Harris wins Virginia, adding 13 electoral votes to her column

Vice President Kamala Harris has won Virginia, adding its 13 electoral votes and keeping the state blue for the second presidential election in a row after President Joe Biden clinched the Commonwealth in 2020. 

Harris is now at 205 electoral votes compared to former President Donald Trump’s 230. In order to win the election, a candidate needs to garner 270 electoral votes.

Trump insisted that the state was competitive during his rally in Salem, Va. over the weekend and while he did perform better than he did in 2020, he did not secure enough votes to win it. 

Harris was overtly favored to win the state in recent polls ahead of Election Day, leading by as much as 10 points, according to FiveThirtyEight. In the polling website’s simulation, Harris swept the state in 92 out of 100 mock elections. 

With 87% of votes reported, Harris had 51% of the vote in the state, according to the New York Times.

Virginia was also in the throes of a bitter battle for the Commonwealth’s U.S. Senate seat that saw incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) coming out on top over Republican challenger Hung Cao. 

Kaine has served in public office in Virginia since 1994, starting on the Richmond City Council and eventually making his way to the Senate in 2012. He served one term as governor from 2006 to 2010 and was Hilary Clinton’s vice president pick during her 2016 presidential campaign. 

Cao aligned himself with Trump to draw on the MAGA vote, appearing alongside the former president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump at a rally in late October.

The race saw Kaine leading by over 200,000 votes with a comfortable lead over Cao, according to NBC News.

Contact executive editor Caitlin McCormack at caitlin.mccormack@richmond.edu.