Virginia Democratic ticket winning: Northam, Fairfax, Herring all ahead of rival Republicans

“This is a wipe­out… it looks like it’s going to be a big win for Democ­rats tonight.”

– Chuck Todd, mod­er­a­tor of Meet the Press, speak­ing to Chris Hayes

The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty appears to have swept to vic­to­ry in the Com­mon­wealth of Vir­ginia tonight in all three major statewide races for exec­u­tive positions.

Pro­pelled by strong and enthu­si­as­tic turnout among vot­ers in the Old Domin­ion’s pop­u­lous north­ern coun­ties, guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­date Ralph Northam, Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor hope­ful Justin Fair­fax, and incum­bent Attor­ney Gen­er­al Mark Her­ring were all ahead of their Repub­li­can rivals with over 70% of precincts reporting.

Northam was pro­ject­ed by mass media to the vic­tor in the race, defeat­ing for­mer Repub­li­can Nation­al Com­mit­tee chief­tain Ed Gille­spie, who had pre­vi­ous­ly chal­lenged Mark Warn­er for the Unit­ed States Sen­ate in 2014. Northam trailed in the ear­ly vote, but picked up steam as Loudoun, Fair­fax, and Prince William coun­ties began report­ing their tab­u­la­tions in earnest.

As of 5:30 PM Pacif­ic Time, Northam’s share of the vote was 52.27%, with Gille­spie at 46.53%. Only twen­ty min­utes pri­or, Northam’s share had been 51.66%, and only an hour pri­or, he had just 50.14%. As the night has gone on, his per­for­mance has improved — exact­ly what Demo­c­ra­t­ic strate­gists want­ed to see and were hop­ing for.

Justin Fair­fax and Mark Her­ring have also done bet­ter as the night has gone on. Fair­fax cur­rent­ly has 51.21% of the vote and and Her­ring has 51.83%.

Mean­while, Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates are also mak­ing strong show­ings in down­bal­lot con­tests for Vir­gini­a’s Leg­is­la­ture. Navy Reserve vet­er­an David Reid has become the first Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date to flip a Repub­li­can-held seat in Vir­ginia from red to blue this cycle, pick­ing up the 32nd House Dis­trict.

But there’s a lot hap­pen­ing all around the state… so much that it’s hard to keep track of. Cour­tesy of Steve Singisi­er, here’s a run­down of the races to watch:

VA House: Some­thing very excit­ing is hap­pen­ing down­bal­lot in the Com­mon­wealth tonight. At present, Democ­rats have either won or are lead­ing in FOURTEEN dis­tricts held by Repub­li­cans. Now, in fair­ness, some of those may flip back as more con­ser­v­a­tive turf reports. Here are the results of races where the Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger is lead­ing a GOP incumbent:

• HD-02 (39% in)—Foy (D) 78, Makee (R) 22
• HD-10 (70% in)—Gooditis (D) 58, Minchew (R) 42
• HD-12 (17% in)—Hurst (D) 55, Yost (R) 45
• HD-13 (85% in)—Roem (D) 53, Mar­shall (R) 47
• HD-21 (20% in)—Fowler (D) 55, Vil­lanue­va (R) 45
• HD-27 (60% in)—Barnett (D) 50, Robin­son (R) 50
• HD-31 (65% in)—Guzman (D) 54, Lingam­fel­ter (R) 44
• HD-32 (96% in)—Reid (D) 59, Grea­son (R) 41
• HD-50 (81% in)—Carter (D) 58, Miller (R) 42
• HD-51 (68% in)—Ayala (D) 52, Ander­son (R) 48
• HD-62 (46% in)—Bynum-Coleman (D) 54, Ingram (R) 46
• HD-67 (19% in)—Delaney (D) 55, LeMu­n­y­on (R) 45
• HD-72 (60% in)—VanValkenburg (D) 51, Whit­lock (R) 48
• HD-73 (47% in)—Rodman (D) 50, O’Bannon (R) 49

As Democ­rats rel­ished their vic­to­ry, Repub­li­cans began try­ing to spin their defeat.

“Ed Gille­spie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for,” grum­bled Don­ald Trump in a Twit­ter post­ing after net­works called the race for Northam, try­ing to spin the result as a defeat only for Gille­spie as opposed to his regime. (Pence and Trump had urged Vir­gini­ans to turn out and vote for Gillespie.)