Until the 1970s, the 7th district comprised the northern half of the
Shenandoah Valley, now part of the strongly Republican
6th district. After the 1970 census, it lost most of the Valley except for
Winchester, while picking up
Manassas and
Fredericksburg, thus stretching from the fringes of the
Washington, D.C. suburbs to
Charlottesville. This iteration of the 7th was one of the first areas of Virginia to shake off its Solid South roots. The area's Democrats started splitting their tickets as early as the 1930s. The Republicans took the seat in 1970, and held it without much difficulty until 1993. The district's current configuration dates from 1993, when Virginia was forced to create a majority-minority district by a
Justice Department directive. At that time, most of Richmond, which had been entirely in the old 3rd district for over a century, was shifted to a newly created 3rd district. The remaining territory in the old 3rd was combined with some more rural areas to the north to form the new 7th district. From 2013 to 2017, the 7th district stretched from the west end of Richmond through the wealthier portions of Henrico and Chesterfield counties before taking in all of Goochland, Hanover, Louisa,
New Kent, Orange, Culpeper,
Page and
Rappahannock counties and a portion of Spotsylvania County. In 2016, the adjacent
3rd district was found unconstitutional, leading to court-ordered redistricting which changed the 7th district for the
2016 elections. From 2017 to 2023, the district spanned much of Central Virginia, including all of
Orange,
Culpeper,
Goochland,
Louisa,
Nottoway,
Amelia, and
Powhatan counties. The district also included large portions of
Chesterfield and
Henrico counties in the suburbs of
Richmond. However, Richmond was not in the 7th.
Spotsylvania County also had a large portion in the 7th district just outside of
Fredericksburg. ==Demographics==