page_title: Virginia
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Virginia / Politics
caption_attribution_description: The 2008 Shad Planking in Wakefield, Virginia
context_page_description: Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna. The capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond; Virginia Beach is the most-populous city, and Fairfax County is the most-populous political subdivision. The Commonwealth's estimated population as of 2019 is over 8.54 million.
  The area's history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent English colony in the New World. Virginia's state nickname, the Old Dominion, is a reference to this status. Slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colony's early politics and plantation economy. Virginia was one of the 13 Colonies in the American Revolution.
context_section_description: Over the 20th century, Virginia shifted from a largely rural, politically Southern and conservative state to a more urbanized, pluralistic, and politically moderate environment. Up until the 1970s, Virginia was a racially divided one-party state dominated by the Byrd Organization, which sought to stymie the political power of Northern Virginia, perpetuate segregation, and restrict voter registration. The organization used malapportionment to control what areas of the state were over-represented in the General Assembly and the U.S. Congress until ordered to end the practice by the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Davis v. Mann and the 1965 the Virginia Supreme Court decision in Wilkins v. Davis respectively.
  Passage of Federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, helped end the state's Jim Crow laws which effectively disfranchised African Americans. Greater enfranchisement and demographic shifts further changed the electorate. In 1980, 56 percent of eligible voters were born in the state; in 2019 that number was 45 percent, a result of strong international immigration and domestic migration into the state.
  Regional differences also play a large part in Virginia politics. While urban and growing suburban areas, including much of Northern Virginia, form the Democratic Party base, rural southern and western areas moved to support the Republican Party in response to its "southern strategy". Rural Democratic support has nevertheless persisted in union-influenced Roanoke in Southwest Virginia, college towns such as Charlottesville and Blacksburg, and the southeastern Black Belt Region. State election seasons traditionally start with the annual Shad Planking event in Wakefield.
caption: The annual Shad Planking event in Sussex County is a traditional stop for state election candidates.[339]
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