Virginia's blue wave shows no sign of slowing ahead of key House races next week
Two years ago, Virginia Democrats won a majority of their state’s congressional seats for the first time in a decade, part of a national trend that made Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaker of the House.
Republicans vowed to wrest back those gains, especially in districts that had long been GOP strongholds.
It isn’t going to happen, at least not this year. Nonpartisan forecasters predict Democrats will hold on to their 7-to-4 advantage in House seats and may even pick up an eighth.
The Republicans’ weakness in the Old Dominion results from three trends, which echo their challenges in much of the rest of the country. President Trump has acquired what analysts call a “toxic” reputation in the state. Demographic shifts that already helped Democrats in Northern Virginia have now spread to suburbs around Richmond and Hampton Roads. And a split between hard-line conservatives and center-right voters hampers the GOP’s ability to compete.
“Virginia has become a safely blue state,” said David Wasserman, House editor of the Cook Political Report. “The Republican collapse in the western Richmond suburbs is breathtaking.”
Assuming the forecasts are correct, the Nov. 3 results will cement the Washington region’s congressional delegations as overwhelmingly Democratic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mccartney-region-virginia-democratic-dominance/2020/10/25/9e4bbf32-1554-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
