As of 8:10 pm, NBC projects wins for Murphy in NJ and Northam in VA in their respective governors races. Pundits will spin this as big news for the Democrats for the midterms and bad news for President Trump. Both may be correct, but in my view the polls show the voters focused much more on local issues and less about the national parties. Murphy had an easy win trying to replace Chris Christie, who fell to 15% favorable in the poll, thus hurting the GOP candidate. In VA, Ed Gillespie abandoned his more establishment GOP credentials and went extremely negative in recent weeks, accused by many of playing race. Northam tried to run a more mainstream democratic race and appears to have held the seat, despite some challenges. More to follow in the coming days as we look at these and other races around the country.
