Virginia's 6th congressional district

Virginia's sixth congressional district is a United States congressional district in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It covers much of the west-central portion of the state, including Roanoke, Lynchburg and most of the Shenandoah Valley. The current representative is Ben Cline (R), who has held the seat since the 2019 retirement of incumbent Republican Bob Goodlatte.

Virginia's 6th congressional district
Virginia’s 6th congressional district - since January 3, 2013.
Representative	Ben Cline R–Fincastle
Distribution	64.34% urban[1] 35.66% rural
Population (2019)	755,012[2]
Median household income	$59,939
Ethnicity	83.25% White 11.44% Black 5.19% Hispanic 1.63% Asian 0.16% Native American
Cook PVI	R+13[3]

The district was an open seat in 2018. In November 2017, Goodlatte announced that he would retire from Congress at the end of his current term, and would not seek re-election.[4]

Historically, the 6th district was one of the first areas of Virginia to turn Republican. Many of the old Byrd Democrats in the area began splitting their tickets and voting Republican at the national level as early as the 1930s. It was also one of the first areas of Virginia where Republicans were able to break the long Democratic dominance at the state and local level. The district itself was in Republican hands from 1953 to 1983. Democrat Jim Olin then won the seat in 1982, and held it for a decade before Goodlatte won it.

Some counties in the district have not supported a Democrat for president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. For instance, Highland and Shenandoah counties last voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in 1932, and Augusta and Roanoke counties have not supported a Democrat since 1944.[5] The district as a whole has not supported a Democrat for president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.