Virginia's 5th congressional district

Virginia's 5th congressional district
Interactive map of district boundaries since 2023
Representative	Bob Good R–Evington
Distribution	64.7% rural[1] 35.3% urban
Population (2023)	798,327[2]
Median household income	$69,333[2]
Ethnicity	68.2% White 20.6% Black 4.3% Hispanic 3.9% Two or more races 2.3% Asian 0.7% other
Cook PVI	R+7[3]
Created	1789

Virginia's fifth congressional district is a United States congressional district in the commonwealth of Virginia. The 5th district includes the majority of Southside Virginia, though it stretches as far as the Richmond suburbs. Within the district are the cities of Charlottesville, Danville, and Lynchburg.

The district's first representative in Congress was James Madison, who defeated James Monroe in the district's first congressional election. Madison and Monroe would go on to serve as the 4th and 5th Presidents of the United States. The current Congressman is Republican Bob Good.

Historically, the 5th was one of the first districts of Virginia to turn Republican in presidential elections. Southside was one of the fountainheads for the Byrd Organization, and the region's Democrats began splitting their tickets in presidential elections as early as the 1930s. The trend accelerated in the years before the Civil Rights Act of 1965, as large portions of the area's limited and almost entirely white electorate who preferred conservative positions on black civil rights. The district was to be one of two in Virginia which gave a plurality of the vote to segregationist George Wallace in 1968, and has never supported a Democrat for president since Harry S. Truman in 1948.

Despite this, the congressional seat remained in the hands of Democrats who were very conservative even by Virginia standards. This ended in 1999, when Virgil Goode became an independent; he became a Republican in 2002. In 2008, Democrat Tom Perriello defeated Goode with significant Democratic down-ballot coattails from the Obama campaign. Republican Robert Hurt defeated Perriello in 2010, going on to serve three terms. After Hurt left office, the district continued to elect Republicans, including Tom Garrett, Denver Riggleman, who both served one term, and Bob Good, who was re-elected in 2022.

Redistricting after the 2020 census added Lynchburg to the district; most of its suburbs have been in the 5th for decades. It was also pushed as far east as Hanover County on Richmond's northern fringe.