We should not overlook a key phrase on the NYT article on the Virginia election

"The campaign between a couple of low-key, establishment politicians was brought to life when Mr. Gillespie injected a handful of wedge issues, from immigration to Confederate iconography, into the race. But voters in Virginia’s affluent and highly educated urban centers rejected those tactics, handing Mr. Northam enormous margins in the state’s most vote-rich localities."

If I had a yellow highlighter, I'd highlight "highly educated."

Fairfax County, where I spent part of my childhood in an area where we only had dirt roads at the time, is now a powerhouse of "highly educated" Federal Government workers, academics and private industry workers, many of whom have a decidedly liberal outlook. You can't get the highly coveted jobs there WITHOUT an education.

Northam won Fairfax County by around ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND votes, or nearly HALF his statewide margin of victory. Republicans HATE education. Just look at our current Secretary of Education, who has anything BUT educated Americans as her goal. Educated people tend to be enlightened people. Enlightened people tend to vote Democratic. Republicans want us dumbed down, but in Virginia, they're too late, and now we have the statehouse firmly in Democratic hands for the next census, so we can un-gerrymander the place, and make it more representative of the people who live there.