Democrat, Ralph Northam is Virginia's new governor-elect after defeating Republican nominee Ed Gillespie by nearly nine percentage points in the swing state's widest lead in decades for a Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Despite attempted voter suppression, redistricting and gerrymandering efforts to swing state elections in favor of more "conservative" candidates, dems rounded out Tuesday's election with a series of landmark wins including African-American lieutenant governor-elect, Justin Fairfax.
88 nights ago, white supremacists marched with torches in Virginia. Tonight, Virginia elected Justin Fairfax its second African-American lieutenant governor.
— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) November 8, 2017
And the states first openly transgender lawmaker, Danica Roem.
Trans woman Danica Roem (D) just defeated anti-LGBTQ candidate Bob Marshall (R) in Virginia, becoming the first trans state legislator in America.
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) November 8, 2017
The night was historic in more than one sense thanks to Governor Terry McAuliffe who personally restored the voting rights of 168,000 ex-felons previously banned from voting. Huffington Post reporter Sam Levine shared many of their stories on Twitter.
Theodore Dortch,37, is a former felon who had his voting rights in Virginia restored this year. Today he voted for the first time pic.twitter.com/WNFlkwOyrc
— Sam Levine (@srl) November 7, 2017
Bobby Lee voted today for the 3rd time in his life. He had his voting rights stripped because of a felony and couldn’t vote until he was 60 pic.twitter.com/cf4lanOlMf
— Sam Levine (@srl) November 7, 2017
I’ve been riding around with Tammie Hagen, who had her voting rights restored and is now an organizer giving people rides to the polls today pic.twitter.com/JLpWoHwoxl
— Sam Levine (@srl) November 7, 2017
An epic night indeed! Hopefully, we'll see other states riding the same wave in elections to come.
