Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia (named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, who was known as the Virgin Queen) is one of the original thirteen colonies of the United States that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. It is located in the Southern United States but is sometimes included, geographically, in the Mid-Atlantic States. It is one of four states that use the name commonwealth. Virginia was the first part of the Americas to be colonized permanently by England.

Virginia is known as the "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson), more than any other state. Four of the first five presidents were from Virginia, and seven of the first twelve. The most recent Virginian president was Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president. Virginia has also been known as the "Mother of States", because portions of the original Colony subsequently became Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia as well as some portions of Ohio.

After William Mahone and the Readjuster Party lost control of Virginia politics around 1883, the Democratic Party held a strong majority position of state and federal offices for over 85 years. Since the implementation of Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy in 1968, Virginia has voted for Republicans for president in every election (making it a "red state" for the past ten consecutive presidential elections), longer than any other state. In 1970, Republican A. Linwood Holton Jr. became the first Republican governor in the 20th century. In the years thereafter, Republicans made substantial gains, and for a time, controlled both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, as well as the Governorship from 1994 until 2002.

However, recently Democrats have been gaining votes in Virginia. In 2004, John Kerry won 45.48% of the vote in Virginia, the highest percentage of any Democrat since Jimmy Carter. Kerry won Fairfax County, long a Republican stronghold, and fared much better in the rest of Northern Virginia than Al Gore did in 2000. Though Northern Virginia continues to trend Democratic, rural Virginia, once a Democratic stronghold, has been trending Republican, balancing out the state's politics.

However, as the population increases in the Washington D.C. suburbs, so has the number of Democratic voters. In 2005, Tim Kaine won nearly all of Northern Virginia, a feat not even accomplished by Mark Warner four years earlier. It is possible that Virginia will become a more politically competitive state in the future as the number of Democrats in the north begins to counterbalance the number of Republicans elsewhere.

Republicans hold both seats in the U.S. Senate, 8 of 11 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, hold a majority in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate, and Virginia's Lieutenant Governor is a Republican. Republican Robert McDonnell became Attorney General by 360 votes following a limited recount of ballots for that race.

Democrats control the remaining 3 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The newly inaugurated Governor, Tim Kaine, is a Democrat. The Democrats have been gaining seats in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Incumbent Virginia governors cannot run for re-election under the state constitution, and in the November 2005 election to succeed Democratic Governor Mark Warner, Democrat Tim Kaine beat Republican Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (Scott County) and longtime Republican State Senator Russ Potts (Winchester), who ran as an independent. Kaine was inaugurated as governor on January 14, 2006.