Demographics, Upcoming Election Factors in Obama's Love for Annandale

Why do President and Mrs. Obama seem to spend so much time in the greater Annandale area?

It’s a question some are asking this morning, as — this time visiting Northern Virginia Community College’s Annandale campus to discuss his 2013 budget proposal, healthcare, community college education and more.

President Obama in April 2011. He at the west Alexandria campus in June 2011. He visited Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology to in Spetember 2011. He to talk about new housing initiatives reform.

with the first lady of South Korea in October 2011 and last month .

Obama will be at NoVa-Annandale around 11 a.m. today.

The President’s local connections to Northern Virginia Community College and Annandale’s location certainly don’t hurt. Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, is an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College. The area’s location just off the Beltway may help, too, providing the president’s drivers with easy access into and out of the area (rush hour excluded, of course).

But the greater Annandale area’s demographics and its importance heading into the 2012 election can’t be discounted.

Winning Northern Virginia: Polls and Demographics

As the Republican primary battle drags on, Obama has already started to hold campaign events ahead of the November election. Today’s event, the Los Angeles Times reported, is a preview of election battles to come.

Virginia is an important state for Obama to win in this year’s election. Now labeled a “swing state,” a recent Virginia statewide Quinnipiac University poll put Obama ahead of all potential Republican presidential contenders. The poll results showed Obama beating Mitt Romney 47 percent to 43 percent; Newt Gingrich 51 percent to 37 percent; Rich Santorum 49 percent to 41 percent; and Ron Paul 47 percent to 40 percent. The poll was conducted between Feb. 1 and Feb. 6.

In November, an Obama campaign official said Virginia is “an absolute tossup,” ABC News reported.

The conservative blog RedState.org surmises that the minority vote in Northern Virginia will be important for Obama, as it was in 2008. Winning votes from government workers who live inside the Beltway will also help him.

Annandale has a fairly high minority population. 2010 census data showed that in the Annandale, Wakefield and Woodburn census-designated places (CDPs), the total population was 60,763. Just 27,739 (or 45.6 percent) of those people identified themselves as “white alone”.

Annandale Voted for Obama in 2008

Obama won Virginia by 6.3 percent in 2008.  

Locally, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden won most Mason district precincts in the 2008 general election against Sen. John McCain and his VP pick Sarah Palin, according to official results. Obama won the Mason district with about 56.9 percent of the votes, overall.

 504 Bristow: 61.37% or 842 votes

104 Chapel: 51.39% or 794 votes

106 Heritage: 67.28% or 1,633 votes

508 Masonville: 57.05% or 724

513 Saint Albans: 59.82% or 874 votes

518 Columbia: 58.16% or 955 votes

519 Hummer: 55.06% or 663 votes

521 Brook Hill: 54.44% or 741 votes

522 Camelot: 51.89% or 507 votes

Obama and Biden also won the four precincts in Mason District that favored Clinton in the primaries in November:

510 Parklawn: 58.53%

506 Holmes: 68.18%

515 Westlawn: 62.28%

527 Edsall: 58.15%

The vote was similarly close in the Braddock disrict (the Burke area), where 56.9 percent of voters chose Obama. About 61.8 percent of voters in the Providence district, which includes northern Annandale and Falls Church areas, voted for Obama. In the Lee district, which includes Kingstowne and Rose Hill, 64.8 percent voted for Obama.

Annandale Patch Editor Sherell Williams contributed to this report.