Democrat Spanberger defeats Republican Earle-Sears for Virginia governor

The Republican candidate for the Virginia governor’s office was unable to defeat Democrat candidate Abigail Spanberger.

The election was called by the Associated Press as well as the New York Times by about 8 p.m. local time, only an hour after the polls closed at 7 p.m.

Polling showed Spanberger had a large lead on the Republican throughout nearly the entire contest.

Winsome Earle-Sears, the state’s lieutenant governor, tried to gain ground by attacking Spanberger over damaging leaked texts from attorney general candidate Jay Jones. He had called for the death of a Republican colleague and his children in the texts, and while Spanberger condemned the message, she refused to rescind her endorsement.

Earle-Sears also gained some traction when a white Democrat protester created a sign with a racist message against the Republican.

“Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain,” the sign read in all caps.

However, polling showed Spanberger had a large lead on the Republican throughout nearly the entire contest. At one point an average of polls had the Democrat ahead by 7.4 points, with as much as a double-digit lead in some polls.

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