Methodology comment from the mapmaker: 3. Tidewater (Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4) This map improves on C1 by providing District 4 with a significantly higher portion of black residents and decreases the number of districts splitting the Richmond beltway from 3 to 2. The new 3rd and 4th districts are significantly more compact than those presented in C1, while providing strong compliance with the VRA as each district’s population is roughly 45% black. 3.1 District 1 is seated in the western, majority white half of Richmond and its surrounding suburbs, extending north from there up along the I-95 transit corridor before stretching to encompass the Chesapeake Bay region with which the district has been historically associated. 3.2 District 2 encompasses the eastern predominantly white half of the Hampton Roads area, extending north to incorporate the Eastern Shore and historic areas around Yorktown and Williamsburg. While a seeming stretch on the surface, the northern and southern halves of the district are united by a number of industries that they share in common, such as tourism (historic Yorktown, Jamestown and Williamsburg in the north, scenic beachfront in the south) and defense (Langley AFB in the north, JEB Little Creek-Fort Story and Oceana NAS in the South). 3.3 District 3 provides a highly compact, minority opportunity district comprising a number of closely associated communities of interest and a plurality black population. Beyond complying with the VRA, the district groups together a wide swath of urban communities with shared interests, rather than stretching into the west to more rural counties. 3.4 District 4 greatly improves on C1 by boosting the black population of the district and keeping the counties constituting a large portion of the Southside black community within a single district. It achieves this by pairing the predominantly black eastern half of Richmond and its suburbs with the Southside black community. While this could lead to an urban-rural divide, this is still significantly better than the current drawing of the district, which is disjointed and excludes large portions of the black community in the suburbs south of Richmond.

Methodology comment from the mapmaker: 2. Southern and Western Virginia (Districts 5, 6 and 9) This map includes key balancing that C1 lacks in order to keep communities of interest together, particularly by addressing complaints around the splitting of Lynchburg from its suburbs and stretching District 5 too far into the Richmond suburbs. 2.1 District 5 primarily incorporates the communities of Southern Piedmont using the natural barrier of the Blue Ridge mountains as a western boundary and keeping fully intact the region surrounding Lynchburg as well as the more heavily white portion of the Southside. While the issues of note for these urban and rural voters may diverge, the faster growing metro area should balance population growth in the map more evenly over the coming decade. 2.2 District 6 is primarily seated in the Shenandoah Valley region, but does need to stretch east into Central Virginia to pick-up additional population from Charlottesville and its surrounding suburbs as well as the counties north of there. However, as the Shenandoah Valley community makes up a majority of the population of the district, their concerns should be well represented by this map, which keeps the majority of the counties in this well defined geographic and demographic region intact. 2.3 District 9 is similar to the layout provided in C1, but provides some key improvements by using the Blue Ridge mountains as a natural eastern barrier. This includes pulling in additional suburbs of Roanoke as well as Craig county, keeping these communities of interest more wholly intact, while moving Patrick county to District 5, which, as a low lying area of the Southside, it has much more in common with.

Methodology comment from the mapmaker: 1. Northern Virginia (Districts 7, 8, 10 and 11) The driving philosophy of the current layout of the NoVA districts in this map is to divide the area up between the inner beltway region and the three major transit corridors of the area, namely the I-95, I-66, and Dulles Access Road/Harry Byrd Highway corridors. 1.1 District 8 is contained to inside the I-495 beltway outside of Washington, DC. This area contains a number of historic communities, such as Alexandria and Falls Church, as well as higher density areas concentrated along the metrorail lines out of DC, such as the Silver/Orange line between Rosslyn and Ballston and the Blue/Yellow line that runs through Pentagon City and out to Franconia-Springfield. This density of metrorail lines as well as the significant federal government footprint in the area closely tie it to DC, while I-495 creates a dividing line between it and areas outside the beltway. This configuration improves on C1 by incorporating the area around the Franconia-Springfield metro station, which has much less in common with district 11. 1.2 District 7 is defined by the communities along the I-95 and VRE transit corridor stretching south from the beltway region to the areas surrounding Fredericksburg. As the northern end of this district includes a high concentration of riparian communities along the Potomac and military communities around Fort Belvoir and Quantico, the district jogs east to include the military community around NSF Dahlgren as well as the riparian community of Colonial Beach rather than continue further inland past the communities immediately surrounding Fredericksburg. 1.3 District 10 is defined by the communities along the Dulles Technology Corridor, a string of communities that lie along and between Virginia State Route 267 (the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Greenway), and Virginia State Route 7 (Leesburg Pike and Harry Byrd Highway). It especially includes the communities, from east to west, of Tysons Corner, Reston, Herndon, Sterling, and Ashburn. It further continues along to follow Harry Byrd highway out to the northern tip of VA, keeping fully intact the counties of Loudoun, Clarke, Frederick and Winchester. 1.4 District 11 follows I-66 out from the beltway through Fairfax City, Manassas and Gainesville to Fauquier County. This district keeps intact the lower density, older communities of central and southwestern Fairfax county, such as Vienna, Oakton and Burke, and pairs them with the historic region around Manassas and beyond. This district also mostly keeps intact the Northern Piedmont region in western Prince William county and northern Fauquier county.

This is a strong district 4. Majority black and holds Petersburg together with other surrounding towns. Richmond only gets split into two districts, which is tough given it's location in the middle of the state.

District 7 is pretty good as well. It keeps Fredericksburg connected to the other counties surrounding Fredericksburg. The district also follows I-95 and the VRE south line, keeping people with similar concerns together.

This District 11 is great. It holds communities connected by I-66/ Rt 29/15 together. Manassas, Fairfax, Centerville, Gainesville, Haymarket, etc. are all together and it makes a lot of sense.