As Virginia slipped from Sen. John McCain’s campaign in the last weeks of the election, the Arizona senator told supporters with greater urgency that he couldn’t win without taking the Old Dominion.
In the end, he couldn’t have won the national election even if he did take Virginia, which broke along with several populous swing states for Sen. Barack Obama. But the fact that Virginia was even in play this year signaled a broad shift for a state that hasn’t cast its 13 electoral votes for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964.
“Tonight Virginia and our nation took a massive step,” an emotional Gov. Tim Kaine told a cheering crowd in Tysons Corner.
Obama, Kaine said, didn’t treat Virginia as a fly-over state, but instead “He believed in us, he invested in us, and we didn’t let him down.”
What a few years ago would have been considered an unlikely swing state — one that went for George W. Bush in 2004 by a margin of 262,000 — turned out to be the one of the Democratic Party’s best opportunities. Obama made frequent visits to the Old Dominion throughout the campaign, spent millions, opened dozens of campaign offices and targeted some of the most traditionally red regions.
“He realized Virginia was in play, he came here over a dozen times, and I think Virginians appreciated the attention, they appreciated seeing him in person,” said Del. Brian Moran, D-Alexandria, who is expected to compete for the Democratic nomination for governor next year.
