Nov. 11, 2013
Black Vote Wins Governorship for Former DNC Chair
By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Gov.-Elect Terry McAuliffe, former chair of the Democratic National Committee
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Black voters appear to have made the difference in businessman Terry McAuliffe’s narrow victory last week in the hotly contested Virginia governor’s race.
McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate who campaigned on promises to create jobs, expand Medicaid and health care and reduce partisan bickering, is estimated to have won at least 370,000 votes from Black Virginians or nearly 90 percent of the votes they cast in Tuesday’s election. That critical vote was six times his victory margin of 55,743 votes over Tea Party Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Libertarian Robert Sarvis.
Unofficial results show McAuliffe received 1,067,108 votes, or 48 percent, to 1,011,365 or, 45 percent, for Cuccinelli, the current attorney general. Sarvis was a distant third with 145,768 votes, or 6.5 percent, in the race to become Virginia’s 72nd governor in January. McAuliffe needed a strong Black turnout to win just like other Democrats in recent decades. One of the big questions before the election was whether the he had done enough to court the most loyal segment of the Democratic base.
Aided by last-minute stumping from President Obama and former President Bill Clinton, McAuliffe seems to have done so in besting his most significant rival, Cuccinelli, to win the right to succeed current Republican Gov. Bob
McDonnell. Exit polls indicate the Black turnout was impressive by the standards of a governor election, fueled in part by Cuccinelli’s adamant opposition to Obamacare or the Affordable Health Care Act that is the president’s signature law to provide health coverage to the uninsured.
Cuccinelli, who was tarnished by a scandal involving Gov. McDonnell, also put off many Black voters with his opposition to abortion, his promises to reduce the size of government and his promotion of tax cuts that many saw as potentially damaging to public school funding.
The polls indicate Black voters represented about 20 percent of the total turnout of 2.2 million people who went to
the polls or about 445,000 of those who cast ballots. That’s a 38 percent jump from 2009 when an estimated 330,00 Black voters — 125,000 fewer — participated when Creigh Deeds was the Democratic nominee.
Richmond is a prime example of the increase in voter numbers. Tuesday, 57,774 residents went to the polls, a 28 percent increase from four years ago when 45,127 city residents voted in the governor’s race. The unofficial results show that McAuliffe received 42,756 of the Richmond votes, or 11,542 more votes than Deeds received.
Democrats also celebrated the victory of Dr. Ralph Northam, a physician and state senator, for lieutenant governor.
Northam won by a 55 to 45 percent margin over extremist Republican E.W. Jackson Sr., a Black Chesapeake minister who condemned gay people and non-Christians, among others, during the campaign and never garnered much Black support even though he was the only Black candidate on the ballot.
Northam’s win means he will become presiding officer of the 40-member state Senate and could aid Democrats to regain control of that body from Republicans. Like outgoing Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, Northam will be able to vote to break ties on legislation and help give the Democrats a majority.