The 10 Most Conservative Cities In Virginia For 2023


The most conservative cities in Virginia are Richlands and Bluefield for 2023 based on Saturday Night Science.

Now that we’re headed towards the next big election, we wanted to get a better sense of what parts of Virginia would be the most likely to back Donald Trump again.

Specifically, which cities have the highest number of conservative voters in the Old Dominion?

To do so, we used Saturday Night Science to measure how each city in Virginia with populations greater than 5,000 voted in past elections. The cities with the highest percentage of voters who voted Republican were named the most conservative cities in the state.


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 most conservative places in Virginia for 2023

  1. Richlands
  2. Bluefield
  3. Big Stone Gap
  4. Wytheville
  5. Marion
  6. Abingdon
  7. Allen )
  8. Poquoson
  9. Pulaski
  10. Galax

If you’re wondering, Petersburg is the most liberal city in Virginia of all those we measured.

And to be clear, we didn’t form this list based on our own biases — we relied on the cold hard data. For more on how we ran the numbers, keep on reading. Then we’ll take a closer look at each of our top 10 most conservative cities in Virginia.

Additional reading about Virginia and the most conservative places in the country:

The 10 Most Conservative Places In Virginia For 2023

Richlands, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Brian Stansberry | CC BY 4.0

Percent Republican: 83.0%
More on Richlands: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Bluefield, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Brian Stansberry | CC BY 4.0

Percent Republican: 83.0%
More on Bluefield: Data | Crime | Real Estate

Big Stone Gap, VA

Source: Wikipedia User KJPurscell | CC BY-SA 3.0

Percent Republican: 80.4%
More on Big Stone Gap: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Wytheville, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Mark Warner | CC BY-SA 2.0

Percent Republican: 77.8%
More on Wytheville: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Marion, VA

Source: Wikipedia User DwayneP (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Percent Republican: 77.6%
More on Marion: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Abingdon, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Ricknightcrawler | CC BY-SA 3.0

Percent Republican: 75.6%
More on Abingdon: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

7. Allen

Source: Public Domain

Percent Republican: 73.1%
More on Allen : Real Estate

Poquoson, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Chrisfortier at English Wikipedia | GFDL

Percent Republican: 71.3%
More on Poquoson: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Pulaski, VA

Source: Wikipedia User DwayneP (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Percent Republican: 69.8%
More on Pulaski: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Galax, VA

Source: Public domain

Percent Republican: 69.6%
More on Galax: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

How we determined the most conservative cities in Virginia for 2023

To find the most conservative places in Virginia, we used Saturday Night Science – the argument you’d make at a bar – to find the cities with the most conservatives.

We started by making a list of every city in Virginia over 5,000 people based on the 2017-2021 American Community Survey. That left us with 64 cities and towns.

We then measured the voting record and MIT election data to determine which places rock the most rightward in their allegiances by:

  1. Percentage Of Votes For The Republican President In 2020

Because no voting data exists at the city level, we used county-level election results from the 2020 election. We assigned every city in a county the percentage of votes that went to the Republicans, effectively extending the county’s results to the city level. In cases where larger cities encompassed an entire county, the election outcomes accurately reflected the city’s political landscape.

Next, we ranked each city from 1 to 64 for each criterion, where number one was the most conservative.

The winner, Richlands, is “The Most Conservative City in Virginia For 2023”. The most liberal place in Virginia was Petersburg.

We updated this article for 2023. This report is our tenth time ranking the most conservative places to live in Virginia.

Summing Up The Conservative Strongholds in Virginia

Well, there you have it, the places in Virginia that have the highest number of conservatives per capita, with Richlands ranking as the most conservative in the entire state.

If you’re curious, here are the least conservative cities in Virginia:

  1. Petersburg
  2. Charlottesville
  3. Richmond

For more Virginia reading, check out:

Most Conservative Places In Virginia

Rank City Population % Conservative
1 Richlands, VA 5,300 83.0%
2 Bluefield, VA 5,079 83.0%
3 Big Stone Gap, VA 5,280 80.4%
4 Wytheville, VA 8,260 77.8%
5 Marion, VA 5,817 77.6%
6 Abingdon, VA 8,350 75.6%
7 Allen , VA 6,610 73.1%
8 Poquoson, VA 12,382 71.3%
9 Pulaski, VA 8,984 69.8%
10 Galax, VA 6,681 69.6%
11 Woodstock, VA 5,716 69.5%
12 Strasburg, VA 7,036 69.5%
13 Bridgewater, VA 6,092 69.3%
14 Bristol, VA 16,996 68.4%
15 Buena Vista, VA 6,649 67.1%
16 Front Royal, VA 15,039 66.5%
17 Colonial Heights, VA 18,127 65.6%
18 Ashland, VA 7,478 62.4%
19 Covington, VA 5,716 60.7%
20 Vinton, VA 8,039 59.9%
21 Orange, VA 5,012 59.9%
22 Culpeper, VA 19,740 59.1%
23 Salem, VA 25,335 58.9%
24 Smithfield, VA 8,513 58.4%
25 Warrenton, VA 10,002 57.5%
26 South Boston, VA 8,011 57.1%
27 Farmville, VA 7,266 56.8%
28 Waynesboro, VA 22,149 51.4%
29 Lynchburg, VA 78,973 47.0%
30 Virginia Beach, VA 457,658 46.1%
31 Blacksburg, VA 44,385 45.8%
32 Christiansburg, VA 23,174 45.8%
33 Chesapeake, VA 247,172 45.7%
34 Radford, VA 16,205 44.1%
35 Staunton, VA 25,358 43.8%
36 Winchester, VA 28,194 43.1%
37 Hopewell, VA 23,020 41.8%
38 Suffolk, VA 93,268 40.5%
39 Danville, VA 42,556 38.2%
40 Manassas, VA 42,596 36.8%
41 Franklin, VA 8,249 36.6%
42 Purcellville, VA 8,910 36.5%
43 Leesburg, VA 48,223 36.5%
44 Roanoke, VA 99,578 36.0%
45 Martinsville, VA 13,476 35.9%
46 Dumfries, VA 5,669 35.6%
47 Lexington, VA 7,287 32.8%
48 Harrisonburg, VA 52,062 32.7%
49 Manassas Park, VA 17,081 32.5%
50 Newport News, VA 185,069 32.5%
51 Emporia, VA 5,761 31.6%
52 Fredericksburg, VA 28,027 31.4%
53 Fairfax, VA 23,980 29.7%
54 Portsmouth, VA 97,454 28.6%
55 Williamsburg, VA 15,299 28.5%
56 Herndon, VA 24,574 28.0%
57 Vienna, VA 16,465 28.0%
58 Hampton, VA 136,748 27.9%
59 Norfolk, VA 238,556 26.1%
60 Alexandria, VA 158,185 17.6%
61 Falls Church, VA 14,494 16.9%
62 Richmond, VA 225,676 14.9%
63 Charlottesville, VA 46,597 12.8%
64 Petersburg, VA 33,229 11.2%
About Nick Johnson

Nick Johnson earned his masters in Business Administration from the Drucker School At Claremont Graduate University. He has written for 39 publications across the country and ran the media relations department at Movoto, a real estate portal based in San Francisco. He has been featured in over 500 publications as an expert in real estate and as an authority on real estate trends.

Nick's the creator of the HomeSnacks YouTube channel that now has over 260,000 subscribers and is an excellent source to learn about different parts of the country.

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