Good afternoon, guys! Bit of a change of plans for today’s newsletter. I had intended to send a joint issue briefly covering the election and summarizing this morning’s Board of Supervisors meeting. I woke up early, drove to Floyd, went inside the County Administration Building and…the Supervisors were nowhere to be found.
Of course, this was my mistake. While the BOS typically meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, in both November and December they’re holding only one meeting. This month’s is on the 17th. So we’ll circle back in a week!
Instead, today, I have a deep-dive on the results of the election. Former Vice President Joe Biden was announced as the projected winner of the race for president on Saturday. However, I also have details about how Floyd and neighboring localities voted on referenda, statewide races and more. I hope you enjoy!
-Ashley
Floyd picks Trump by wide margin; Griffith is relatively less popular here
Once a swing state, Virginia now votes reliably blue, and the 2020 election last week was no exception. Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed the Commonwealth’s 13 electoral votes by a nearly ten-point margin, 54% to 44.1%, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. Third party Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen garnered 1.5% of the vote in Virginia.
However, now President-Elect Biden did not prevail in Floyd County, nor in most of Southwest Virginia. Montgomery County chose Biden with 51.5% of the vote, but all the other localities neighboring Floyd were solidly red. In Floyd specifically, more than two-thirds of all voters cast their ballot for the incumbent President, Donald J. Trump. Trump won the county with 66.2% of the vote. Thirty-two percent of Floyd voted for Biden, and 1.6% favored Jorgensen.
Likewise, while Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Warner held his seat by winning Virginia overall, only 36.5% of voters supported him in Floyd. The other 63.3% cast their ballot for Republican nominee Daniel Gade.
Floyd County, like other places throughout the state and nation, saw record high turnout in this year’s presidential contest. However, the wave of new voters didn’t change the countywide margins by much. In 2016, Trump captured 65.8% of the vote in Floyd County, compared with 28.6% for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and 2.3% for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, according to the New York Times.
The swell of voter participation does seem to have vaulted Biden to a larger victory in the Old Dominion, however. To reiterate: he won the state with 54% of the vote, while Clinton claimed only 49.8% in 2016. About 415,000 more people voted for Biden than Clinton.
Floyd County’s Congressman, Rep. Morgan Griffith, was running unopposed in Virginia’s Ninth District. As such, he handily won reelection, garnering nearly 94% of the vote. However, Griffith did win by slightly smaller margins in certain localities, including Floyd County. Floyd was one of only three localities in the district where Griffith claimed less than 90% of the vote. In Floyd, 89.2% filled the bubble for Griffith. In Montgomery, that number dropped to 84.3% and in Radford City, to only 83.9%. Voters may have simply left that selection blank on their ballot. They also had the option to write-in an alternative to Griffith. In Floyd, more than 10% did in fact write in a name.
Further down the ballot, Virginia voters also weighed in on two constitutional amendments, both of which were approved by fairly wide margins.
The first posed the question of whether to establish a bipartisan commission for redrawing Congressional districts. Sixty-six percent of voters favored this amendment.
The second asked whether disabled veterans should be eligible for a property tax exemption, and nearly 90% of Virginians said, “Yes.”
In two nearby southern Virginia cities, Danville and Bristol, voters approved referenda on casino gambling.
And after extensive debate and protest earlier this year around local Confederate monuments, several Virginia localities placed the question of whether to remove the monuments on their ballots. Floyd considered and ultimately declined to take such action.
All six localities that considered the referendum voted to keep their monuments standing. This included two Southwest Virginia counties, Tazewell and Franklin. In Tazewell, 87.4% of voters favored keeping the monument. In Franklin, only 68.6% thought it should stay.
Floyd voters faced no decisions on local representation this cycle. Neither Town Council nor the county Board of Supervisors had any races on the ballot. Floyd voted for Commonwealth’s Attorney, Sheriff, Treasurer, Commissioner of Revenue, and Soil and Water Conservation District Director in 2019.
Supervisors Linda DeVito Kuchenbuch, Lauren Yoder and Joe Turman faced the voters last year. These positions are elected for four-year terms, on staggered two-year intervals. This means Indian Valley District Representative Justin Coleman and Courthouse District Representative Jerry Boothe will be on the ballot in 2021.
Floyd Town Council likewise elects representatives for four years, on staggered two-year intervals. Floyd Mayor Will Griffin will be up for reelection in 2021, as will Councilman Bruce Turner.