The 20th district was based for two decades as the "Danville seat" in the House of Delegates. In the 2001 redistricting, Republicans opted to renumber the Danville district as the 14th district- a district they had eliminated in the Roanoke area that was represented by Dick Cranwell. The 20th district was moved to be based in Staunton, the adjacent precincts of Augusta County and also crossed into the Alleghany Highlands to get Highland County. So despite the number swap, this is really where Cranwell's old seat ended up- about an hour north of Roanoke. Chris Saxman won this seat in 2001 and was only contested one time until he retired in 2009. Dickie Bell then won the open seat and was then re-elected- both landslide wins. In redistricting, the seat lost its small portion of Rockingham County, and now crosses east into parts of Nelson County.
House District #20 (map here)
30.7% of the vote in Augusta County
29.8% of the vote in Staunton City
23.4% of the vote in Waynesboro City
12.3% of the vote in Nelson County
3.8% of the vote in Highland County
2012 Major Party Election Results
Mitt Romney 21,325 (57.9%)
Barack Obama 15,531 (42.1%)
George Allen 21,560 (58.0%)
Tim Kaine 15,606 (42.0%)
Bob Goodlatte/Robert Hurt 22,717 (62.1%)
Andy Schmookler/John Douglass 13,845 (37.9%)
(Broken down below)
Bob Goodlatte 20,390 (63.4%)
Andy Schmookler 11,746 (36.6%)
Robert Hurt 2,327 (52.6%)
John Douglass 2,099 (47.4%)
TEXAS- The state the Presidential results most closely match with. Texas had a margin of 16.0% for Romney, while the 20th Delegate District of Virginia had a margin of 15.7% for Romney.
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The 20th district is full of interesting and politically competitive localities, with one exception- strongly Republican Augusta County which is split between three districts (20th, 24th, 25th) to give the GOP an advantage in each seat. In this district the Augusta precincts voted 8,055-3,252 (71.2%) for Mitt Romney over Barack Obama. Inside Augusta are two independent cities. In Staunton, Barack Obama won by a 5,728-5,272 (52.1%) vote, while Waynesboro went to Mitt Romney by a 4,790-3,840 (55.5%) vote. To the west, this district includes Highland County and they voted for Romney by a 924-459 (66.8%) margin. Finally, the district now has the over half of Nelson County and those precincts were a virtual tie- supporting Romney over Obama by a 2,284-2,252 (50.4%) vote.
In the Senate race, George Allen won the Augusta County precincts here by a 8,336-3,338 (71.4%) vote, or 0.2% above Romney's tally there. The lack of crossover was similar in Staunton where Kaine won 5,625-5,239 (51.8%) which was 0.3% improvement for Allen over Romney. Waynesboro voted for Allen by a 4,775-3,873 (55.2%) margin, or 0.3% better for Kaine than Obama. Highland County was a 957-477 (66.7%) vote for Allen, or 0.1% better for Kaine than Obama. The largest crossover was in Nelson County where Kaine won by a 2,293-2,253 (50.4%) vote, or a 0.8% improvement for Kaine over Obama's numbers- a tiny amount but just enough to make this portion of Nelson vote Romney/Kaine by less than 1% each.
Bob Goodlatte led the GOP ticket in each of the localities in the 6th district. In Augusta, Goodlatte defeated Andy Schmookler by a 8,454-2,860 (74.7%) vote, 3.5% better for Goodlatte than Romney. In Staunton, Goodlatte won an Obama/Kaine locality by a 5,708-5,134 (52.6%) vote, 4.7% above Romney. In Waynesboro, Goodlatte won by a 5,171-3,401 (60.3%) margin over Schmookler, 4.8% above Romney's tally. The biggest crossover was in the Alleghany Highlands, where Goodlatte carried Highland County by a 1,057-351 (75.1%) vote, or 8.3% above Romney for Goodlatte. Nelson County is in the 5th district- and Robert Hurt won these precincts over John Douglass by a 2,327-2,099 (52.6%) vote, or 2.2% better than Romney did in the same area.
This is the one of the most politically competitive seats in the Valley, but Republicans have won every election here in a landslide since the seat was created. Much of that is because of the strong candidates the GOP has put forth in Chris Saxman and Dickie Bell while Democrats have struggled to find people with similar credentials to contest them. Bell has not been afraid to critique his own party leadership on issues of needed funding and his career as an educator gives him a platform in Richmond to raise such issues. This seat will likely stay with the GOP without a serious contest until it opens up again.
Previous Districts Covered
House District #1- Terry Kilgore (Utah)
House District #2- Mark Dudenhefer (Delaware)
House District #3- Will Morefield (Utah)
House District #4- Joe Johnson (Wyoming)
House District #5- Israel O'Quinn (Wyoming)
House District #6- Anne Crockett-Stark (Oklahoma)
House District #7- Nick Rush (Kansas)
House District #8- Greg Habeeb (Arkansas)
House District #9- Charles Poindexter (West Virginia)
House District #10- Randy Minchew (North Carolina)
House District #11- Onzlee Ware (Rhode Island)
House District #12- Joseph Yost (Virginia)
House District #13- Bob Marshall (New Mexico)
House District #14- Danny Marshall (North Carolina)
House District #16- Don Merricks (Mississippi)
House District #17- Chris Head (Tennessee)
House District #19- Lacey Putney (West Virginia)
House District #22- Kathy Byron (Kentucky)
House District #23- Scott Garrett (Idaho)
House District #24- Ben Cline (Arkansas)
House District #28- Bill Howell (Florida)
House District #30- Ed Scott (Montana)
House District #32- Tag Greason (New Hampshire)
House District #33- Joe May (Alaska)
House District #50- Jackson Miller (Michigan)
House District #51- Rich Anderson (Ohio)
House District #52- Luke Torian (Hawaii)
House District #60- James Edmunds (North Carolina)
House District #87- David Ramadan (Washington)
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