Mapping Where Incumbents Live

A divided Redistricting Commission voted to let mapmakers consider the residential address of each current congress member and state legislator, a move that could protect incumbents.* This map shows in some cases district lines would not have to shift far in order to place two legislators from the same party into a single district.

* In the era when lawmakers drew legislative maps, incumbent protection was a major consideration. Self-interested incumbents sought districts with a favorable mix of voters that would smooth his or her way to re-election. In addition, the major party at times would weaponize legislators' residential addresses by deliberately sticking two or more members of the minority party in the same district, a move that would thin the ranks of the minority party. The voter-approved bipartisan Redistricting Commission consists of eight legislators and eight citizens. It remains to be seen how much deference this new Commission will pay to incumbents.

Note: To respect the privacy of each legislator's home address, VPAP adjusted the points on the map to be a random distance away from the legislator's home. The distance calculation in the tooltip reflects the actual distance between a legislator's home address and their nearest legislator.

Source: VPAP Research and current Virginia legislative boundaries