How Buchanan votes, from union Democrat to 85% Republican

The numbers, election by election

County returns compiled from MIT's Election Data and Science Lab show the path [230]. Each bar below is the winner's margin in points; the color shows the party.

Two things stand out. First, the break came in 2008, not 2016: McCain carried the county the same year Virginia as a whole voted Democratic for president for the first time since 1964 [231], and the biggest single jump came in 2012 [230]. Second, the total vote has barely moved, staying between about 8,700 and 9,950 in every presidential race since 2000 [230], even as the county kept losing people, as covered in the first edition. Steady vote totals from a shrinking population suggest presidential turnout per resident has gone up, though the returns alone can't say who the new or more regular voters are.

The state House seat followed the presidential vote. In 2009 a long-held Democratic seat covering Buchanan went Republican for the first time since the 1950s, won by Will Morefield, who still holds it. He told the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism that his grandfather, a retired union miner who died of black lung, talked about Southwest Virginia "being left behind," and that the region shifted because "the majority of people in Southwest Virginia felt like they were being left behind" [231]. In November 2025 Morefield won the 43rd District with 82.7% over Democrat Mary E. Sumner [237].

Where the union era came from

The Democratic loyalty was built by the United Mine Workers. Through the 20th century the UMWA made Southwest Virginia's coal counties a cornerstone for the party, and they kept delivering Democratic margins through the 1990s even after Virginia as a whole turned Republican in presidential races in the 1950s [231].

The last big moment of that era happened here. The Pittston Coal strike ran from April 5, 1989 to Feb. 20, 1990, after the company cut off health benefits for about 1,500 retirees, widows and disabled miners [232]. The UMWA says the strike centered on Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell and Tazewell counties [234]. About 1,700 miners walked out at the start [233]; Camp Solidarity at its June peak housed around 2,000 a day, with wildcat walkouts elsewhere involving roughly 40,000 people, and the women's group the Daughters of Mother Jones became central to it [232]. From Sept. 17 to 20, 1989, 99 miners and a Methodist minister occupied Pittston's Moss No. 3 preparation plant, near the Russell-Wise line, and more than 500 miners were arrested over the course of the strike [241][242]. The settlement restored medical benefits for retirees, widows and disabled miners [241], and Cecil Roberts, the union's on-the-ground leader who later became UMWA president, came back to the Buchanan County Public Library in Grundy for the strike's 30th anniversary in 2019 [234].

Inside the county: the 2025 governor's race by precinct

Last year's governor's race is the freshest full picture. Winsome Earle-Sears won Buchanan with 81.9% to Abigail Spanberger's 17.9%, while Spanberger won statewide with 57.6% [235]. That puts the county roughly 79 points more Republican than the state in a single race. Only 38% of registered voters cast a ballot [235].

Precinct results show almost no Democratic pocket anywhere. Blackey was the most Republican at 91.2%, followed by Hurley at 89.2%. The most Democratic precinct was Fox, where Spanberger got 32.9%, then Hurricane at 25.0%. Grundy's three town precincts all landed between about 82% and 84% Republican [236]. The one real split was method: Earle-Sears won early in-person voting 78% to 22%, but mailed ballots split almost evenly, 121 to 113 [236].

What's on Tuesday's ballot that the earlier edition missed

Besides the U.S. Senate and House races and Grundy's town offices, every Buchanan voter will see three proposed amendments to the Virginia Constitution [238]:

• Question 1, reproductive care: would put protections for decisions about prenatal care, childbirth, contraception, abortion, miscarriage management and fertility care into the constitution, while allowing third-trimester abortion regulations with exceptions for the patient's life or health or when the fetus isn't viable.
• Question 2, marriage: would remove the constitution's ban on same-sex marriage, which is already unenforceable under the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 ruling, and protect lawful marriages between two adults regardless of sex, gender or race.
• Question 3, voting rights: would automatically restore voting rights to people released from incarceration for a felony and change the standard for people found to lack the capacity to understand voting.

Practical details. Polls are open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., anyone in line at 7 can vote, and an ID is required [238][239]. Two polling places moved because of the school closures covered in the first edition: precinct 102 (Blackey) moved from Hurley High School to the Trey Adkins Athletic Center, and precinct 701 (Whitewood) moved from Twin Valley High School to the Dismal River Rescue Squad building [239]. Mailed absentee ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and reach the registrar by noon Friday, Nov. 6. The general registrar is Vicki Clevinger, at 276-935-6534 [238]. A tally compiled from the state's daily absentee reports showed 1,332 early ballots in the county as of Oct. 30 [240], roughly the 1,324 early and mailed ballots counted in the whole 2025 governor's race [236].