Since the 1993 election the bases of the 33rd district in western Loudoun County and Clarke County have been represented by Joe May. In that time, May has never had an opponent come within striking distance of defeating him. This has been the most consistent looking district in Loudoun County because the population growth of the county is in the east, and is controlled in the rural west than May represents. Over the two decades May has been in office there have only been minor changes to his district, including adding a small slice of Frederick County that runs to the border with Winchester City in this last redistricting.
House District #33 (map here)
67.3% of the vote in Loudoun County
20.5% of the vote in Frederick County
12.2% of the vote in Clarke County
2012 Major Party Election Results
Mitt Romney 24,081 (57.5%)
Barack Obama 17,835 (42.5%)
George Allen 23,800 (56.4%)
Tim Kaine 18,423 (43.6%)
Frank Wolf 27,356 (67.7%)
Kristin Cabral 13,058 (32.3%)
ALASKA- The state the Presidential results most closely match with. Alaska had a margin of 14.6% for Romney, while the 33rd Delegate District of Virginia had a margin of 14.9% for Romney.
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The redistricting process can often benefit legislators who have been around a long time and are popular in the majority caucus. That seems to be the case with Joe May. The precincts May was given in western Loudoun County voted 16,111-12,112 (57.1%) for Mitt Romney over Barack Obama. Compare that to the county which gave Obama 52.3% of the two party vote- meaning May's Loudoun precincts are 9.4% more Republican than the county as a whole. Redistricting moved another district (10th) that runs adjacent to May's in western Loudoun, Clarke and Frederick- yet that district's western Loudoun precincts voted 51.0% for Obama, meaning May's precincts in Loudoun are 8.1% more Republican than even his closest neighbor! Clarke County is also split between the 33rd and 10th districts, and May's portion of that county voted 2,908-2,200 (56.9%) for Romney. Finally the 33rd now stretches into Frederick County along with the 10th and 29th districts and the portions of Frederick in this district voted 5,062-3,523 (59.0%) for Romney. While these counties are very different politically the portions of them in the 33rd are similar with all three giving Romney wins with between 56.9% and 59.0% of the vote.
Tim Kaine inched ahead of Barack Obama in all three of the counties included in the 33rd. Kaine lost to Allen in the Loudoun precincts by a 15,874-12,509 (55.9%) or a 1.2% swing to Kaine. In Clarke the result was 2,872-2,310 (55.4%) for Allen, or a 1.5% swing to Kaine. Frederick had the smallest crossover with a vote of 5,054-3,604 (58.4%) for Allen, a crossover of 0.6% for Kaine.
Despite these areas already being strongly Republican, Frank Wolf continued to win a major crossover vote across the board in his race against Kristin Cabral. In these Loudoun precincts, Wolf won 67.1%, a 18,408-9,023 win that made him the only Republican to get beyond a 2-1 margin there. Wolf also got to a 2-1 margin in Clarke County with a 3,325-1,529 (68.5%) vote and in Frederick County with a 5,623-2,506 (69.2%) margin. For Wolf that was a 10.0% crossover from the Presidential race in Loudoun, a 11.6% crossover in Clarke and a 10.2% crossover vote in Frederick.
Joe May is not best known for his work in the General Assembly- but for his career in the technology business. May invented the technology that allows TV networks to show the first down lines during football games- making him a hero to anyone who has seen the improved coverage of games on TV since that improvement was made. His seniority has given him a very comfortable GOP seat, and he will continue to hold this seat unless he makes a major error or a primary challenge emerges.
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 #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 #28- Bill Howell (Florida)
House District #32- Tag Greason (New Hampshire)
House District #50- Jackson Miller (Michigan)
House District #51- Rich Anderson (Ohio)
House District #52- Luke Torian (Hawaii)
House District #87- David Ramadan (Washington)
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