Virginia 2013 Gubernatorial Swing Map
The margin swing in the 2013 Virginia Governor’s race relative to the 2009 election was nearly 20% towards the Democrats. The 2013 result was Democrat Terry McAuliffe over Republican Ken Cuccinelli by 2.6% (47.8%-45.2%). In the 2009 contest, Republican Bob McDonnell defeated Democrat Creigh Deeds by 17.3% (58.6%-41.3%). As shown by the map, most of the counties and cities in the state swung Democratic. A dozen counties in the Appalachian region bordering West Virginia plus Patrick County swung Republican. Most of these had relatively modest Republican swings. An exception to this, however, are three adjacent counties in the northwest portion of the state: Alleghany, Bath, and Highland along with Covington City (which lies wholly within Alleghany County). These three counties plus city exhibited swing percentages that significantly bucked the statewide swing, recording vote margins that surged Republican by 31%, 51%, 21%, and 26% respectively. Bath County in particular, with a Republican swing percentage of 51% makes for a state-level trend move of 71% (51% Republican swing in the county plus 20% Democratic swing statewide).
Virginia 2013 Governor - Margin Swing
| County | Margin 2009 | Margin 2013 | Margin Swing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bath County | D+27% | R+24% | R+51% |
| Allegheny County | D+23% | R+9% | R+31% |
| Covington City | D+32% | D+6% | R+26% |
| Highland County | R+10% | R+31% | R+21% |
| Statewide | R+17% | D+3% | D+20% |
While often such outlying data can suggest an error in the tally, this result is simply a matter of the area voting for favorite son Creigh Deeds in 2009 and returning to the regional voting pattern in 2013. Creigh Deeds is from Bath County and represented the 25th district in the Virginia Senate (In 2009, Bath County, Allegheny County, and Covington City were all within the 25th district). These counties also have very small populations (in 2013, Highland County had only 903 total votes counted, Bath County had 1,213, Allegheny County had 4,136, and Covington City had 1,275). The full swing table (member feature) can be viewed here.