It's too soon to tell who will win the Virginia gubernatorial race, but if Gillespie upends Northam, it will be hard for me not to decide that post-Charlottesville racism played a big role.
The debate over removing statues has obviously degenerated into the usual stupidity-fest that comes about whenever Americans are being asked to understand their own history. Apparently, you can't learn history without statues and really what was the big deal about slavery and secession anyway? I mean Robert E. Lee looked good on a horse.
But as that debate heated up, Gillespie began to run more racist ads, especially about sanctuary cities that don't actually exist creating crime that hasn't happened. Tie that in with the racial codes explicit in the statue controversy and you have a recipe for animating white identity/white nationalist voters.
Virginia has been trending blue, but it has strong purple tendencies. Some parts of the state are effectively Alabama. However, the majority of the voters are usually sympathetic to reasonable Democrats like Terry McAulliffe, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. Get whitey riled up, however, and all bets are off.
UPDATE: As usual, Martin Longman got there first and did it better.
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