With VA Blue again is "Ol' Virginny" gone forever? (Virginia Beach: house, live)

[wnewberry22]

This marks the second time that Virginia has gone Blue in recent presidential elections. One could make the argument that the first time was a fluke or some demographic abnormality but twice is a different story. The landscape of Virginia is changing whether we want to admit it or not. Virginia is looking less like Tennessee or North Carolina and more like Maryland or New Jersey. This trend used to be contained within the NOVA suburbs but it is beginning to spill into the rural areas from all regions. The Richmond area is spawing out, the Tidewater area is spawing west, and NOVA is spawing southwest and west.
Basically the only strongholds of Southern Culture remain in the extreme southwest region of the state and southside and it is difficult to tell how long that will remain the case. Are the demographic trends indicative of the state as a whole changing culturally?

So my question is as follows:

Is Old Virginia as we know/knew it gone or do these election results mean nothing

[CAVA1990]

It'll remain alive and well in the General Assembly and House of Representatives as long as Republicans control the gerrymandering process and show up to vote in greater numbers in odd year elections. Democrats only dominate state wide races in even years.

The state is becoming more culturally diverse but you wouldn't know it looking at most of our elected officials from both parties who are nearly all white guys.

[Bigfoot424]

VA is blue because of NOVA and a few additional areas. VA overall is far from blue. Luckily for Obama the blue is in the heavily populated areas.

[headnsouth]

Originally Posted by wnewberry22

Are the demographic trends indicative of the state as a whole changing culturally?

I sure hope so!

[Caladium]

Old Virginny? I think that disappeared around the time Stephen Foster died.

If the question is will VA ever vote Republican again, of course it will. It all depends on the candidate. VA's not really what I consider a party ticket kind of a state, it's more often about who's running.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

VA is blue because of NOVA and a few additional areas. VA overall is far from blue. Luckily for Obama the blue is in the heavily populated areas.

Based on recent election results the state is about 50/50. A significant Republican influence is relatively recent. Virginia has voted Democratic in something like 30 out of 45 presidential elections where Democrats faced Republicans since 1824, including every time for FDR who was a heck of a lot more left-wing than Obama. Clinton only lost to Dole here by 2% back in 1996. It's never been overwhelmingly Republican.

[roanoker 4]

Virginia is entering into a new era of politics due to its changing population as is other states such as Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina and Florida, etc. It is obvious now the Republican party is no longer the only game in town. While the people in the red states really want to believe the 1950s will return states such as ours
have entered the 21st century and realize our nation must move forward. As the republican party falls apart in our state lets hope our representatives we send to Washington will be more representative of Virginias' population, despite the old white guys who are very good at politics start dying off.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by wnewberry22

Basically the only strongholds of Southern Culture remain in the extreme southwest region of the state

In our last gubernatorial election, the Democratic was from Southwest VA while the Republican grew up in Northern VA and represented Virginia Beach in the General Assembly. I'm not sure you can stereotype our Commonwealth geographically.

Virginia elected the first black governor who was also a Democrat.

[virginia33]

Louisiana voted for Clinton two elections in a row; and Georgia voted for Clinton in 1992. In 1976 the entire South voted Democrat except Virginia. Since 1968, the only Democratic presidential candidate to win Virginia has been Barack Obama. Look at this year's map, Obama only won the dense, more urban areas. Virginia, NC, SC, and Georgia were all near 50/50 splits this year. I wouldn't read too much into this. Romney was objectively not a great candidate. That's all there is to it. Virginia's a southern state with a diverse population. I don't know why people insist on turning it into a northern state. If you want the north, move north.

[CAVA1990]

Blacks, women, young people and increasing numbers of hispanics live throughout Virginia. A party that keeps narrowing its focus to the interests of older, white men is going to become increasingly marginal. The Republicans are becoming about as relevant as the Whigs and I anticipate will do just about as well as time goes on.

Only 6 out of 14 VA governors and four of eleven VA U.S. senators in my lifetime have been Republicans