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Democrat Ralph Northam, left, won the gubernatorial race in Virginia as Democrat Phil Murphy, right, won in New Jersey. |
Democrats rode to victory in Tuesday's hotly contested gubernatorial
elections, as Ralph Northam defeated Republican Ed Gillespie in Virginia
and Phil Murphy beat Republican Kim Guadagno in New Jersey.
The victories -- especially the win in Virginia -- are a
shot in the arm to the beleaguered Democratic Party, which has lost
four special congressional elections to Republicans since Donald Trump
was elected president a year ago.
Northam, Virginia's lieutenant governor, won with the
support of federal government employees and non-white voters, according
to the Fox News Voter Analysis.
Northam garnered 54 percent to Gillespie's 45 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reported.
As he began his victory speech late Tuesday night in
Fairfax, Northam was briefly ushered off stage by security after several
pro-sanctuary cities protesters in the crowd began heckling him. Once
he returned to the stage, Northam vowed to work to unite the state.
Democratic nominee Ralph Northam, left, defeated
Republican Ed Gillespie, right, on Tuesday in the state's gubernatorial
contest.
(AP)
“We need to close the wounds that divide, and bring
unity to Virginia," he said. "Whether you voted for me or not, we are
all Virginians. And I hope to earn your confidence and support as we
move forward."
Speaking in Richmond, Gillespie told supporters he had conceded to Northam.
“Obviously, wish it had gone the other way, but I thank those who voted,” Gillespie said.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez
celebrated the wins by saying voters in Virginia and New Jersey
“rejected a Trump-Pence agenda” -- though the voter analysis suggested
President Trump was not a major factor at the ballot box.
Meanwhile, Trump reacted to the results by saying Gillespie, whom he supported, did not adequately embrace him during the race.
"Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or
what I stand for," the president tweeted. "Don’t forget, Republicans won
4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers, we
will continue to win, even bigger than before!"
Ahead of Tuesday’s elections, the president repeatedly
tweeted his support for Gillespie in the race to replace Democratic Gov.
Terry McAuliffe in Virginia. Polling in recent weeks had seemed to show
Gillespie gaining ground on Northam in Virginia, the only southern
state lost by Trump in 2016.
FULL ELECTION DAY COVERAGE
Towards the end of the campaign, Gillespie, a former
chairman of the Republican National Committee, emphasized issues
embraced by Trump during the presidential campaign, vowing to crack down
on sanctuary cities and the MS-13 gang.
The race between Gillespie and Northam had gotten
particularly nasty in recent weeks, with each side accusing the other of
running ads that were out of line and racially tinged.
VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL RACE GUIDE
Last week, a liberal group called the Latino Victory
Fund released a television ad showing immigrant and minority children in
Virginia being chased down the road by a man in a pickup truck with a
Confederate flag and a Gillespie bumper sticker. Republicans decried the
ad, accusing Democrats of fear-mongering. The group behind it
eventually took the ad down after last week’s terrorist attack by truck
in New York.
Meanwhile, Democrats repeatedly protested ads from
Gillespie accusing Northam of voting for bills that would lead to a
threat increase from the MS-13 gang. In a video posted on Twitter after
he voted Tuesday, McAuliffe warned about a possible Republican upset and
called on voters to reject the “bigoted, racist ads that Ed Gillespie
has run against Ralph Northam”
“I do not want you waking up like you did after the
presidential election last November and saying, ‘how could this possibly
happen?’” McAuliffe said.
VIRGINIA, NEW JERSEY GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES SPAR OVER SANCTUARY CITIES
Gillespie and Northam also sparred over the highly
charged issue of removing Confederate monuments in the state. Northam's
campaign attempted to tie Gillespie to the white supremacist violence
this summer in Charlottesville, something Gillespie's campaign called an
"ugly character smear."
Northam’s team portrayed the race as a referendum
against Trump, labeling Gillespie “Trump's chief lobbyist” because of
his former lobbying career.
The gubernatorial elections come as the national
Democratic Party finds itself in disarray over former DNC interim
chairman Donna Brazile’s new book claiming the DNC rigged the nomination
for Hillary Clinton over rival Bernie Sanders in 2016.
Democratic nominee Phil Murphy, right, defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, left, in New Jersey.
(AP)
In New Jersey, Murphy -- a former Goldman Sachs
executive and U.S. ambassador to Germany -- will succeed outgoing
Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who has seen his approval numbers take a
drastic hit and is term-limited after eight years in office.
Christie's deep unpopularity made Lt. Gov. Guadagno's campaign an uphill climb from the start.
Like Gillespie, Guadagno spent the campaign railing
against sanctuary cities, releasing an ad drawing attention to Murphy’s
comments in support of New Jersey being a “sanctuary state” and telling
the story of an illegal immigrant who was convicted of killing several
students in 2007.
“Murphy doesn’t have our backs,” the ad’s narrator
said. Referencing criminal illegal immigrants, the narrator added: “He
has theirs.”
Like Northam in Virginia, Murphy responded by accusing Guadagno of channeling Trump.
“Kim Guadagno should be ashamed of herself for the way
she’s politicizing the deaths of three children and painting a community
with the broad brush of a murderer, a tactic she must have gleaned from
President Trump,” Murphy said in response to the ad. “To say the least,
these are not New Jersey’s values.”