BLACKSBURG, Va. – A Virginia Tech student has turned his hobby of predicting elections into a business that’s gaining national attention.
Chaz Nuttycombe, a senior at Virginia Tech, has been predicting elections since he was a teenager. His first forecast actually wasn’t correct, he predicted Mitt Romney would defeat President Barack Obama in 2012.
“I don’t know if it’s that ‘I like politics.’ It’s that I really like elections. It’s a sport and a science to me,” Nuttycombe said.
In 2020, Nuttycombe launched CNalysis, an online election forecasting platform that specializes in state legislative races. Along with forecasting every state legislative race in the country, he also tracks gubernatorial, congressional, and presidential races.
The website has more than 1 million page views and more than 250,000 visitors. With more than 22,000 followers on his personal X account, numerous politicians, analysts, journalists, and political fanatics follow his work. He also routinely talks with reporters from large media outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.
“We’re seeing a drop in ticket-splitting and an increase in polarization. State legislative results are getting more and more closer to the presidential election results. Whereas before there used to be a wide gap,” Nuttycombe said.
Virginia has always been a sweet spot for Nuttycombe as he grew up in Hanover County. In fact, it was his prediction in 2019 that really put him on the map.
“A lot of people were looking forward to them after 2019 when I got 99 seats out of 100 in the House of Delegates predicted correctly. I just wanted to professionalize the work I do,” Nuttycombe said.
This year’s General Assembly election has tremendous weight with every seat up for grabs and Gov. Youngkin hoping for a Republican majority in both chambers.
CNalysis is currently forecasting that Democrats will be slight favorites in both chambers.
“I think the reason why I keep doing this is not only just because I like but also because the overwhelming majority of Americans don’t know who their state legislator is. We provide a way for people to learn about their state legislatures,” Nuttcombe said.
Nuttycombe plans to grow his business by adding new employees and website offerings after he graduates in May.