Blue wave in Va. as Democrats sweep statewide races, bolster House of Delegates majority

Democrat Abigail Spanberger points out at the crowd after she was declared the winner of the Virginia governor's race during an referendum night watch party Tuesday Nov in Richmond Va AP Photo Stephanie Scarbrough AP Stephanie Scarbrough Democrat Abigail Spanberger points out at the crowd after she was declared the winner of the Virginia governor's race during an electoral process night watch party Tuesday Nov in Richmond Va AP Photo Stephanie Scarbrough AP Stephanie Scarbrough Democrats in Virginia made history Tuesday night after sweeping the commonwealth s statewide races of governor lieutenant governor and attorney general and flipping seats in the House of Delegates to bolster their once-slim majority in the state legislature Former U S Rep Abigail Spanberger was declared the governor-elect after claiming of the vote Democratic state Sen Ghazala Hashmi prevailed in the lieutenant governor race with And despite having been the center of disagreement after text messages from surfaced former state Del Jay Jones managed to unseat incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares In the -seat House of Delegates Democrats went from seats to more than Stephen Farnsworth a political-science professor at the University of Mary Washington described WTOP anchor Nick Iannelli and Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller on Tuesday that the Democratic candidates capitalizes on a distaste toward President Donald Trump s administration This was very much a repudiation of the Trump policies and their painful impact on Virginia Farnsworth reported An awful lot of votes are cast in Northern Virginia and a lot of those people are connected to the federal executive More Voting News Spanberger win leads Democratic sweep of statewide races in Virginia WATCH Conquest concession as Virginia votes in general balloting LIVE RESULTS Virginia general vote Virginia and Maryland local and county polling results He announced the president throws his confidence behind candidates who ve supported him in the past and who are already winning which discouraged him from endorsing Republican Lt Gov Winsome Earle-Sears who was behind in the polls and has criticized Trump in the past The president doesn t forget those slights and that was yet another reason I think that the Trump political juggernaut had little interest in helping Earle-Sears whether it was money appearances or even mentioning her name Farnsworth commented While voting maps show southwestern Virginia as a solid red wall it s far less populated than Northern Virginia the Richmond area and the Hampton Roads region Alex Keena an associate professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University noted those areas and therefore the commonwealth as a whole have become more blue over the past decade Maybe it just speaks to sentiment about Trump and the fact that Spanberger ran a pretty good campaign Keena stated WTOP But David Richards chair of the University of Lynchburg s Political Science Department announced it s less about Trump and more about Spanberger He noted her campaign should serve as a model to Democrats nationwide running in next year s elections She definitely was somebody who would remind people that she was not Trump etc but she didn t dwell on that She really talked much more about those pocketbook issues Richards reported on Tuesday I think this idea of totally bashing Trump is not going to work in the midterms and I think we ve seen that tonight Voter turnout Thousands of voters opted to cast their ballots early a record high for a nonpresidential referendum in Virginia according to the Virginia Citizens Access Project More than people voted early in-person in Fairfax County according to the county s office of elections Staff and helpers started processing those early votes Tuesday morning to help get results ready ahead of polls closing at p m According to an update from Fairfax County s office of elections of registered voters cast an absentee ballot or voted early in-person Another of the county s registered voters cast ballots on Balloting Day as of p m In Loudoun County about of the county s registered voters cast a ballot including early and absentee ballots according to a p m update from the county s office of elections According to the Prince William County Office of Elections more than residents voted on Tuesday as of p m That brought Poll Day turnout to and another of voters cast absentee or early ballots How other races fared On the East Coast New York City elected its first Muslim mayor in Zohran Mamdani and New Jersey voted in Democratic Rep Mikie Sherrill Jeremy Mayer professor of initiative and leadership at George Mason University mentioned the results made Vote Day a great night for the Democratic party It s also hard to understand what it means because two moderate candidates won in New Jersey and Virginia and runs one strong and then the largest part left wing Democrat to run on a nationally prominent race in decades is winning strong in New York City Mayer explained on Tuesday evening ABC News Political Analyst Steve Roberts recounted WTOP the differences within the Democratic Party could change lawmakers approach to politics Americans in Virginia and New Jersey tonight voted their pocketbooks and voted their unhappiness with the commercial sector and if Democrats can coalesce around that argument it can heal specific of the divisions in the party Roberts commented Source