[OFFICIAL] Virginia 2016 Strategy Thread

[Mehmentum]

While improving with minorities could work, there is an alternative path.

They key to the Democrat's success is the growth of Northern Virginia and the key to Democratic strength in Northern Virginia is education level.  A full quarter of the NoVa population has a graduate or professional degree.  While college graduates in general are fairly evenly split, those with graduate degrees vote for Democrats at a 2 to 1 margin. 

In addition, these people will likely have high incomes, which means they'll be more likely to vote than most Democratic constituencies.  This could explain why Virginia Democrats have had a lot of success in off year and midterm elections, even though Democrats in most other competitive states have been routinely destroyed in midterm elections.

So why are these people so Democratic?  Well, they're likely turned off by the amount of religious fundamentalism and global warming denialism in the Republican party.  Generally these people view Republicans as anti-science and until that perception changes, they'll remain solidly Democratic.