1996 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 1996 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 5, 1996, as part of the 1996 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Virginia was won by Senator Bob Dole (R-KS), 47.10 percent to 45.15 percent over incumbent President Bill Clinton (D-AR), producing a margin of 1.95 percentage points. Billionaire businessman Ross Perot (Reform-TX) finished in third place, with 6.62% of the popular vote.

Virginia was also the only state that Bill Clinton lost twice but Hillary Clinton won, as she managed a 5 percentage point victory in the state in 2016. As of the 2024 presidential election, this was also the last time Bath, Allegheny, Giles, Smyth, Tazewell, Lee, Wise, Dinwiddie, Accomack Counties, and the independent cities of Galax and Buena Vista voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. The election was, however, the first time the Democratic presidential nominee had carried Prince Edward County – famous for its Civil Rights movement-era school desegregation cases – since Harry S. Truman in 1948, and the first time since 1968 that Essex County had voted Democratic.

In this election, Virginia voted 10.47 points to the right of the nation at-large. Clinton was the first president elected to two terms in office without carrying Virginia either time since William McKinley in 1896 and 1900, and is to date the only Democratic presidential candidate to win the presidency without carrying the state at least once, as well as the most recent Democratic to win without the state. As of 2024, this also marked the last occasion Virginia would vote to the right of Georgia.