Late Wednesday morning about 99 percent of the votes in the gubernatorial elections in Virginia were counted and Republican financier Glenn Youngkin had won the closely contested election. Democratic former governor of the state, Terry McAuliffe, who was running for his second non consecutive term, conceded the election, late Wednesday morning. At that point of time, Youngkin won approximately 50.7 percent of the votes while McAuliffe won 48.5 percent.

The gubernatorial race in Virginia has been a closely watched one and has drawn national scrutiny as it could be the precursor to many other positions that are set to open next year. Elections in odd years are few and sometimes are considered as indicators of political trends in the elections that follow. This was a closely fought race and would be studied by both parties to define future strategies, especially with the upcoming midterms in 2022.

Democrat McAuliffe was the governor from 2014 to 2018. He could not serve consecutive terms. His loss was a bit unexpected though the past few months showed that there was a very close race between him and Youngkin till he was overtaken at the final ballot.

The Democrat said that they had a great eight-year run and that they had created hundreds of thousands of jobs. He added that they moved forward and they made their state open and welcoming and that they were not going back.

Glenn Youngkin, a businessman who had worked for 25 years at the global investment firm the Carlyle Group emphasized his lack of political baggage. He used his business acumen to appeal to Virginians who were concerned with the state of the economy.

Both candidates used ad campaigns to attack each other. McAuliffe’s ads targeted Youngkin’s opposition to abortion while Youngkin’s ads targeted McAuliffe’s stance against parental control in school curriculum.

Other issues also came to the forefront in the closely fought race including vaccine mandates and Donald Trump but Youngkin managed to win that battle by saying that he accepted the 2020 election results. Virginia had polled large number for Joe Biden in these elections.

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