Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s closely watched governor’s race on Tuesday, dealing a blow to U.S. President Joe Biden and Democrats’ hopes to keep control of Congress in next year’s elections.
Youngkin was projected to win the race, according to television networks, including NBC and CNN. The results highlighted a stunning collapse by McAuliffe, a former governor and Democratic party chairman who led in the polls throughout the summer in a state that Biden won by 10 percentage points over former President Donald Trump just last year.
A political newcomer and former co-CEO of Carlyle Group Inc., Youngkin successfully used Trump’s playbook of focusing on culture-war attacks in the vast, rural parts of Virginia. But in the booming suburbs, Youngkin distanced himself from the former president.