Election Day Youngkin projected to win Va. governor’s race; N.J. governor’s contest too close to call

RICHMOND — Virginia voters chose Republican Glenn Youngkin as their next governor, according to projections from the Associated Press and Edison Research — a dramatic reversal for a state that had appeared solidly Democratic in recent years and a significant loss for President Biden and the party’s establishment.

Former Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe came up short in his bid to become only the second Virginia governor since the Civil War to win a second term, with key suburban districts joining rural parts of the state in favoring Youngkin.

The Atlanta mayoral contest is headed to a runoff, after no candidate in the crowded race was projected to receive more than 50 percent of the vote, the Associated Press projects.

Felicia Moore, the president of the City Council, will head to the Nov. 30 runoff, the AP projects. The next two finishers — former mayor Kasim Reed and City Council member Andre Dickens — remained too close to call.

The current mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, decided not to seek reelection. Fourteen candidates competed in the mayoral race, which has become a referendum on who can best manage a city that appears at political and cultural crossroads as its non-Black population has soared over the past decade.

Democrat Aftab Pureval is projected to win the mayoral race in Cincinnati, according to the Associated Press, becoming the first Asian American mayor in the city’s history.

“Words can’t express how honored and excited I am to be the next Mayor of Cincinnati. Tonight, we made history! Let’s get to work!” Pureval, who is the son of Indian and Tibetan immigrants, tweeted Tuesday night.

The 39-year-old Pureval, a lawyer who currently serves as the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, defeated 82-year-old David Mann, a city council member who was mayor of Cincinnati in the early 1980s and in 1991.

Chris Piper, the state elections commissioner in Virginia, praised the work of election officials, saying it was “an overwhelmingly good day” with only a few problems reported.

“The election today was about as smooth as we could have asked for,” Piper said at a news conference Tuesday night. There were ballot shortages in some counties, he said, but those counties received supplemental ballots and voting was able to continue. He described the overall turnout as “heavy” and said there was “great interest” in the election, although he said he could not yet provide an overall figure.

Boston is projected to elect Democrat Michelle Wu as the first Asian American mayor in the city’s history, the Associated Press projects. Wu, 36, has served on the Boston City Council since 2014 and was president of the council from 2016 to 2018.

She defeated fellow Democrat Annissa Essaibi George, 47, an at-large member of the council, in the mayoral runoff after the Sept. 14 primary. Essaibi George conceded Tuesday night.

Wu will replace acting mayor Kim Janey, who filled the post when Marty Walsh joined the Biden administration as labor secretary.

Democrat Terry McAuliffe addressed supporters at his campaign’s watch party Tuesday night, telling them he was waiting for all the returns to be counted, even with Republican Glenn Youngkin leading in the vote count.

Shortly before 10:30 p.m., McAuliffe arrived at the hotel and took the stage to assure supporters that the race was not yet over.

“So we’ve still got a lot of votes to count. We got about 18 percent of the vote out,” McAuliffe said. “So we’re going to continue to count the votes, because every single Virginian deserves to have their vote counted.”

As polls showed Republican Glenn Youngkin leading in Virginia, the crowd was buzzing at his campaign watch party at the Westfields Marriott hotel in Chantilly. Wine glasses in one hand and bags of popcorn in the other, supporters crowded into the ballroom as Fox News played from the TV screens around 10 p.m. Except for the hotel waitstaff, there was nary a mask in sight.

A band of about six women wore sparkly sequined blazers over blue shirts that said “Fight for Schools,” the name of their Loudoun County parents’ group.

Glenn Youngkin had more support in Virginia than former president Donald Trump among both men and women by significant margins: The Republican gubernatorial nominee’s support was double digits ahead of Trump’s 2020 support among men, and he lost female voters by only a single-digit margin, compared with Trump’s 23-point deficit among women.

Youngkin outpaced Trump among all age groups younger than 65 — and even among seniors, Youngkin matched Trump’s support in Virginia in 2020. Among Virginia voters under age 30, a third supported Trump in 2020, while almost half supported Youngkin in 2021. And roughly 6 in 10 voters with some college or less supported Youngkin this year, compared with under half who supported Trump. Youngkin especially shone among White women without college degrees compared with Trump: While 56 percent supported Trump, preliminary exit polls show three-quarters supported Youngkin.