Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC · the strongest Democratic and Republican presidential performances recorded here, measured three ways.
1892–2024 · 34 presidential cycles
Highest vote share
Largest share of the presidential candidate vote cast here.
Democratic
Franklin D. Roosevelt1936
81.3%
42,196 votes · D+63.0
Runner-up · Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940 · 80.9%
Republican
Richard Nixon1972
64.4%
166,112 votes · R+31.5
Runner-up · Ronald Reagan, 1984 · 60.4%
Most votes
Largest number of votes cast for the party’s presidential nominee here.
Democratic
Joe Biden2020
486,096votes
55.7% of the vote · D+13.4
Runner-up · Kamala Harris, 2024 · 473,108 votes
Republican
Donald Trump2024
384,145votes
44.1% of the vote · D+10.2
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2020 · 369,160 votes
Best relative to the U.S.
This Place’s margin against the national margin in the same election — positive when it leaned toward the party more than the country did.
Democratic
John W. Davis1924
+69.6pts D vs U.S.
Place D+44.4 · U.S. R+25.2
Runner-up · Alton B. Parker, 1904 · +69.5 pts
Republican
George H. W. Bush1988
+10.3pts R vs U.S.
Place R+18.0 · U.S. R+7.7
Runner-up · Richard Nixon, 1972 · +8.4 pts
U.S. House elections · 3 House
Senate and governor results are in the Office selector at the top of this page.
U.S. House
On a multi-state Place, each row sums votes cast in the separate U.S. House races held inside the Place that year. It is a geographic vote total, not one contest or a seat tally.
Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC · how this place’s counties split between candidates in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain and there is no roll-up above it. Each cell counts how many of this place’s counties a candidate led — a count of records, not a vote total. Who led the place as a whole is not knowable from these returns, because county rows carry a leader and a lead but no per-candidate votes.
Presidential nominating contests in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC, by party and cycle.
Party
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Democratic
Obama16Clinton2235,507 votes · 18 of 18 countiesprimary
○no contest record
Clinton16Sanders2163,585 votes · 18 of 18 countiesprimary
Biden18255,997 votes · 18 of 18 countiesprimary
○no contest record
Republicannot ingested
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
voter registration
Registered voters
By party of registration, over time
Party registration · 2012D+10.7
vs
Presidential vote · 2024D+10.2
Registration and the presidential vote track closely here — within 0.5 points.
DemocraticRepublicanUnaffiliatedOther parties
† Some years predate full county coverage; a flagged year sums only the counties reporting it.
Voter registration in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC
Year
Total registered
Democratic
Republican
Unaffiliated
Other
2008 (partial)
30,468
13,488
8,272
8,682
26
2012 (partial)
33,884
13,226
9,602
10,957
99
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
−2,241 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net −76,980 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
−6,086
2012
−6,778
2013
−5,602
2014
−4,350
2015
−9,193
2016
−10,648
2017
−8,541
2018
−4,924
2019
−2,063
2021
−384
2022
−6,563
2023
−4,216
2024
−5,391
2025
−2,241
The Hampton Roads metro's outsized active-duty and veteran population anchors a distinct electoral calculus, while fast-growing exurban corridors in Chesapeake and Suffolk have steadily shifted the region's partisan margins over successive cycles.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 69.8 points in 1912 and a Republican high of 31.5 points in 1972. Between 2020 and 2024 the metro moved 3.2 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 10.2 points.
A population of 1,787,235, a 53% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $84,869 describe the metro. The metro's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Richmond, VA and Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD.
Akashic
Political twins — metros
The metros whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
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All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC. Akashic. https://akashic.app/cbsa/47260/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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How did Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC vote in 2024?
In 2024, Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC voted Democratic by 10.2 points (D+10.2), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 871,994 votes cast, 473,108 went Democratic and 384,145 went Republican.
When did Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC voted Republican was 2004.
How many people live in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC?
Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC has a population of 1,787,235 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC?
Median household income in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC is $84,869 — above the national median of $80,734. The Virginia state median is $72,388.
What is the political history of Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 25 went Democratic and 9 went Republican.
