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Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022

It’s the only race folks in Charlottesville and (most of) Albemarle County will be voting on this year. Democratic nominee Josh Throneburg is challenging incumbent Rep. Bob Good for the 5th District Congressional seat, to represent this part of central Virginia in the federal government. Throneburg invited Good to multiple debates since campaigning began — and Good has now agreed to one.

Here’s how you can watch the only live debate between Rep. Bob Good and Josh Throneburg

The two candidates will face off on Wed., Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. at Hampden-Sydney College in the Crawly Forum building (here’s a map of campus). The debate will also be broadcast and streamed live by WSET, and live streamed from the Throneburg campaign’s Facebook page here.

Don’t have time to watch the debate? We’ve profiled both candidates in our 2022 Voter Guide.

Credit: Credit: Charlotte Rene Woods/Charlottesville Tomorrow

Virginia’s 5th Congressional District has historically leaned Republican.  But the district looks different now — district boundaries are redrawn every 10 years based on new Census data. The previous 5th District stretched from the North Carolina border nearly to the Maryland border in an odd shape. It was wide at the bottom, then narrowed considerably part way up the state and jutted north.

A map of Virginia and parts of surrounding states shows an area blocked out in a sort of triangular shape that begins at the border with North Carolina and stretches north nearly to the Maryland border.
Virginia’s 5th Congressional District as drawn after the 2010 Census. From congress.gov

The new district is far more compact, forming more or less a rectangle that begins at the North Carolina border and ends at the top of Albemarle County.

A map showing Virginia Counties has a rectangular area in the middle set off in blue.
Virginia’s 5th Congressional district as drawn after 2020 Census. From Virginia Supreme Court

The new district is still likely to lean Republican, with Charlottesville and Albemarle County standing out as a blue island, political pundits say.

That will probably not be the case for the state’s new House of Delegates map. The results of that redistricting profoundly changed the districts in this part of the state in a way that makes it much more likely that Charlottesville and Albemarle voters will elect Democratic delegates next year.

Virginia has new district maps — and some could spell good news for area Democrats

Looking for more information on this year’s election? We’ll be updating our 2022 Voter Guide with information about local races, key dates and more between now and Election Day.

2022 Voter Guide

Thanks for reading!

Jessie Higgins, managing editor

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I'm Charlottesville Tomorrow's managing editor and health and safety reporter. If there’s something you think we should be investigating, please email me at jhiggins@cvilletomorrow.org! And you can follow all the work we do by subscribing to our free newsletter! Hablo español, y quiero mantener a la comunidad hispanohablante informada. Si tienes preguntas o información que debo saber, por favor, envíame un correo electrónico a jhiggins@cvilletomorrow.org.