Washington, D.C. — Today, voters in Virginia elected Terry McAuliffe to serve as the commonwealth’s next governor over Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli. In response to McAuliffe’s win, Tom Perriello, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, issued the following statement:
Terry McAuliffe’s victory tonight shows that progressive values are mainstream American values. McAuliffe proudly and publicly championed women’s reproductive rights, gun violence prevention, expanded Medicaid, LGBT rights, voting rights, and the need to address climate change. With a proud tradition of political independence, Virginians today clearly rejected the extreme conservative agenda and embraced McAuliffe’s pragmatic, progressive platform.
Tonight’s losses in Virginia, a bellwether state, should sound yet another warning for national Republicans who have become indistinguishable from the divisive and destructive politics of the Tea Party. The citizens of Virginia opted for pro-jobs investments in transportation and public education over another tax cut for the wealthiest among us and an ideological crusade against even the smallest role for government. Tonight’s results make it crystal clear that voters will not tolerate mean-spirited attacks on women, LGBT people, immigrants, and others who make this a more perfect union.
Finally, Ken Cuccinelli himself declared that this race was a “referendum on Obamacare,” and the results are in. Obamacare, including the Medicaid expansion championed by McAuliffe, has once again been validated by a citizenry more interested in fixing our broken health care system than playing politics. Instead of continuing their self-defeating attacks on the law, we hope Republicans will finally come together with Democrats to make the law work.
Many historical trends in this election favored a victory for the radically conservative Cuccinelli, but the trends of the future for a growing portion of the country are pointing in a progressive direction.