Campaign

Northam is first Dem to win key Virginia county in 56 years

by Rebecca Savransky - 11/15/17 10:04 AM ET

Virginia Gov.-elect Ralph Northam is the first Democrat to win a key county in the state since 1961, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Northam — who defeated his Republican opponent Ed Gillespie in the gubernatorial race last week — won Chesterfield County by 694 votes, the newspaper reported.

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He received 58,991 votes, compared to the 58,297 Gillespie received, according to the final results.

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Gillespie was originally shown to be leading the county by 285 votes, according to the unofficial count released on election night. But those numbers didn’t include the results from one of the ballot-scanning machines in the county’s Southside Precinct, according to the Times-Dispatch.

“A little more than 20 years ago, if you looked at the results statewide in the presidential race, Chesterfield County gave the Republican presidential candidate their largest margin in the state,” political analyst Bob Holsworth told the newspaper.

Northam earlier this month used his victory speech to tout his decisive win in the governor’s race as a signal that Virginians want to end political “divisiveness.”

Northam’s resounding victory dealt a blow to Republicans nearly a year to the day from Trump’s own election win.

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