The 10 Most Liberal Cities In Virginia For 2023


The most liberal cities in Virginia are Petersburg and Charlottesville for 2023 based on Saturday Night Science.

In this article, we will explore some of the most liberal cities in Virginia, where progressive ideas and inclusive attitudes flourish.

If you’re looking to move to Virginia and want to know where the majority of Virginians lean left, you’ve come to the right place.

Specifically, we wanted to know which cities have the highest number of liberal voters in the Old Dominion.

To do so, we analyzed how the people in each city in Virginia with a population greater than 5,000 voted during the last presidential election. The cities with the highest percentage of voters who voted Democrat were named the most liberal cities in the state.

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

And to be clear, we didn’t form this list based on our 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 liberal cities in Virginia.

And if you already knew these places were liberal, check out some more reading about Virginia and the most liberal places in the country:


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


The 10 Most Liberal Places In Virginia For 2023

Petersburg, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0
Percent Democrat: 87.7%
More on Petersburg: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Charlottesville, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Billy Hathorn | CC BY-SA 3.0
Percent Democrat: 85.5%
More on Charlottesville: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Richmond, VA

Source: Wikipedia User CoredesatChikai | CC BY-SA 2.0
Percent Democrat: 82.9%
More on Richmond: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Falls Church, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Payton Chung | CC BY 2.0
Percent Democrat: 81.0%
More on Falls Church: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Alexandria, VA

Source: Wikipedia User ALXCHO | CC BY-SA 4.0
Percent Democrat: 80.3%
More on Alexandria: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Norfolk, VA

Source: Public domain
Percent Democrat: 71.6%
More on Norfolk: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Hampton, VA

Source: Public domain
Percent Democrat: 70.1%
More on Hampton: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Herndon, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Dion Hinchcliffe | CC BY-SA 2.0
Percent Democrat: 69.8%
More on Herndon: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Vienna, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Idawriter | CC BY-SA 3.0
Percent Democrat: 69.8%
More on Vienna: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Williamsburg, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Vaoverland at English Wikipedia | GFDL
Percent Democrat: 69.5%
More on Williamsburg: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

How we determined the most liberal cities in Virginia for 2023

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

Straight forward.

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 lean the most leftward in their allegiances by:

  1. Percentage Of Votes For Democratic 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 Democrats, 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.

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

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

Summing Up The Liberal Snowflakes in Virginia

Well, there you have it, the places in Virginia that have the highest number of liberals per capita, with Petersburg ranking as the least conservative in the entire state.

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

  1. Bluefield
  2. Richlands
  3. Big Stone Gap

For more Virginia reading, check out:

Most Liberal Places In Virginia

Rank City Population % Liberal
1 Petersburg, VA 33,229 87.7%
2 Charlottesville, VA 46,597 85.5%
3 Richmond, VA 225,676 82.9%
4 Falls Church, VA 14,494 81.0%
5 Alexandria, VA 158,185 80.3%
6 Norfolk, VA 238,556 71.6%
7 Hampton, VA 136,748 70.1%
8 Herndon, VA 24,574 69.8%
9 Vienna, VA 16,465 69.8%
10 Williamsburg, VA 15,299 69.5%
11 Portsmouth, VA 97,454 69.4%
12 Fairfax, VA 23,980 68.0%
13 Emporia, VA 5,761 67.6%
14 Fredericksburg, VA 28,027 66.1%
15 Manassas Park, VA 17,081 65.6%
16 Newport News, VA 185,069 65.3%
17 Lexington, VA 7,287 64.8%
18 Harrisonburg, VA 52,062 64.5%
19 Dumfries, VA 5,669 62.6%
20 Martinsville, VA 13,476 62.5%
21 Franklin, VA 8,249 62.1%
22 Roanoke, VA 99,578 61.8%
23 Leesburg, VA 48,223 61.5%
24 Purcellville, VA 8,910 61.5%
25 Manassas, VA 42,596 61.0%
26 Danville, VA 42,556 60.2%
27 Suffolk, VA 93,268 57.8%
28 Hopewell, VA 23,020 56.4%
29 Winchester, VA 28,194 54.6%
30 Staunton, VA 25,358 53.7%
31 Radford, VA 16,205 53.1%
32 Chesapeake, VA 247,172 52.2%
33 Farmville, VA 7,266 51.9%
34 Blacksburg, VA 44,385 51.6%
35 Christiansburg, VA 23,174 51.6%
36 Virginia Beach, VA 457,658 51.6%
37 Lynchburg, VA 78,973 49.6%
38 Waynesboro, VA 22,149 46.3%
39 South Boston, VA 8,011 42.0%
40 Warrenton, VA 10,002 40.2%
41 Smithfield, VA 8,513 40.1%
42 Salem, VA 25,335 39.4%
43 Culpeper, VA 19,740 39.2%
44 Orange, VA 5,012 38.5%
45 Vinton, VA 8,039 38.1%
46 Covington, VA 5,716 37.0%
47 Ashland, VA 7,478 35.6%
48 Colonial Heights, VA 18,127 32.4%
49 Front Royal, VA 15,039 31.2%
50 Buena Vista, VA 6,649 29.7%
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.