Virginia Tech student gains national following with unique election platform | Virginia Tech News

Nicholas Goedert, assistant professor of political science at Virginia Tech, teaches three of Nuttycombe’s courses, including public opinion, political parties, and voting and early elections.

Goedert said other students probably don’t know that Nuttycombe has such a national following, because he tends to keep a “pretty low profile” around his election project. He said he was familiar with Nuttycombe’s work and social media presence before becoming his professor.

“Chaz has been a great student to have in class. One unique perspective he provides is that he is often able to apply very useful anecdotes from state races to the subjects we’re covering in my classes,” Goedert said.

“I think he’s also carved out a terrific niche for himself in the election projection space,” Goedert said. “There’s a lot of people doing this sort of thing with more experience than him, but almost all of them focus on congressional, statewide, and presidential elections. He recognized where the need was very early on, seized on it, and thus has a huge head start to build on in the future.”

Aidan Howard, a Virginia native and the site’s geographic information systems technician, graduated from Virginia Tech in 2023 with a major in geography and a minor in geographic information science. He assists with data computation, creating the website’s static maps, and ensuring data matches up with census redistricting zones.

“The joke is people only vote during presidential years,” said Howard, who is based in Northern Virginia and met Nuttycombe at Virginia Tech. “On non-presidential years, people don’t turn out as much. But I think it’s just as an important part of our system, if not more so, because it affects us more in our day-to-day lives. But people tend to brush it off because it’s not the big one.”

Howard met Nuttycombe on a night out in 2021 when they were both looking for friends. Nuttycombe texted him a few weeks later asking for more details about his mapping background, and the two have been working together ever since.

The operation is funded by ad revenue as well as by subscriptions and donations, which allows Nuttycombe to compensate his staffers. Currently, CNalysis has a team of eight individuals who are spread out across the country and contribute to editing, design, mapping, data computation, and finance, along with other tasks. Some he met during his time at Virginia Tech, others he met online.

On election night, Nuttycombe will have volunteers stationed at registrar offices. His apartment will be packed with friends and staffers — in person and on Zoom and Discord calls — as they work to update the website.

Howard said he enjoys seeing the impact of the team’s work on election night, especially when a senator retweets the CNalysis live map.

“Seeing the work we’re doing reaching tens of thousands of people, if not more, is pretty amazing,” he said.

Nuttycombe’s excitement is palpable on election night.

“He loves getting it right,” Howard said. “And it’s very interesting to see because, of course, he is unbiased. But it’s also very funny to see him get hyped up.”

This election year is shaping up to be interesting for Virginia. Republicans could capture the Senate in a state that, between the years 2012-20, leaned blue. If Republicans retain control of the House, which they won by a 52-to-48 seat majority in 2021, the GOP will have control of both state legislative chambers. Nuttycombe is also following the state legislative races in Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Jersey.

Still, “Virginia is my bread and butter,” Nuttycombe said. “It’s where I got my start. It’s where I have the most connections.”

Nuttycombe believes abortion and the economy will be the dominating issues on Virginia’s ballot.  

CNalysis is currently forecasting that Democrats will be slight favorites in both chambers. 

This year, as the results pour in, the site will use data to predict outcomes before the races are called.

Following graduation in May, Nuttycombe plans to scale his business by adding new employees and website offerings.

“I love bringing people together to create something really cool,” Nuttycombe said of working with his team. “That’s something I’ve loved doing since I was a kid.”