last night's georgia surprise had me going back to Manitopiaaa's awesome MSA election results thread and i realized something i didn't fully appreciate about VA's blue shift.
we all know that the biggest driver of that shift is and has been NOVA, but a big reason why the state wasn't even close is the fact that the #2 and #3 MSAs (richmond and virginia beach) were also very safely blue.
in fact, richmond's MSA, with a +14.7 for biden, was bluer than all other major midwest/rustbelt metros with the exception of chicago and the twin cities. yes, the richmond MSA was even ever so slightly bluer than metro detroit and metro cleveland, and virginia beach was only a fraction of a point behind them. color me surprised.
__________________
"Missing middle" housing can be a great middle ground for many middle class families.
|