Google’s election maps gallery allows us to understand the folly of Republicans writing off Northern Virginia as “fake.” Take a look at the Bush-Kerry results in the region:
As you can see, Bush actually carried the two outer suburban counties Loudon and Prince William. And though Fairfax County ultimately went for Kerry, it was by a reasonably close 53-46 margin. Since this is also Virginia’s biggest county in terms of population, the difference between winning 46 percent and winning 43 percent is pretty significant. And it doesn’t help your case to dismiss it out of hand as alien territory.
Meanwhile, the demographic breakdown is interesting:
A well-to-do suburban county ought to be decent territory for the GOP. But note that along with an about average number of African-Americans and Hispanics, Fairfax has a large Asian population. Consequently, the white plurality is a smaller white plurality than you see nationwide. And consequently, the Republicans lose. That, however, is the general direction in which the United States is heading — slowly but surely growing a little less white and therefore a little less Republican.
Previous in TP Yglesias
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