On Friday, President Donald Trump threw his weight behind the Republican candidate in Virginia’s gubernatorial race, Ed Gillespie, tweeting that the Democratic candidate Ralph Northam is “fighting for MS-13 killer gangs and sanctuary cities.”
Ralph Northam,who is running for Governor of Virginia,is fighting for the violent MS-13 killer gangs & sanctuary cities. Vote Ed Gillespie!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2017
The Virginia race is the only contested statewide election this year and has been pegged as a test of electoral politics in the Trump era, according to The Washington Post. A Washington Post-Schar School poll released Thursday indicated Northam, the Democrat, lead Gillespie by 53 percent to 40 percent among the voters surveyed.
An endorsement from the President doesn’t indicate an automatic win, as was evidenced during the Republican primary run-off election in Alabama last month.
Trump endorsed Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL), but the incumbent ended up losing to a controversial conservative and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.
