How Northam gained in a more polarized Virginia

There are several graphs at the link.





Politics Analysis
How Northam gained in a more polarized Virginia

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/politics/va-gov-election-results-precincts/?hpid=hp_hp-visual-stories-desktop_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.f8b7b9deaad4


Nov. 8, 2017


Ralph Northam (D) beat Ed Gillespie (R) in the Virginia governor's race by almost nine points. He outperformed his predecessor, Terry McAuliffe, as well as Hillary Clinton, pushing Virginia toward a reliable blue.

The victory came in a familiar way for Democrats: a surge of support in urban areas around Richmond and Hampton Roads and a giant Northern Virginia margin of 260,000 votes, double McAuliffe’s win in the D.C. suburbs four years ago.

Gillespie may have won more than twice as many counties as Northam, and Republicans increased somewhat their winning margins across a broad western and southern swath of rural and small-town Virginia. But there was little sign of the Donald Trump surge that swept across GOP strongholds just a year ago and raised Republican hopes statewide.


Comparing Election Day precinct results with 2013 shows how neighborhoods shifted the governor's race in different directions in Virginia’s largest urban centers compared with other areas. Bigger 2017 wins for Democrats are shown as blue lines tilted left, while bigger wins for Republicans are red lines tilted right.

Democrats bettered their showing by 12 percentage points or more in about 30 percent of the state's precincts. Republicans did so in about 20 percent of precincts...................................

[An enthusiastic, more polarized electorate gave Northam the win]