It’s out with the old and in with the new in Virginia when it comes to politics. Once the “Old Dominion,” the home to the Confederacy is now being described as the “New Dominion” for its shift from GOP-conservative politics to an even left-right balance.
“Virginia is now the New Dominion,” declares Geoffrey Skelley, a state political analyst with the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “More and more, Virginia looks and feels like a microcosm of the country as a whole in federal elections,” he said.
Driving the shift has been the population surge in what Skelley calls the “Urban Crescent,” made up of Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads, all three of which President Obama won in 2008, permanently making Virginia a battleground state.
And in those three areas, Skelley said the key to victory is really in just three counties: Loudoun, Prince William and Henrico. If Obama can run up his numbers there, victory will be his.
See his full analysis here.
