Article snippet: SOUTH RIDING, Va. — Not long ago, this rolling green stretch of Northern Virginia was farmland. Most people who could vote had grown up here. And when they did, they usually chose Republicans. The fields of Loudoun County are disappearing. In their place is row upon row of cookie-cutter town houses, clipped lawns, and cul-de-sacs — a suburban landscape for as far as the eye can see. Unlike three decades ago, the residents are often from other places, like India and Korea. And when they vote, it is often for Democrats. “Guns, that is the most pressing issue for me,” said Vijay Katkuri, 38, a software engineer from southern India, explaining why he voted for a Democratic challenger in Tuesday’s elections. “There are lots of other issues, but you can only fix them if you are alive.” Katkuri’s vote — the first of his life — helped flip a longtime Republican state Senate district and deliver the Virginia State House to the Democratic Party for the first time in a generation. It was a stunning political realignment for a Southern state, and prompted days of prognosticating about President Trump’s own standing with suburban voters nationally in 2020. But while political leaders come and go, the deeper, more lasting force at work is demographics. Once the heart of the confederacy, Virginia is now the land of Indian grocery stores, Korean churches, and Diwali festivals. The state population has boomed — up by 38 percent since 1990, with the biggest growth in densely sett... Link to the full article to read more