For most of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Virginia was a conservative Republican stronghold. The Commonwealth voted Republican in every Presidential election from 1968 through 2004, & was consistently one of the most racist, anti-union, anti-LGBTQ, & fundamentalist parts of the nation. But over the last 15 years, the Commonwealth has shifted, moving from red to light-red to purple to light-blue to, finally, full-blue.

The saga goes something like this:

2004: On its surface, this was a good night for the Virginia GOP. George W. Bush easily won the Commonwealth with 53.7% of the vote, & Republicans won 8 of Virginia's 11 US House districts. But just beneath this surface lay some stark signs of decay. Notably, Fairfax County, the most populous county in the Commonwealth & hitherto a Republican stronghold, voted for Democrat John Kerry by a comfortable margin. Other large suburban counties, like Prince William & Loudoun, continued to vote Republican, but by smaller margins than they had before. Given how large and decisive Virginia's suburban population is, this was an uncomfortable development for the GOP.

2006: While the cracks were below the surface in 2004, they emerged for all to see in 2006, when Democrat Jim Webb defeated incumbent Republican George Allen in the race for Virginia's US Senate seat. Not only was this significant for Virginia politics, but it was decisive for the US Senate, putting Democrats there over the top for majority control. Admittedly, Webb was a fairly conservative Democrat, & he only narrowly won the Commonwealth, but this was still a sign that Virginia had shifted.

2008: Upon winning the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama promptly began campaigning heavily in Virginia, believing he could ride the Fairfax-Loudoun revolt to victory. Republican John McCain began campaigning there as well, but to little avail, as polls leading up to the election consistently showed Obama beating McCain in the Commonwealth. On election night, Obama bested McCain with a 6.3% margin of victory; this was only slightly smaller than Obama's 7.3% margin of victory nationwide. This suggested that Virginia was voting in line with the United States as a whole, & had thus become a "pure" purple state. The same night, Democrat Mark Warner was elected to the US Senate from Virginia with a staggering 32% margin of victory.

2012: In the first few years of the Obama administration, Democrats lost ground in Virginia, notably by losing control of the Governorship and other major Executive offices in 2009. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney concluded that Virginia was still Republican at heart, & that he would win it easily. Instead, Barack Obama won the Commonwealth by a 4% margin-- virtually identical to his margin of victory nationwide, again suggesting that Virginia had become purple. The same night, Democrat Tim Kaine won election to the US Senate from Virginia with a 6% margin of victory.

2013: Republicans mostly did well during these off-year elections, notably by easily holding onto the governorship of New Jersey, an unequivocally blue state. Yet Virginia stood out as surprisingly blue-- Democrats narrowly won election to the Commonwealth's top Executive offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, & Attorney General.
2014: This was a low point for the Virginia Democratic Party-- Mark Warner nearly lost his seat in the Senate, clinging to victory by a margin of less than 1%. But even this weak performance had a silver lining. See, 2014 was a terrible year for the Democratic Party all over the country. Democrats lost lots of winnable Senate races, including in blue-leaning states like Maine & Colorado. In this environment, the fact that a Democrat managed to win reelection in Virginia, however narrowly, suggested that if anything, Virginia had become blue-leaning.

2016: Donald Trump's surprise presidential victory was, of course, bad news for Democrats everywhere. Yet even as traditionally-Democratic swing states like Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, & Wisconsin all flipped to Trump, Hillary Clinton not only won Virginia, but did so by a comfortable, 5-point margin. Virginia, then, voted considerably "more" Democratic than the country as a whole, reinforcing its status as a blue-leaning Commonwealth.

2017: The 2017 Virginia governor's race was the first statewide election after Trump took office. Democrat Ralph Northam & Republican Ed Gillespie appeared roughly tied in their race for this office. But on election night, Northam unexpectedly won easily, defeating Gillespie by a 9-point margin. Democrats also won Virginia's other Executive offices that night while gaining 15 seats in the House of Delegates. This surprisingly resounding victory served as a massive rebuke to the Trump GOP & made Virginia a symbol to progressives across the United States.

2018: As part of the Blue Wave election of November 2018, Democrats had massive success up & down the ballot in Virginia. Democrat candidates Abigail Spanberger, Elaine Luria, & Jennifer Wexton each flipped a Republican-held US House seat in Virginia, giving the Democratic Party control of a majority of the Commonwealth's congressional delegation. Further up the ballot, Democrat Tim Kaine was easily re-elected to his US Senate seat, defeating Republican Corey Stewart by a punishing 16-point margin.

2019: Aided by an anti-gerrymandering court ruling and an energized base, Democrats flipped both houses of the Virginia legislature & thereby gained full control over the Commonwealth. Democrats also won lots of local races, notably flipping several County Boards of Commissioners. This cemented Virginia's status as heavily blue-leaning, if not outright solid-blue.

Virginia's leftward shift is attributable to many causes: from immigration to Yankee migration to changing attitudes among its longstanding suburban population. What's noteworthy is that many of these changes are also underway in other southern states like North Carolina, Georgia, & Texas. If the Commonwealth can go blue, so too can these other states, setting the stage for a New South no longer dominated by racism & conservatism.
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The Caption & Description of the First Picture:
{Northern Virginia Community College Club Day Fall 2018: The IYSSE spoke to students today about Socialism and the need to politically break from the two-parties of big business and war. Come to our club meeting today at 3:30pm in CN 231 at Annandale campus!}

Taken From: NOVA IYSSE Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/IysseNova/photos/1098099870365535

[This group is basically far to the left of normal Democrats, see for yourself if you'd like to investigate more]

British bastards did it. Started banging the natives bring the Beaver Wars, and let those indentured German miners loose and everything went after that.

People generally vote their own self interest over the greater good and Republicans must share much of the blame. When the Reagan administration opened the government to outsourcing during the mid 80s, a feeding frenzy developed among private interest drawing corporate pirates and Beltway bandits to D.C. in unprecedented numbers. Trump was viewed as a threat to the free flow of dollars from the federal trough so it became imperative to remove him through either scandal, impeachment or outright election fraud.

Swing and a miss Ralphie.

In the 1970s Republicans were finally able to win statewide offices in Virginia. This was on the strength of Republicans in northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. Look at the typical northern Virginia Republican of that era. He likely came from the northeast, midwest or the plains states. He went to a state college, quite possibly on the GI Bill. He came to Virginia to work for the Federal government or in a job closely tied to the Federal government. He had no expectation of making more than twice the area median income until late in his career. He was a moderate on social issues. He was relatively tolerant of immigrants who were mostly WW2 refugees or refugees from Communist countries. He didn't mind paying taxes so long as those taxes went to paying for good roads and good public schools where they sent their kids. He spent his time participating in Little League, the PTA and Church. He did his own lawn maintenance and took pride in how his labor made his yard look.

Those northern Virginia Republicans either died off or sold out when home prices exploded. Their modern counterparts are much different. It is the anti-government, anti-tax, elitism, social conservatism, racism and greed of Republicanism in the Reagan and post Reagan years that doomed the Republicans in northern Virginia.

Virginias death nail. It must be a hard thing for Democrats to have to choke old KKK Ralph down, but they own him now, lol!!
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A few years ago, when Republicans who were as corrupt as today's Democraps had coontrol of Virginia. Before those administrations, Virginia used to get top marks as a business friendly state and wealth was flowing in. Since then, socialists had succeeded in obummers reign in loading the population with illegals primed with free life needs, and the nations socialist programmed kids swarmed to DC area to work for their most admired master in the US govt. Wealth is flowing to the socialists in power (Take a tour of the Fairfax Taj Mahal) as the state's old guard wealthy get ready to move out to more tax friendly places to own property and do business. Note the overwhelming supply of farms for sale throughout Central Virginia, that used to belong to the rich landed gentleman class in the horse country. That land is being scarfed up and given away to the developers. Don't know where those rich folks with their horses and hobby farms are fleeing to, but southern cities seem to have lots of rich citizens moving in lately as they sell out and flee their home states rising tax burdens.. Enter the plague---they want to depopulate the earth--no more land left to house these populations AND grow enough food for everyone. That is why China sending viruses and buying up all the arable land here it can get its hands on.