See how different groups voted in the governor’s race between Ralph Northam, Ed Gillespie and Cliff Hyra, and how their support compares with support for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Virginia exit poll. The poll was conducted by Edison Media Research for the National Election Pool, The Washington Post and other media organizations. See the bottom of the page for exit poll methodology.
By gender
Men made up a slight majority of voters for the first time in any recent Virginia election. But while men tend to vote more Republican, they favored Gillespie by just two points, smaller than Trump's nine-point edge last year.
Northam won female voters by 22 points, larger than Clinton's 17-point advantage last year.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
Male
51% of voters
Clinton 43%
Trump 52%
Female
49% of voters
Clinton 56%
Trump 39%
By age
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
18-29
14% of voters
Clinton 54%
Trump 36%
30-44
24% of voters
Clinton 53%
Trump 40%
45-64
42% of voters
Clinton 47%
Trump 50%
65+
20% of voters
Clinton 45%
Trump 52%
By race
Northam garnered support from 8 in 10 nonwhite voters according to exit poll results, while Gillespie received support from less than 2 in 10 among this group. Gillespie won white voters by 15 points, but this was much smaller than Trump’s 24-point advantage over Clinton in 2016.
African Americans have made up just under one-fifth of Virginia’s electorate, and a surge in black voting has been decisive in recent statewide elections.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
White
67% of voters
Clinton 35%
Trump 59%
Black
20% of voters
Clinton 88%
Trump 9%
Hispanic
6% of voters
Clinton 65%
Trump 30%
Asian
3% of voters
N/A
N/A
Other
3% of voters
N/A
N/A
NET Nonwhite
33% of voters
Clinton 79%
Trump 17%
By gender and race
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
White men
36% of voters
Clinton 29%
Trump 65%
White women
32% of voters
Clinton 41%
Trump 54%
Black men
9% of voters
Clinton 84%
Trump 13%
Black women
12% of voters
Clinton 91%
Trump 7%
Education
Six in 10 college graduates supported Northam for governor according to the Virginia exit poll, up from the 55 percent who supported Clinton in 2016.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
College graduates
58% of voters
Clinton 55%
Trump 39%
Non-college graduates
42% of voters
Clinton 44%
Trump 51%
By education and race
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
White college graduates
41% of voters
Clinton 45%
Trump 49%
White non-college graduates
26% of voters
Clinton 24%
Trump 71%
Nonwhite college graduates
17% of voters
Clinton 78%
Trump 17%
Nonwhite non-college graduates
16% of voters
Clinton 81%
Trump 16%
By education, race and gender
White female college graduates — a group that split evenly in the 2013 Virginia governor’s election — favored Northam by 16 points over Gillespie according to exit polling.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
White college graduate women
20% of voters
Clinton 50%
Trump 44%
White non-college graduate women
11% of voters
Clinton 29%
Trump 66%
White college graduate men
21% of voters
Clinton 40%
Trump 54%
White non-college graduate men
15% of voters
Clinton 19%
Trump 75%
By 2016 total family income
Urban areas of the state have mostly recovered all the jobs lost in the recession, and then some. But the southern half of Virginia is still waiting.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
Under $50,000
23% of voters
Clinton 53%
Trump 41%
$50,000-$100,000
33% of voters
Clinton 47%
Trump 49%
$100,000 or more
44% of voters
Clinton 51%
Trump 44%
By party identification
A record high 41 percent of Virginia voters identified as Democrats according to exit polling, while 3 in 10 identified as Republicans, down slightly from 2016 and a record low since 1996. Like Trump, Gillespie narrowly won political independents but this was not enough to overcome Democrats’ 11-point party identification advantage.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
Democrat
41% of voters
Clinton 92%
Trump 6%
Republican
30% of voters
Clinton 6%
Trump 88%
Independent or something else
28% of voters
Clinton 43%
Trump 48%
By ideology
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
Liberal
27% of voters
Clinton 85%
Trump 11%
Moderate
42% of voters
Clinton 58%
Trump 36%
Conservative
31% of voters
Clinton 12%
Trump 83%
By gender and marital status
Unmarried men narrowly favored Northam by a similar margin as Clinton last year, but Northam outperformed Clinton’s share of the vote among unmarried women by 16 points (77 percent to 61 percent). Northam also made significant gains among married men and women in comparison to Clinton’s 2016 share of the vote.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
Married men
37% of voters
Clinton 40%
Trump 56%
Married women
30% of voters
Clinton 47%
Trump 48%
Non-married men
16% of voters
Clinton 46%
Trump 42%
Non-married women
16% of voters
Clinton 61%
Trump 32%
White evangelical or white born-again Christians
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
White evangelicals or born-again Christians
26% of voters
Clinton 14%
Trump 80%
All others
74% of voters
Clinton 59%
Trump 35%
Does anyone in your household own a gun?
Voters were about evenly split between those who live in households with and without a gun, and Northam won voters in households without a gun by giant 73 to 26 percent margin, larger than Clinton’s 40-point margin over Trump last year and McAuliffe’s 35-point margin in the 2013 governor’s race.
Gillespie won gun-owning household voters by 24 points, almost identical to Trump’s 23-point advantage last year.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
Yes, household owns gun
52% of voters
Clinton 36%
Trump 59%
No gun in household
48% of voters
Clinton 68%
Trump 28%
When did you finally decide for whom to vote in the election for governor?
Almost 2 in 10 voters said they made up their mind in the final week, and this group favored Northam over Gillespie by a 24-point margin. Northam won voters who decided earlier by a smaller, seven-point margin.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
Decided in last week
18% of voters
Clinton 45%
Trump 42%
Decided before last week
80% of voters
Clinton 51%
Trump 46%
Which one of these five issues mattered most in deciding how you voted for governor today?
The network exit poll asked respondents which one of five issues matters most in deciding their vote for governor, and 39 percent of them chose “health care,” far more than any other issue in exit polls.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Gun policy
17% of voters
Health care
39% of voters
Abortion
8% of voters
Immigration
12% of voters
Taxes
15% of voters
How do you feel about the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president?
Trump disapprovers made up 57 percent of the Virginia electorate according to exit polling and Northam received 87 percent of that vote. Gillespie pulled in a slightly larger share of voters who approve of the president.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Approve
40% of voters
Disapprove
57% of voters
Was one reason for your vote for governor today:
Another question suggests Trump’s significant impact on the race — twice as many said one reason for their vote was to express opposition to Trump as express support. Nearly half of voters said he was not a factor in their vote.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Voted to express support for Donald Trump
17% of voters
Voted to express opposition to Donald Trump
34% of voters
Donald Trump was not a factor
47% of voters
Is your opinion of the Democratic Party:
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Favorable of Democratic Party
51% of voters
Unfavorable of Democratic Party
46% of voters
Is your opinion of the Republican Party:
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Favorable of Republican Party
37% of voters
Unfavorable of Republican Party
59% of voters
How do you feel about the way Terry McAuliffe is handling his job as governor?
Gov. Terry McAuliffe was not running for reelection, but polls showed a moderately positive approval rating could boost Northam.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Approve of McAuliffe
54% of voters
Disapprove of McAuliffe
41% of voters
Is Virginia's economy:
Virginia’s unemployment rate is only 3.7 percent. But a deeper look at the economy shows why it was a big issue in the governor’s race.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Getting better
32% of voters
Getting worse
17% of voters
Staying about the same
48% of voters
Who would you trust to handle race relations?
Talking about race in Virginia in an era of Confederate statues and Black Lives Matter.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Only Ralph Northam
39% of voters
Only Ed Gillespie
23% of voters
Both of them
17% of voters
Neither of them
16% of voters
Should monuments to Confederate leaders on government property be:
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Confederate monuments should be removed
38% of voters
Confederate monuments should be left in place
57% of voters
Geographic area
Virginia’s two most polarized regions appear just as divided in this year’s gubernatorial election as in 2016, according to exit poll results.
Roughly 7 in 10 voters in the D.C. suburbs, including large exurban Loudoun and Prince William counties, supported Northam while almost two-thirds of voters in the mountainous and western parts of the commonwealth supported Gillespie.
Northam (D)
Hyra (Libertarian)
Gillespie (R)
Clinton
Trump
D.C. suburbs
28% of voters
Clinton 64%
Trump 30%
Central Virginia
17% of voters
Clinton 41%
Trump 53%
Hampton Roads
16% of voters
Clinton 54%
Trump 40%
Richmond/South
19% of voters
Clinton 52%
Trump 43%
Mountain
20% of voters
Clinton 31%
Trump 64%
METHODOLOGY:
Final exit poll results based on 2,173 interviews of randomly selected voters as they exited polling places across the commonwealth of Virginia on Tuesday, Nov. 7. The poll was conducted by Edison Media Research for the National Election Pool, The Washington Post and other media organizations. The National Election Pool is a consortium including ABC News, CBS News, CNN and NBC News. Typical characteristics have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points; the error margin for smaller voting groups is larger. Percentages may not add up to 100 because of rounding.
Originally published Nov. 7, 2017.
Polling analysis by Scott Clement and Emily Guskin. Graphics by Darla Cameron.
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