Rainy weather didn’t keep Virginia voters from the polls Tuesday in a hotly contested gubernatorial race that went to Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat.
Northam defeated Republican challenger Ed Gillespie, according to the Associated Press, which called the election roughly 90 minutes after polls closed at 7 p.m.
Virginia was the only southern state President Trump lost in the 2016 presidential election, so its gubernatorial contest was widely seen as an early referendum on his first year in office.
Trump threw his support behind Gillespie with recorded robocalls urging Republicans to head to the polls.
In one call, Trump said Gillespie shared his views on immigration and crime and would help “Make America Great Again.”
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