Following is an outline of the history of congressional representation for the area that is now the VA10th.
From 1799 through 1821, the area that is now Virginia’s 10th District was held in Congress by the Federalist Party. It went to the Crawford Republicans from 1823-1825, and to Adams/Anti-Jackson (over Jackson) fro 1825-1837. Beginning in 1837 and through 1853, this area was held by the Whig Party while most of the rest of Virginia, particularly the South and the West, went Democrat. With the redistricting, the area turned Democrat for the first time in 1853 and remained so through 1859, at which time it flipped to the Opposition Party, now at the verge of the Civil War. Throughout the Civil War, Virginia was part of the South, with important dissenting voices. For two years from 1869 through 1871, this area (as part of a district much larger than it is now) was held by neither Democrat nor Republican, but the Conservative Party.
Beginning in 1871, the area that is now the VA10th was represented in Congress by a Democrat every single session until 1953 – a solid stretch of more than 8 decades post-Civil War.
There were dissenters from the Party of Slavery in the northernmost part of Virginia, and when the Virginia 10th District came into existence at the northern edge of the state in 1953, it immediately went Republican. At that time, it was a small Republican outpost in an otherwise Democrat state. The 10th district reverted to the Democrat Party for a brief period from 1975 through 1980. From 1981 onward, the 10th District was held by Republican Frank Wolf, a strong and consistent advocate of human rights, morality, and ethics. Throughout the 1980s, most of southern Virginia remained Democrat, while the 10th District was solidly Republican. From 2015 until the present, Republican Barbara Comstock has held this district’s congressional seat, having been elected upon Wolf’s retirement.
As the above history shows, the 10th District has a long early history of rejecting the Party of Racism and Slavery (from 1799-1853), and then joined the Democrats and the South from 1853 through 1953 before once again (upon redistricting) asserting its opposition to the Democrat Party by electing Republicans and keeping them in office until the present day.
This is a varied report card, but one with a strong recent record of goodness.
Given this history, it is a sad and shameful day for the Virginia 10th that its voters appear once again ready to revert to the side of the Old South, and elect a Democrat to Congress. Current polls, with the election just over one week out, show Democrat Jennifer Wexton with a lead over Republican Barbara Comstock.
The Democrat Party today retains the same philosophical assumptions and root commitments as the Democrat Party of the mid-19th century. Most importantly, the Democrat Party is still the party of racism and slavery (this latter being now expressed most clearly in the Party’s commitment to socialism, since chattel slavery was made illegal by the 13th Amendment). There is not room in this article for me to develop this claim but I will be doing so (and more) in my soon-forthcoming book, “Red State Blue State.”
Polls are merely a barometer; they are not fate. Election Day is November 6, and early voting is open. Please vote to save the 10th District from a tragic backward slide into the clutches of the Democrat Party.
