Establishment Republican tactician Ed Gillespie faces off against Democrat Ralph Northam in tonight’s Virginia gubernatorial race. The contest between the two milquetoast and uninspiring establishment candidates represents nearly everything voters hate about politics.
Gillespie and his band of virtue-signalling Bush loyalists in the GOP love when political and media elites pat them on their heads for being “good Republicans” (translation: useful idiots). But when Gillespie was down double digits in the polls, he suddenly decided that the way to win was to focus on illegal immigration. Gillespie closed the gap, dictated the terms of the debate in the home stretch, put Northam on the defensive, and forced Northam to turn off some anti-Trump resistance activists who were incensed that Northam said he would sign a bill to outlaw sanctuary cities.
Legendary former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder–who refused to endorse Northam for foolishly marginalizing Justin Fairfax, the black Democrat running to succeed Northam as lieutenant governor, when Northam needs to get as many black Democrats to vote for him as possible—may have said it best when he said of the gubernatorial contest, “We do not have the best candidates.”
The candidate who wins will be the one who gets the most voters to go to the polls for them while holding their noses.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for live updates throughout the evening. All times eastern.
Polls close at 7 p.m. eastern
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10:45: Report: Gillespie refused to do interviews with Breitbart News and embrace economic nationalism:
Sources close to Bannon told The Daily Beast that he had extended multiple offer to Gillespie and his team to campaign and stage rallies together and that Gillespie refused those overtures. Bannon was also frustrated that Gillespie would not come on his Breitbart radio show, nor would he do interviews with Breitbart News.
A Gillespie spokesman did not return a request for comment.
Even as Bannon publicly voiced support for Gillespie and the Republican ticket, he privately complained about Gillespie’s unwillingness to go “full Trump,” and to actively embrace the president and “economic nationalism.” That, as Bannon and his allies would tell it, is when and how Gillespie lost it.
“Ed Gillespie had no message, was inauthentic, spoke from both sides of his mouth, and at the end of the day, even the deplorables couldn’t save him,” Andrew Surabian, Bannon’s political adviser and former Trump White House official, told The Daily Beast, shortly after Gillespie’s loss on Tuesday evening. “Gillespie campaigned with George W. Bush, [but] ran from President Trump.”
10:25: Amnesty agitators cause disturbance before Northam victory speech by demanding sanctuary for all illegal immigrants!!! Orchestra Pit!
10:20:
10:15:
10:10: Interesting idea from Jerry Falwell Jr.
10:05: Thrashing in Prince William County:
9:45:
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/928068926122184704
9:40: They will never leave the GOP, though, because the moment they drop the nominal “R” next to their names is when they cease being useful to the media elites who hate everyday working-class Americans as much as they do.
9:30:
9:17: LOL! Only policy recommendation in autopsy (what a brilliant name) report was amnesty for illegal immigrants.
9:10:
Amen–The Never Trump Frauds should just join the No Labels movement or try to make Dems more fiscally conservative. Oh, wait. Then they would never be able to be used as useful “Republican” idiots since there are plenty of people on the left who are more interesting than they will ever be. As soon as they join the No Labels movement for the 3.8%, they no longer become useful to the media elite who hate everyday Americans just as much as these Never Trump fraudsters and career hacks who live to be quoted in legacy media outlets do.
9:05: BREITBART’S JOEL POLLAK: Dem Wins in Virginia, New Jersey: Not a Repudiation of Trump, but a Warning:
Democrats won races for governor in both New Jersey and Virginia on Tuesday evening, even as President Donald Trump’s supporters prepared to mark the first anniversary of their historic win.
It is not exactly a shock: both states voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and the Democratic candidates were favored in both. On the other hand, Republicans won both states in 2009, which kicked off the Tea Party wave that won back the U.S. House in 2010.
Pundits are calling Tuesday’s results a repudiation of Trump. That is more than a stretch; it is flatly contradicted by some of the data. Republican Jill Vogel, running for Lieutenant Governor in Virginia, hitched herself to Trump and out-performed the GOP establishment candidate at the top of the ticket, Ed Gillespie, by tens of thousands of votes.
It would be more accurate to point out that, once again, the Republican establishment came up short. Someone in the Gillespie campaign actually thought it would be a good idea to campaign with Condoleezza Rice — who, for all her merits, is a relic of the George W. Bush administration. Gillespie belatedly embraced Trump supporters, but it seems clear from local results that there were more than a few conservatives who were reluctant to be seduced. A late conversion might have been possible for another candidate, but not one who had already run and lost statewide.
9:00:
8:45:
8:38:
https://twitter.com/DavidBozell/status/928070548504174592
8:15: NBC Projects Northam Win:
8:12: Failure: Another Establishment GOP Disaster.
8:05: Transgender candidate elected in Virginia:
7:55: Cook Political Report’s Wasserman Projects Northam Will Win.
7:30 PM: Some numbers from Prince William County:
7:20 PM:
7:10 PM: Interesting Exit Poll Numbers:
7 PM: Polls now closed in Virginia. Gov. race results here. Results for House of Delegates and local races here.
6:50 PM: More exit polls: Health care top issue for voters.
6:40 PM:
6:32 PM: Will rural turnout make the difference?
6:30 PM: Democrats excited about Fairfax numbers. Gov. Terry McAuliffe is optimistic on MSNBC, predicting Dems will sweep the three statewide races.
Exit Polls: Trump Not a Factor:
Virginians were asked if they were voting for or against Trump:
To express support for Trump: 16%
To express opposition to Trump: 32%
Trump not a factor: 49%
Gillespie Seems to Want It More than Northam:
Outrageous Truck Ad Backfiring on Northam?
The Latino Victory Fund’s commercial that depicted Gillespie supporters in Virginia as racist who want to mow down minority children may have backfired and even motivated Republicans in Northern Virginia to out on their raincoats and boots and go to the polls to vote against the ad, which the left-wing group pulled after an Islamic terrorist used a truck to kill eight people and injure at least a dozen in New York.
Raining in Northern Virginia:
The weather has been nasty in vote-rich Northern Virginia. Obama supporters would be more than willing to go to the polls for him on rainy and dreary. But will enough of Northern Virginia’s professionals enthusiastically head to the polls in droves for Northam in nasty weather?
Exit polls: Voters want Confederate statues left in place:
A whopping 94% of Republicans and 73% of Independents want the monuments to stay.
“The lieutenant governor came forward and said we should remove all of the historical statues in the Commonwealth of Virginia, I disagree with that,” Gillespie told The Hill on Tuesday. “And that’s a difference in policy. It’s a legitimate debate but it’s a difference in policy.”
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