LIVE RESULTS:

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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.”

[contentcards url=”https://truepundit.com/democrat-ralph-northam-elected-governor-of-virginia/” target=”_blank”]

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The national spotlight swung to Virginia Tuesday as voters came out for the country’s first swing-state test of how candidates of both parties will combat, embrace or finesse President Donald Trump’s fierce populism one year after it propelled him into the White House.

Virginians woke to a cold, wet election day having endured an increasingly negative campaign that many said left them exhausted and dismayed. Rain fell steadily in the northern, more populous part of the state and was not expected to taper significantly before polls closed at 7 p.m.

Trump himself weighed in repeatedly during the day on behalf of GOP nominee Ed Gillespie, a long-time establishment Republican who distanced himself from the president personally while adopting some of his culture war stylings late in the campaign. In television ads, Gillespie slammed Democrat Ralph Northam as soft on crime and the Salvadoran gang MS-13, an attack Trump repeated by Twitter from Asia:

“Ralph Northam will allow crime to be rampant in Virginia,” Trump wrote on Twitter. If the Republican wins, Trump said, “MS-13 and crime will be gone.”

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Polls close at 7:00 p.m. ET.

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