ABSTRACT
In the 2008 presidential election, the Democratic candidate, US Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, overturned political trends established over decades to win a stunning victory. In the southern state of Virginia, for example, Republican presidential candidates had won the state in every election since 1968. The state returned Republican candidates even against the national trend. A majority of Virginians voted for Gerald Ford in 1976 and Robert Dole in 1996, even when these candidates lost the national race. Obama’s 2008 victory in Virginia was due to many factors including a larger than average Black turnout. But vital to his success were also the suburban counties along the state’s northern fringe of Washington, DC. With a growing number of non-White residents, younger voters, and unaffiliated voters with the Republicans, voters in these explosive growth suburban counties turned out in large numbers to support the Democratic presidential candidate. In a historic election result, for the first time in 40 years, the state returned a Democratic presidential candidate.
