Ballots are still being counted in Virginia Tuesday night, and so far it appears Republicans have sizable leads in the three races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
“It looks like it’s going to be a historic sweep for Republicans tonight,” WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller said just before 10 p.m.
All members of the 100-seat House of Delegates are also being elected Tuesday, and several local offices in the D.C. area are also up for grabs.
The statewide races
Republican Glenn Youngkin has been leading all night, and while a lot of votes in Democratic-leaning areas remain to be counted, WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller said it’s getting late for Democratic candidate, former governor Terry McAuliffe.
For his part, McAuliffe at about 10:20 p.m. told supporters at his headquarters in McLean that “We’ve still got a lot of votes to count. … Every single Virginian deserves to have their vote counted.”
McAuliffe has a sizable lead in Fairfax County voting so far, but he’s around 66%, while Miller said McAuliffe needs to get about 70% to even things up.
The former governor “has to overperform in these very heavy Democratic areas of Virginia … there’s a lot of ground that he has to make up.”
The suburbs and exurbs of Virginia have generally trended Democratic, and Youngkin isn’t likely to win areas such as Loudoun and Prince William counties, but he’s doing well enough to hold McAuliffe off, and “kind of wipe out the huge urban areas” where the Democrat is cleaning up, Miller said.
Youngkin spent time on the campaign trail touting his business background, while keeping Republican Party standard-bearer at arm’s length; McAuliffe sought to tie Youngkin to Trump, while touting his own record as governor from 2014 to 2018.
Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said that Youngkin was doing much better than expected in Loudoun and Prince William counties, where he’s at nearly 45% and 47%, respectively.
Traditionally, “it’s good to be the non-presidential-party candidate in the Virginia gubernatorial race,” Kondik said, and that’s true this year as well, as “the Democratic brand is sinking nationally.”
He added that the Republican Party doesn’t seem to have been tarnished by the attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-president Donald Trump.
“People have pretty short memories, I think,” Kondik said. “It doesn’t seem like that was a big factor in this race. … That just seems to be the reality.”
Miller said Republicans “are just more energized right now” as the 2022 midterm elections approach. “There’s no question that this is going to send shock waves across the Democratic landscape.”
Maya King of Politico told WTOP that voters, especially Black voters, were seeing “a lack of progress on President Biden’s agenda, particularly for Black voters,” on issues such as the economy, voting rights and COVID-19. “Black voters aren’t souring on Terry McAuliffe, but they are experiencing a bit of fatigue after showing up and turning out in historic numbers in 2020, but not seeing that return on investment.”
History will be made whichever way the lieutenant governor’s race breaks, as either Democratic Del. Hala Ayala or Republican former Del. Winsome Sears would be the first woman of color elected to statewide office in Virginia.
The attorney general’s race pits Democratic incumbent Mark Herring against Republican Del. Jason Miyares.
Herring touted his efforts on police reform and a dip in overall crime, while Miyares repeatedly brought up an increase in the commonwealth’s homicide rate.
It’s important to remember that many of these precincts do not include absentee and early votes, which could be substantial.
The House of Delegates
The House races include some close contests in the D.C. area, and Democratic control of the chamber, currently at 55-45, could be up for grabs. You can check out the results, updated live as they come in, and get more details about the races to watch.
Live election results for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general
Getting the results
While many more people voted early or by mail than generally did before the pandemic, it shouldn’t take as long to get the results as it did during last year’s presidential and congressional elections.
Virginia used to group all absentee, early and mail-in ballots in a city or county together, and they were processed and counted last, in a central absentee precinct. Last year, that meant a boatload of ballots were waiting until the end of the night to be processed and counted.
The General Assembly changed the law this year, so that local registrars start processing (not counting) these ballots at least seven days before Election Day and counting before the polls close.
Live election results for House of Delegates races in Northern Virginia
Different jurisdictions might do things differently, but Arlington, for example, said Monday that they’ll be breaking up their results so that early in-person ballot counts will be released first, right after the polls close, they hope. Then, they’ll release the results from the mail ballots that arrived through Sunday, then the in-person Election Day ballots. They’re hoping to have it wrapped up around 9 p.m.
That doesn’t mean the results will be official — mail-in ballots that were postmarked Tuesday can still come in by 5 p.m. Friday and still be counted. People who need to add documentation to shore up a provisional ballot have until then, as well.
At the polls
WTOP has been covering the lines, the turnout and voters’ reactions all day. Have a look at our continuing coverage, including photos.
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