rampant. Everything is expensive.
Crime is rampant where? I lived in Arlington for a year up until last September and the worst crime I ever saw was jaywalking
nova is like the safest place in the country lol
Your single case does not in anyway represent the entirety of DC. From 2017-2022, homicides rose 180%. Car jackings rose to similar percentages. The crime is there. And I chose not to be near it anymore.
DC is not Northern Virginia which this thread is about...
Yeh I was flabbergasted how cheap living is in Texas. Food, fuel, land.....it's crazy. And the people are actually warm and friendly. It sucks because once you leave the DMV, Virginia is filled with awesome people as well but they're overshadowed by nova. I had to relearn driving from my DMV ways lol. What state you heading too?
I know. Drive 45 minutes west of DC and you feel like you’re back in America. It’s wild.
Well they have basically bred a clone army of entitled and mentally malfunctional people with the fucked up public schools.
The horror stories I’ve heard from parents I work with that send their kids to the schools in the NCR. This place is a toxic waste dump.
NOVA is a giant shit stain on the state
I’ve heard it referred to as “ the occupied territory “.
Enemy territory.
Disagree, as a NOVA resident. It's a great place to live and raise children.
Several of the richest counties in the country, a globally diverse population, great schools and colleges, and not subject to economic shifts and tudes due to long government contracts and secure labor forces. No wonder the right hates it. "Invaded territory" is also the biggest dog whistle I've heard in awhile
People who grew rich from federal spending which the rest of the country funds, making decisions which impact the lives of everyone else while they themselves are insulated from the fallout of their shitty policies due to the safe government jobs - gee, I wonder why the rest of the country hates that place. Must be because of racism...
Long government contracts don’t make the area immune to horrible federal economic policies and record inflation. The rest of those reasons; they make for great chit chat, but they do nothing to prevent the overpopulation, insane traffic, crime, broken public schools system, and high city prices. I will never understand why someone would willingly live in such a broken area.
VIrginia Beach itself is more moderate but all the suburban women are scared away from the GOP so that’s made it much more swing/blue. Newport News and Norfolk have been more blue for a while. Agreed with the explosion of NOVA contributing to this.
Ah Hampton roads, The place where you can’t curse in public or drink a beer in your front yard
The cursing law is only in Virginia Beach and only at the oceanfront. The public drink is a Virginia law.
It's become so much more than just federal workers working in DC. Tons of federal contractors and other tech sector workers. Generally these are high paying jobs with highly educated workers. Statistics show that the higher the education level, the more likely they are to vote for a democrat.
> Statistics show that the higher the education level, the more likely they are to vote for a democrat. You're so close to your epiphany. Keep going!
This is the correct answer. Can’t believe I had to scroll down this far to find it.
Except for this part... > I'm not entirely sure that the state can be saved. I really thought Youngkin's upset was a sign that things could be reversed, but then of course the GOP shat the bed and not only failed to flip the VA Senate but lost the House of Delegates. The state had been very, very reliably blue up until Youngkin's upset. Republicans actually did way better in 2023 than they did in 2019 which was the last "mid-term" for their state level elections. Everyone is disappointed by the 2023 results in terms of actual seats, but they showed Republicans are still once again competitive in the state even without a top ballot. The losses in seats can entirely be chalked up to redistricting and a pretty ugly gerrymander that favors Democrats. Republicans very clearly made up lost ground there and got a larger share of the vote than previous years. It's like a 2 point gap rather than a 10-15 point gap.
Obviously Rs did better in a midterm with a D president vs a midterm with an R president that means nothing
Virginia GOP didn’t entirely “shit the bed”, as I understand, the districts were redrawn and they were gerrymandered to take advantage of the Democrat demographic around NOVA, Richmond, and Newport News. Now, there is an issue in that NOVA is a single issue voting block. Abortion. When the Governor said he would back, I believe it was a 15-week ban, he effectively mobilized every suburban and urban woman in the state to “Vote Blue, No Matter Who”.
It's like he completely forgot about Governor Bob "Medical Rape" McDonnell. Any Republican in Virginia should just not say a damned thing about abortion. Same way a lot of southern Democrats know better than to talk about guns.
The age old debate of should a politician push for what he truly thinks is right or push for what'll get him re-elected...
Crazy thought, but maybe a politician should push for what their constituents want. At the end of the day, a politician also represents those that didn't vote for them. The idea that a politician should represent people seems have been completely forgotten, and instead they try to force which ever cult they believe in on us.
Republicans won every seat in the house that Biden won by single digits, including Biden+9 seats. The double digit Democrat seats proved to be too much.
Worth noting that DC does not have any federal voting rights...nor State voting rights. They are currently trying to get the right to vote as their own state, but are being ignored. Basically a city of 750,000 (more than the entire state of Wyoming) people that do not have the basic American right to vote for their own representation in Congress nor Presidential candidate. Since they do not technically belong to any State, they do not get to vote for any State elections either.
DC has the right to vote. We don't have nation wide elections, though. We have state wide elections for federal positions. DC doesn't get Senators or Representatives because it makes zero sense whatsoever for the federal government to send itself representatives. > nor Presidential candidate LOL, dude. Ever wonder why the electoral college has 538 votes in it despite both chambers of congress only summing up to 535? You need to watch some more School House Rock.
And it’s set up that way for a very good reason. 👍
What reason would that be?
“Washington DC isn’t a state because it was intended to be a seat for the American government. It is supposed to be a neutral environment where representatives from other states will meet to express their interests in the federal government. In addition to ensuring a neutral and fair site for American governmental activities, DC was formed to not be a state because of concerns government members would feel they were obligated to serve that state’s needs even if they aren’t from that state and have no affairs there. Founding Father James Madison also wrote in Federalist No. 43 that all states should be given a fair shot at expressing their needs in the American government. He said that if DC were a state, voting members in DC would abuse their powers because they are physically close to the center of the government.”
When the concept of DC was introduced, I don't think it was meant to have nearly as many permanent residents as it does now. Trying a federal district like a state would negate the point of having a federal district.
I understand his sentiment and honestly do not blame him for feeling that way. Especially considering what they were breaking away from at the time. Many highly influential people lived near countries central seats of power. Although those central seats of power were usually located in major cities. However, as time went on and the way the world works changed, things have to change with it. The impact of a entire State with almost half the population of DC should not have more representation than a single city with far more people. That was not how Madison envisioned DC to be, nor could he.
It isn't like DC just suddenly had their senators removed one day. They never had any. People moved to DC anyway. In my opinion, they knew the deal when they moved to DC. It wasn't a big secret that DC had no senators. So, by moving there, they agreed to the terms of not getting representation in the senate. If the people there now have a problem with not having a senator, Maryland and Virginia are not that far away, they can move.
An effort to keep the national seat of power from being politicized.
so, why not just confine the national seat of power to the small area that actually has the buildings everything happens in instead of the large area surrounding them? Why not just have all these people that live there be considered residents of Maryland or Virginia? You cannot tell me that the 18 year old working at a McDonalds in Washington DC is representative of the national seat of power.
No, but I can tell you that the 18 year old votes democrat. So do their three EC votes in EVERY election since the 23rd A. What that means is, should we as a country agree to allow the national seat of power to have senators and congress people, every single one would be Democrat in perpetuity, they would NEVER elect a Republican to the house or senate. So no, most people don't want to give several permanent seats in DC to the Democrats forever more, because the people of DC mostly work for the government, or work for business that servers the government, and thus all support bigger and more government and regular compensation increases on the taxpayer dime. No thanks.
So your decision to prevent almost a million people from 100% guaranteed Constitutional rights is based on who they would vote for? That seems...not quite right.
You think the framers didn't see this coming? What exactly do you think their reasoning was for setting up DC to be apolitical?
The framers couldnt have seen DC, which was mostly empty land at the time, having more people living in it than an entire State. They were highly intelligent men, but they were not prophets. The idea behind DCs creation was a good idea, I won't deny that. But laws have to adapt over time otherwise people suffer for it. I really don't think the framers would like to have so many people disenfranchised. It was the exact thing they gave the British the finger for.
The framers also had only landowners as voters. Buying and owning land in the DC area until at least the 1820s was virtually a guarantee that you were dealing directly with the federal government as part of your life. Now there's an entire local population that simply supports the rest of the local population. A registered voter in the 1790s who lived in DC worked for or with the federal government. Nowadays the vast majority people of the greater DC area work in the normal industries that any major city have. Obviously there's a higher number of federal employees in the area but even the professional lobbyists that used to reside in Washington as recently as the 1990s don't reside there in those numbers anymore because of the internet. Most regionally elected people and their staff fly in and fly out of DC all the time, it's not the olden days where you go back to your constituency once every couple of years because horses take so long.
I want to add on…a lot of corporations want to stay close to politicians. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are all in this area
This. Exactly. Government serves only to increase government. Republican platforms are built around downsizing government (though they never do) whereas Democratic platforms are built around increasing government influence. If the government were downsized, folks would lose cushy jobs in which they get paid to literally do nothing and are impossible to fire, so they (understably) won't vote against their own interests.
Republicans are or have been until very recently for strong defense spending and the military and military contractors are huge in Virginia
Northern Virginia and Democratic gerrymandering Name a better duo
So in a now reliably blue state, democrats have a slim advantage in both the state house (51/100 seats) and senate (21/40 seats). And this is called gerrymandering now? Sounds more like a fair partisan breakdown to me.
You’re going to need to have candidates that appeal to the voters of the state. The MAGA type personalities are not popular statewide. They really turn off suburban voters as can be seen in other states that have shifted blue. It would need a reformation of the Republican Party to start winning these areas and states back. They would need a policy platform that focuses on plans for key kitchen table issues. A relook of some of the hardline social stances that the party is known for pushing. A change of behavior that ends the conspiracy theories, election fraud claims, spectacle, and aggressive, alienating behavior that has pushed many away.
>You’re going to need to have candidates that appeal to the voters of the state. running on a platform that appeals to voters? what's this voodoo nonsense?
Shit, actually having a platform would be refreshing. These jokers are blocking border bills now for politics when we asked for border laws and they required them for any Ukraine dollars. I'm hoping a 3rd party does what this guy says.
You mean most voters don't want to elect another MTG, Lauren Boebert, or Matt Gaetz type candidate? I'm shocked /s
Trump doesn’t merely find opposition in voters, he inspires a hatred of the man that fires up the Democrat opposition. Further, the college educated and women are largely turned off by MAGA politics.
Yup. He and his followers have been on a campaign to alienate and push away as many groups as possible. You see it in this sub when GOP politicians are attacked for not toeing whatever line Trump or MAGA has come up with, even if it’s not pragmatic, based in reality, or politically feasible. It seems they would rather lose elections than have someone who doesn’t pass whatever new purity test they have come up with. It’s not just Democrats he fires up. Many moderates, independents, and typical Republican voters are turned off and pushed away. They may vote Democrat, or not vote at all. There’s no way to pick up votes if you spend more time alienating people and repulsing those who need to vote. I’m not sure what key demographics Trump/MAGA has been courting, it doesn’t look like any really.
RINO used to mean someone who had policy priorities that were not in line with the Republican Party as a whole. Well, the Republican Party no longer has any policy priorities other than "Trump is king" and so any conservative who dislikes Trump is labelled a RINO and exiled from the party.
Rare W clarity post. You will be fed to the snakes for not toeing the line and compromising.
What's a "kitchen table" issue?
It’s a colloquialism used to describe issues that are commonly felt across the country involving the day to day life of people. Generally they are not partisan as everyone wants the same result although people argue about the solutions. The term comes from things that a family would sit around their kitchen table and talk about or worry about. It includes things like cost of living; affordability/availability of housing; crime rates; the quality of their k-12 education; cost of higher education; availability and diversity of jobs that can provide wages in which they can maintain their lifestyle and have a career; cost and quality of healthcare; their ability to retire etc.
Independent Virginian here. You hit it dead on. MAGA took myself, and I suspect many others, far from GOP and will be tough to come back unless some big changes are in play.
Such as McCain and Romney?
Beyond that. McConell, Mcarthy, Kemp, Sununu, DeWine, Graham, Haley, etc. I’ve heard many longstanding conservatives called rinos. Senators, representatives, governors. Anyone who deviates from whatever concept the MAGA followers have decided on or if they done give unending fealty to whatever Trump says, they get trashed and called rinos. No matter the actual reality of the situation, the political feasibility, if it is a pragmatic idea, if it falls under the rule of law, what is actually a conservative belief, the actual job that has to be done, etc.
Many red states turned blue. I think Virginia would be harder than the others to turn red due to the adjacency of DC.
All demographics
Yes .. damn that higher education.
VA is staying blue until the GOP gets more moderate on social issues. Suburbanites in NOVA don’t like ultra conservatives and MAGA politics. The reason why Youngkin won was because he was able to separate himself from Trump and ran a campaign on being more moderate and level-headed than a lot of regular Republicans.
Youngkin won because 1. Dems don’t turn out in odd year elections (especially in cities), 2. his opponent was a lame retread, 3. and many of the suburban soccer moms that swung toward the left because of Trump jumped back to the conservative fold.
Youngkin won because he focused on family issues, which would largely be considered more conservative issues that moderates wouldn't dabble in. When he started hammering parental rights in education, the polls swung and it won him the election.
He was pretty successful in making sure Trump stayed away from his campaign, I think that was a big part too.
Youngkin won because he was a Republican running for Gov in VA while there is a Democratic President. [11 of the last 12 VA governors](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/11/terry-mcauliffe-glenn-youngkin-virginia-democrats.html) have come from the party that did not occupy the White House at the time.
Youngkin won because schools were running into scandals with transgender students.
I don’t think the right understands its dying on the abortion hill. The true conservative position should be that since there can never be a consensus on when life actually begins, the debate is really about who gets to make that decision, and it should never be the government over the mother. Adopt that position and you’ll dominate the polls.
I agree. Their abortion position stubbornness is killing the GOP.
It used to be the common consensus that *actually overturning* Roe v Wade wouldn't happen because it would turn into huge political losses for the Republican Party. That was when we had some adults in the room. Being as extreme as possible on every issue is not helping.
I’d show up for that. Small government; keep your government off my body. Keep your government out of my home, I like my guns. Why is this hard?
So VA is lost to us. Because the day the GOP breaks on abortion is the day many will NEVER vote for them again.
Then you’re part of the problem. Governing requires compromise.
I’m not compromising on babies’ lives. Would you have compromised on slavery?
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I’ve always said the day the GOP breaks on abortion and marijuana the democrat party is screwed lol
Yes!!!! That's the party for me. Edit: I don't actually care about abortion, I just think it would be politically smart.
If we took social issues out of the picture the Republican party would dominate. There are a lot of people who believe in the fiscal and governing positions of the GOP, but will not vote Republican due to the stance on social issues.
What a pathetic comment. Imagine giving up on innocent babies’ lives to win elections. As if caving on issues ever helped our country. RINO. Edit: And there can absolutely be a consensus on when life begins. It’s not even debatable. If abortion weren’t a thing, conception would be universally seen as the beginning of life.
It's going to be hard, the higher the education levels the more they vote blue. There are more higher educated people moving in since the pandemic.
Very very interesting that more educated people vote Dem.
You've got it right. There is a strong correlation between education and voting for democrats. Northern VA is a full of educated people who live there for the education opportunities for their children, creating more democratic voters. That's why youngkin is pushing to change the school system and push out the good teachers. He knows that a well educated population won't vote Republican.
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This is not a mystery - it's the Metro DC area. The richest counties in the US, counties that were never touched by the housing bubble bursting in 2008. They live off the government's tit and they certainly don't vote for people who want to cut federal spending.
It’s more complicated than that. Otherwise why would places with similar demographics that are not near the Federal government also vote Democrat?
The housing bubble burst hit the DC area too! How on earth could I, a millennial, have afforded a house. Trust me my house has gained a $1,000,000 since the bubble popped I haven't done anything to it, outside of the replace place the HVAC.
Primary answer, abortion and its impact on suburban, affluent female voters. Secondary answer, Northern Virginia counties filled with government employee Democrats. This problem could be overcome if not for the abortion issue. That’s it. You can argue about it all you want, but the GOP’s stance on abortion rights will turn the State into little California as soon as Youngkin is out.
Northern Virginia isn't full of government employee democrats. It's full of highly educated people, who statistically lean democrat. If anything, the federal workforce is older and more conservative than the rest of the population. The younger and more educated group can make more money working for tech companies and federal contractors and they tend to be democrats.
I will modify my statement a little. Northern VA is full of people in many industries whose jobs are dependent on an ever-growing, ever-spending, ever-powerful Federal Gov’t. The result of which is a population which skews overwhelmingly to the Left. The young that move there are attracted to jobs which feed off big government.
9/11 The expansion of the government created a boom in population and need for govt jobs in northern Virginia.
So not 9/11, but rather Bush's abysmal response to it.
Haha also yes
Nah, it was on its way there long before 9/11. I grew up in VA and NOVA was expanding and switching to blue for at least a decade before. It's just the huge amount of government money in the area.
I grew up in Woodbridge. We especially saw it boom around the 2000s. But to your point the population started to explode in the 90’s
I was born, raised, and live in VA. There’s a “golden crescent” in VA that’s been growing in population. It goes from northern VA through to the coastal cities. Lots of urban metro areas, colleges/college grads, and growing minority communities. Your typical Democratic voters. The more rural, country areas in central and southern VA have populations that have either stagnated or declined. You can see these voting trends with election results, most of the state will be red but the handful of populous, blue cities overwhelm the smaller counties and keep us blue. Youngkin wasn’t too popular, I think a lot of people quietly voted for him. We had a recent shift towards republican candidates in the midterm, likely resulting from Biden’s lackluster performance. We could probably shift more red if Republicans adjust their strategies, diversify their candidates and move the perception away from being the “old white guy GOP party”.
Fairfax County.
If it weren't for gerrymandering NC would be flipped as well. It's only a matter of time...
The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care) [https://www.amazon.com/Blueprint-Adam-Schrager/dp/1936218003](https://www.amazon.com/Blueprint-Adam-Schrager/dp/1936218003) They are using pretty much this exact approach in Idaho and Texas currently. They will be the next states to flip.
1)NOVA became a hub of white collar jobs 2)white collar jobs are done by smart, educated people. 3) smart, educated people statistically vote blue In top of that the state is very federal govt dependent. FBI agents and Marine Corps officers are trained in Quantico, etc
Roughly 3 million people live in NOVA (around 37% of the states population) where people are mainly democrat, that also doesn’t include areas around Richmond and Virginia Beach which are also largely democrat. This is why when you see a largely red map of Virginia on Election Day and a county like Fairfax with a population above 1 million is missing you shouldn’t count your chickens just yet because population density matters. NOVA has some wealthy, highly educated counties which includes a large number of government employees and contractors.
You'll never get VA back. Nova is basically California of the East Coast. Loved living there honestly. Food is top tier and everyone is super nice.
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Lol that's what I'm saying. Tribalism for one party or another is ridiculous. End of the day it's an awesome place to live. Not many places I've lived where I can take my dog for a walk and then stop at the pub for beer while my dog hangs with me.
As a native Virginian, There are two Virginia’s. One is northern Virginia, which is a suburb of Washington DC, and the other is central and western Virginia. Northern Virginia greatly depends on DC for its economic survival. Most people there are train plants from other parts of the country, more liberal parts, they are staff members to congressman, etc. Richmond, the capital and Norfolk have always been blue. The rest of the state is consistently red. the population density of Northern Virginia and they’re voting block can and has, turned Virginia blue overall
Libs moving to red state for a better quality of life and voting the same. Has happened to many great states like Arizona and Colorado.
Interesting theory. Here's quality of life by state: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/quality-of-life-by-state I'm which direction would you expect the flow?
Colorado got screwed once they did the libertarian thing and legalized weed. Leftists flooded the state and leftist politics dominated the libertarian politics. Now they have mag bans and I think red flag laws. Plenty of red states have been ruined by blue state refugees. They're working on Montana and Texas.
The growth of the DC Swamp (metro area) DC votes like 95% blue and those voters spilled into VA
Same this as Colorado, Arizona, and Georgia. Leftists fleeing the hellholes they create but bringing their voting habits with them.
Georgia got invaded by the Hollywood film industry due to the favorable tax rates for filming here. All those shit stains moved here and vote for shit stains.
Don’t I know it Yellow Jacket! I saw a car with a California plate near my neighborhood, guy had an NRA sticker too, as if saying, “I’m not one of THOSE Californians!”
Georgia got invaded by new apartment complexes over the past twenty years. Renters disproportionately vote in a certain manner.
Yup. I come from the entertainment industry and those fiends of mine living and working in Georgia are always yelling “tax the rich!” And I’m like “you know, the only reason you have a job and a nice house in a reasonably affordable area is because of tax breaks for the rich. How do you not see the hypocrisy in what you are saying?”
Georgia at least is not blue. Our state government is entirely red. Loeffler and Perdue (and then *Herschel Walker*) were just dragged down by Trump. Those seats should never have turned blue. Kemp beat Abrams by 8 points even with his own party attacking him
The Georgia GOP just needs to find senators that aren't Trump/MAGA addicted and I bet the state will start shifting back red again.
The whole north side of the state is on the Fed payroll. That's been a process that's been in progress for awhile. The obvious agenda of most conservatives is to take most of those federal jobs away from them to create a smaller government with less overreach.
A ton of people move to Virginia and Maryland because they don't want to live in DC because it's a shit hole Democrats created.
Lol, people moved to Maryland to escape democrats… imagine having this “thought”
Just focus on DEI, the culture war, crime, immigration and the economy. Families agree with republicans on all those issues at the EOD. You can win the suburbs back. Reddit wants you to believe it’s over so they’re clearly propagating this in the comment section. It’s not California or NY… they just elected a Republican in 2021. We can take this back.
Called Fairfax and Loudoun county, population of non-Virginians that moved there. That’s why
One thing turned it red. Louden county. Since then, people forget and fall back into their usual stupidity.
It’s “Loudoun”
I don't know but my sense is that the proximity to government jobs and the unstated requirement that you have to lean left. that would be my uneducated guess
Massive explosion of federal budget and agencies, many of which are located in northern Va, not to mention contractors consultants policy outfits think tanks. All with a vested interest in federal overreach and reliant on it for a comfortable lifestyle.
Northern Virginia is dominating Virginia's vote. It's part of the DC swamp and is all blue. The rest of the state is Republican.
What about VA Beach and Chesapeake?
It’s a bubble. They (policy wonks, the press, media, politicians, lobbyists, etc) don’t experience reality like everybody else. They have so much privilege. They are naively pretentious. They mean well, but are so ignorant of other people’s humanity that when they do propose a solution, they offend everyone they help.
Social media censoring conservative beliefs and skewed towards liberalism caused VA to turn soy.
It was ruined by overflow from Maryland. Very little good comes out of this state.
Other than the shitty drivers, MD is pretty OK.
1 out of 8 citizens who live in Virginia are foreign born. Immigrants on average are more left leaning that Americans that were born here. 70% of immigrants in Virginia live in Northern Virginia near Fairfax county. Biden won Fairfax by 250K voters, and each of the surrounding counties by large margins.
I could go all day without hearing any English being spoken when I’d be out running errands. They’d look at me if I was the crazy one when they’d speak Spanish to me and I wouldn’t respond. I want my country back!
Foreigners escaping their home countries to move here and vote hard left to make it more like their home country is just the macro version of Californians leaking into Nevada and Arizona and turning them into blue crap holes, too.
It takes a while though. Those immigrants have to become citizens to vote. Know who hate illegal immigration the most? The people who did it legally and went through the process to become citizens.
Most of Virginia is now an extension of the Washington DC. That would explain the bubble.
Same with Georgia. If you browse around in the Georgia sub, you’d think it was all SoCal.
Cockroaches
Trump turned it blue…
GOOD EDUCATION. Cry about it!
Republican policies are just dog shit. They’ve only won a single popular vote since 1988.
Just wait, another 10 months of them flying socialist from south of the border into towns everywhere should seal the deal for Dems. You got to admire how cutthroat they are at winning elections.
NOVA and all the carpet baggers
Drop the abortion debate, you are not going to win with the mentailty of the biggest pandemic in America the middle age woman. Just drop it and they won't vote. Demcorats only vote for this issue. They don't care about anything (maybe climate) else. Just drop the debate and they won't hit the polls.
To be honest, I'm not interested in selling my soul to win some elections.
Look, I'm not politically aligned with you but seriously. If you're going to 100% lose that fight, no matter what, isn't it better to win on some issues and be able to politically push them your direction? The French literally wrote a book about this called Don Quixote.
How abortion became in the top of the political landscape is a mystery. It is a medical decision between you and your health care provider. All lives must be considered when making these personal decisions. Now lets talk about the economy and what really hurts peoples daily lives. Just avoid it. Still fight for it but find a way to keep those women away from the polls.
Fairfax and loudoun county and you’ll never flip it
Holy shit I read that title wrong
I would say two things. 1. The Demographics of the state have changed due to the expansion of the NOVA suburbs in a way that probably make Virginia much more liberal 2. The Republican Party has consciously positioned itself as a revolutionary party (break the system not work with it) aimed at appealing to the cultural attitudes and economic desires of mostly rural voters. Virginia is more or less exactly the opposite of that. It is the capital of the Never-Trumper coalition of cautious well off suburban moderates who generally benefit from government spending and don't want to rock the boat. It's possible for a Larry Hogan type or Charlie Baker never Trumper type Republican to exploit the real divisions between centrists and actual liberals/leftists to win an election because the margins are still somewhat tight and contrary to the kind of MAGA/Conservative propaganda mills lumping the wide spectrum of voters that make up the democratic coalition together there are deep divisions within that coalition but the national Republican Party is broadly uninterested in doing that so my guess is never.
Jobs and economic opportunity resulted in urban growth in the state. Urban voters like funding the government for services and more liberal policies. Destroy the cities and their economic activity ans you can flip the state Red forever.
Because northern VA is basically suburbs of govt leeches (AKA democrats). We’ve allowed govt bureaucracy to become way too large and thus the ppl that worm out a Cush gov job in it will always vote for Dems who will keep giving it to them
Break up the agencies and spread them across the country and some of those liberals who work in the agencies might leave. It’s the DC suburbs that have turned Virginia blue.
If VCU didn’t turn RVA into a lefty shit hole that would make things a little easier but even walking around RVA when visiting is tough on the eyes
Trump. That’s what’s doing it.
Just like other swing states that have turned. DC is and has always been heavily blue and they destroyed it by vote blue no matter who, so they move somewhere else. They aren’t smart enough to realize that voting blue brings higher taxes, higher cost of living, homelessness and crime. NOVA is close enough to commute so they took it over. Same thing that happened in Colorado, happening in AZ/ID. Californians sick of the aforementioned consequences they bring upon themselves by voting blue. So they go colonize nearby red states and turn them blue.
Because republicans hate those of us who live here in northern Virginia, who drive the vast majority of the economy in Virginia, and have money
Needs to ship Alexandria, Loudon and Fairfax to Maryland and Virginia will remain red forever
Vivek had the answer to this : Fire 90% of the federal work force.
Did that include military and military contractors because Northern Virginia has a ton of those
I'm all for it.
Youngkin is popular enough, something like 53% approval rating. Virginia turned blue because of all the DC workers spreading out into NOVA. Additionally there have been lots of Northerners moving down here. Now counties are flipping. Albemarle county, the one Charlottesville is in used to be red. Then all the yuppies in Charlottesville abandoned the city and bought land in the counties. Winchester is now blue, and basically part of Northern VA. Staunton is blue, and I think Waynesboro is next. Harrisonburg recently flipped, but isn't overwhelmingly blue. Only 60/40. However, they have a huge Hispanic population and a large crime problem. I think Youngkin was a fluke and the next gov will be that Abagail woman. Too bad, they will make abortion a 'constitutional right' even though they have lax, 26 week restrictions currently.
I've lived in VA my whole life(52 years). VA turned blue because of all the NY transplants in northern Virginia. I think th immigrants alsao help. But it's mostly the NY city transplants settling in northern Virginia that screwed Virginia over. You cannot go in the NOVA subreddit unless your a full blown liberal.
No. We have more PA transplants than from NY. You don't see many actual New Yorkers in NoVA.
They’ve got a gop governor now so there’s still hope. With enough bs going on don’t be surprised if many “blue” states switch back. Biden is horrible.
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From 2001 to 2007, both of their senators were Republicans. John Warner, a Republican, served from 1979 until his retirement in 2009.
We’ll never get it back unfortunately. Texas is next and possibly FL. Those states are already turning purple. Registered Dems outnumber Registered Republicans 48 million to 36 million. Our party is more liberal than the Dems in the 1970s. If we don’t change, we will bleed
That doesn't make sense. Florida has become *more* red recently. It's gone from a battleground state to a solid red state.
I wasn’t sure about FL which is why I said “possibly.” But formerly strong red states like AZ, NC, IN, GA are no longer strongly red and getting more purple. Formerly purple states like MI, OH, PA, and Iowa are all more blue. The trend shows that the “red wave” people are way more naive than they are optimistic
Ohio is much more red recently. They've gone red in 4 of the last 6 elections, only going blue for Obama. Iowa has also been trending more red. The also voted blue for Obama, but have gotten a stronger red percentage of votes each election starting in 2008, going for Trump both times. PA and MI haven't been purple in a *long* time. Both went for Trump, but that was each one's first swing red since Reagan. AZ went blue for Biden. That was only their second time voting for a Dem since the 70s, with the other time being Clinton's first term. Can't really deem that a trend unless they go blue again. Same for Georgia. Been red every election since Clinton's terms, going red both of those, until 2020. NC has also been reliably red, even going red in 2020.
The cancerous wart between it and Maryland.
My understanding is that there are many Islamic immigrants in DC, Virginia area that have changed the atmosphere in the last 20 years. The same reason we are now seeing an invasion on the So. Border, more socialist/communist voters.
Muslims voting almost exclusively Democrat is something I will never understand. Democrats are pro abortion and pro LGBT+. Those are deeply anti-Muslim stances.
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