The Washington Post’s editorial board is backing Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam over former Rep. Tom Perriello in the closely contested Democratic primary for Virginia governor.
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The Post said Northam, Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s second-in-command and a pediatric neurologist, won the endorsement because of his “experience, temperament and, especially, his chances of success in the face of likely Republican control of one or both houses of the state legislature for the foreseeable future.”
Northam has been backed by an overwhelming majority of state elected officials, including McAuliffe. He faces Perriello, who’s been endorsed by progressive stalwarts Sens. Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness MORE (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Joint Chiefs chairman says he regrets participating in Trump photo-op | GOP senators back Joint Chiefs chairman who voiced regret over Trump photo-op | Senate panel approves 0B defense policy bill Trump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names MORE (D-Mass.), in a June 13 primary.
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“His aw-shucks country-doctor affect notwithstanding, Mr. Northam is a shrewd politician whose decade in office — six years as a state senator, and now as lieutenant governor — has made him highly regarded in Richmond, including among Republican lawmakers, who tried to recruit him to switch parties in 2009,” the Post editorial board wrote.
“If any Democratic governor can nudge GOP majorities in his direction, it’s Mr. Northam. That matters in a state where governors, barred from running for consecutive terms, have one brief shot at getting things done.”
Northam has a decade of experience in state politics, compared to Perriello, who served a short stint in Congress from 2008 and 2010.
But Perriello’s decision to jump into the race earlier this year upended the primary. Now, the race is neck and neck, according to most polls.
The race has gotten national attention, especially since it’s the one of the first statewide races in the era of President Trump. Democrats are looking to this as one of the few races this year that can be an indicator for their electoral prospects ahead of the 2018 midterms.
Virginia’s Democratic primary has also been described as proxy war between the establishment and Sanders’s wing of the Democratic Party. But the Post discounted that assessment in its editorial, noting that most Virginians view that as “facile and irrelevant.”
The Post also issued an endorsement in the GOP primary for state Sen. Frank Wagner. He’s considered an underdog in the primary since Ed Gillespie, former Republican National Committee chairman, is expected to easily win.
Corey Stewart, Prince William Board of County Supervisors chairman and former state campaign chair for Trump, is also running in the Republican primary.
“Mr. Wagner is in some ways a GOP version of Mr. Northam — down-to-earth, substantive, principled and well-versed in policy and the ways of Richmond,” the editorial board wrote.
“By contrast, the putative front-runner, Ed Gillespie, a former Republican national chair and George W. Bush White House veteran who has dodged debates, is more opportunistic, proposing a pie-in-the-sky tax cut that disintegrates upon contact with reality.”