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. 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 – though unlike the 6th where the decisive factor was ticket-splitting by Byrd Organization Democrats, here the decisive factor was the growth of middle-class Republicanism in the Charlottesville metropolitan area. In the decade preceding the Voting Rights Act, these were joined by a significant proportion of Virginia’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. However, the district was continuously represented in Congress by fairly conservative Democrats until Virgil H. Goode Jr. switched parties, first to independent and then to Republican. 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.
