Democratic candidate for the governor's seat, Ralph Northam has won the Virginia Governors race, beating his Republican rival Ed Gillespie in a bitterly fought campaign. The race was called at about 20:15 E.T. The Republican governor's candidate Ed Gillespie ran on a campaign that mirrored the ideological philosophies of "Trumpism" so to speak. Ed Gillespie has echoed many sentiments that have been shared by the President, he campaigned to stop the removal of Confederate statues in the state and has attacked his Democratic rival on the issue of immigration.
This was seen by some as an attempt to appeal to a growing hard-line contingent within the Republican party.
The Dems could not afford to lose.
The Democratic party has been in a state of perceived crisis since the loss of Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, almost a year to the day of the so-called "gubernatorial" race in the state of Virginia. The campaign has seen some particularly controversial tactics used by both sides. The Latino Victory fund released a campaign ad which seemed to hint that Ed Gillespie was a white supremacist. In the frankly tasteless ad, a pickup truck, donned with a Confederate flag and an Ed Gillespie sticker, was being driven by a white man who attempted to run over several Latino, Muslim and Black children.
The state of Virginia has dealt with the impact of this type of racialized violence already this year after a man drove a car into a crowd of protestors at a rally called "Unite the Right" in Charlottesville after the rally attracted a large contingent of White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis.
The Gillespie campaign has also brought the matter of immigration into the debate, with Ed Gillespie accusing his counterpart of being soft on the feared criminal gang MS-13.
The Democratic party had to win this election, as this was being viewed as a real litmus test on how the country was feeling in regards to Donald Trump. Ralph Northam told U.S.A Today that a victory for the Democrats would be a "repudiation" of Trump. Whether that is the case it remains to be seen, the state if Virginia is viewed as a state that is more traditionally Blue than Red, but this victory for the Democrats could pose some interesting questions regarding the countries view of the embattled President Trump.
Donald Trump did not attend Virginia to campaign for Ed Gillespie but he did send out a few tweets of support.
A loss for the Republicans in this race may not be as damaging as some on the Left may believe it to be. Ralph Northam was predicted to take the Governorship in what was predicted to be a tight race, but one thing is for certain, nothing less than a win for the Democrats would have been devastating. The Democratic party is still in a shaky place after last November's shock loss, the party is trying to reconcile the far-left progressive wing of the party with the more centrist wing, but with the win of Ralph Northam, the Democrats may live to fight another day. Bring on the mid-terms!