Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · the strongest Democratic and Republican presidential performances recorded here, measured three ways.
1892–2024 · 34 presidential cycles · 30 with a vote-share denominator · 32 with a national benchmark
Highest vote share
Largest share of the presidential candidate vote cast here.
Democratic
Joe Biden2020
72.8%
2,295,373 votes · D+47.8
Runner-up · Hillary Clinton, 2016 · 69.3%
Republican
Dwight D. Eisenhower1952
59.2%
168,209 votes · R+18.9
Runner-up · Herbert Hoover, 1928 · 57.6%
Most votes
Largest number of votes cast for the party’s presidential nominee here.
Democratic
Joe Biden2020
2,295,373votes
72.8% of the vote · D+47.8
Runner-up · Kamala Harris, 2024 · 2,150,243 votes
Republican
Donald Trump2024
866,733votes
27.8% of the vote · D+41.2
Runner-up · George W. Bush, 2004 · 823,804 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
Woodrow Wilson1912
+46.5pts D vs U.S.
Place D+66.1 · U.S. D+19.5
Runner-up · Joe Biden, 2020 · +43.4 pts
Republican
Thomas E. Dewey1948
+13.0pts R vs U.S.
Place R+8.5 · U.S. D+4.5
Runner-up · Thomas E. Dewey, 1944 · +10.2 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.
Some U.S. House rows cover a contest held in only part of this Place — the votes are real, but the total is not place-wide because the rest of the Place had no such race that year.
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · 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 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, by party and cycle.
Party
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Democratic
Obama21Clinton2882,157 votes · 23 of 23 countiesprimary
Clinton21Sanders2829,074 votes · 23 of 23 countiesprimary
Biden231,188,030 votes · 23 of 23 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 · 2026D+51.0
vs
Presidential vote · 2024D+41.2
Registration leans Democratic; the presidential vote runs 9.8 points more Republican than the rolls.
DemocraticRepublicanUnaffiliatedOther parties
† Some years predate full county coverage; a flagged year sums only the counties reporting it.
Voter registration in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Year
Total registered
Democratic
Republican
Unaffiliated
Other
2026 (partial)
2,209,315
1,402,146
275,133
491,218
40,818
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
−23,791 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net −343,213 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
+24,573
2012
+6,408
2013
+2,644
2014
−22,075
2015
−31,958
2016
−32,565
2017
−22,100
2018
−30,060
2019
−30,022
2021
−46,936
2022
−69,967
2023
−44,032
2024
−23,332
2025
−23,791
The Washington metro anchors the highest concentration of federal workers in the nation, producing an electorate and economy unusually sensitive to shifts in government spending, contracting cycles, and public-sector labor policy.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 66.1 points in 1912 and a Republican high of 18.9 points in 1952. Between 2020 and 2024 the metro moved 6.7 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 41.2 points.
A population of 6,318,377, a 41% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $130,074 describe the metro. The metro's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA.
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 →
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Virginia. Akashic. https://akashic.app/cbsa/47900/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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How did Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Virginia vote in 2024?
In 2024, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Virginia voted Democratic by 41.2 points (D+41.2), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 3,117,149 votes cast, 2,150,243 went Democratic and 866,733 went Republican.
When did Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Virginia last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Virginia voted Republican was 1980.
How many people live in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Virginia?
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Virginia has a population of 6,318,377 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Virginia?
Median household income in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Virginia is $130,074 — above the national median of $80,734. The Virginia state median is $93,170.
What is the political history of Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Virginia?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, Virginia from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 25 went Democratic and 7 went Republican.
