Van is a Republican stronghold. About 18% of voters here vote Democratic and 82% Republican.
About 51% of adults in Van typically vote, below the U.S. average of about 62%. Among adults in Van, ~9% vote Democratic, ~42% Republican, and ~49% don't vote. The map below shows estimated turnout by block group.
How Van compares
Among cities within 25 miles, Van leans more Republican than 52 of 160 neighbors.
Van runs about 21 points more Republican than West Virginia as a whole.
Politics vary noticeably by neighborhood within Van. The southeast side is the most Republican-leaning (R+71) and the east side is the least Republican-leaning (R+54), a spread of about 17 points.
Why Van leans the way it does
This analysis examined 14,881 data points per city to find what predicts political lean and turnout. The items below are a few correlations that stood out for Van, not a ranked or complete list of what matters most.
Areas with low college attainment vote Republican. About 6% of adults in Van hold a bachelor's degree, about 11 points below the West Virginia average of 17%. Rural areas with a high white share vote Republican. Non-Hispanic white share in Van is about 98%, well above similar-sized cities (around 76%).
Park access and Republican lean
Places with low park coverage tend to lean Republican; Van, WV sits in the bottom tenth nationally on this measure. Park access does not change how people vote; it tends to track denser, higher-income areas.
Why turnout in Van looks the way it does
High-crime urban areas turn out at lower rates, mostly because the housing stress common in those areas makes voting harder. Van sits in the top 15% nationally on a violent-crime measure. See CrimeGrade for more details. High food insecurity lines up with lower turnout, and about 24% of adults in Van report food insecurity, above 88% of cities. Low high-school completion lines up with lower turnout, and about 80% of adults in Van have completed high school, below 91% of cities. Learn more about the findings and methodology on the political spectrum map.
Nearby Cities
- Bob White, WV R+68
- Gordon, WV R+48
- Cazy, WV R+66
- Uneeda, WV R+61
- Bim, WV R+71
- Jeffrey, WV R+64
- Ottawa, WV R+64
- Price Hill, WV R+58
- Twilight, WV R+67
Cities with Similar Populations
- Edinburg, ND R+46
- Mill Grove, MO R+69
- Lodi, VA R+67
- Lancaster Crossroads, NC R+25
- Lamoille, NV R+64
- Lebeau, LA R+23
- Bowman, CA D+19
- Lava, NY D+7
- Everett, MO R+62
- Ferda, AR R+15
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Sources and methodology
Precinct-level voting records used to fit the model come from West Virginia Secretary of State, Elections, distributed by the Voting and Election Science Team. Demographic inputs come from the U.S. Census Bureau (ACS 5-year estimates and the 2020 Decennial Census). Health and environmental inputs come from the CDC (PLACES and the Environmental Justice Index). Land cover comes from the USGS and EPA. Election-day and lead-up weather come from PRISM 4km daily grids and the NOAA Global Historical Climatology Network. Mail-voting and election-administration patterns come from the MIT Election Lab's Survey of the Performance of American Elections. Block-group crime detail comes from CrimeGrade. Internet data and modeling support provided by ISPreports.org.
Modeling and analysis by the BestNeighborhood data science team. Full methodology and findings: political spectrum map.
Methodology reviewed by the BestNeighborhood data team. Last updated May 2026.