Reston, Virginia is a vibrant and diverse city located in the heart of Northern Virginia. Politically, Reston is represented locally by members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. These elected officials are responsible for making decisions on a range of issues including budgeting, education, transportation and public safety. Reston also has many candidates for state and federal offices that come out every election cycle. Residents in Reston come from many different backgrounds and have a variety of views on important political issues. The local politicians strive to represent all of their constituents in order to maintain the vibrancy and diversity that makes Reston such an attractive place to live.
The political climate in Reston, VA is strongly liberal.
Fairfax County, VA is very liberal. In Fairfax County, VA 69.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 28.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Fairfax county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 69.9% to 28.0%.
Fairfax county voted Democratic in the last five Presidential elections, after voting Republican in 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Reston, VA is strongly liberal.
Fairfax County, Virginia is very liberal.
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metro Area is very liberal.
Virginia is somewhat liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Reston, Virginia: r d D D D D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D if the Democratic Party candidate won and I if the Independent Party candidate won. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Reston, VA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 31,858 contributions totaling $8,522,429 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $268 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 6,272 contributions totaling $4,715,364 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $752 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)