Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe easily won Virginia’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, giving him a chance to run again for the commonwealth’s top job — which he last held from 2014 to 2018.

Del. Hala Ayala won the nomination for lieutenant governor, and incumbent Attorney General Mark Herring won his race. The entire Democratic ticket will hail from Northern Virginia — a voter-rich area that has turned consistently blue in recent election cycles.

McAuliffe, who outpolled and outraised the competition during the campaign, jumped to an early lead shortly after polls closed, never falling below 62% of the vote as precincts across Virginia started reporting in and early votes were tallied. Former delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy was his closest competition, trailing behind with 20% of the vote. McAuliffe won every county in the commonwealth.

McAuliffe will face off against Republican Glenn Youngkin, a former Carlyle Group executive, on Nov. 2. Analysts say it could be the most expensive governor’s race in Virginia history, with Youngkin already loaning himself $12 million and McAuliffe known to be a healthy fundraiser.

“We launched this campaign about six months ago with a simple idea that Virginia has some very big challenges ahead. And I’ve said we’ve got to go back. We’ve got to be bold, and we need seasoned leadership to move us forward and to lift up all Virginians,” said McAuliffe, speaking at a victory party in Tysons, close to his McLean home.

Ayala, a two-term Prince William County-area delegate and cybersecurity specialist, defeated five others for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. She’ll face Republican Winsome Sears, ensuring that there will be a female person of color serving as lieutenant governor for the first time in Virginia history. Ayala was among a group of three women to be the first Hispanic women to serve in the Virginia House of Delegates. Sears, a former delegate, was the first Black female Republican, first female veteran, and the first naturalized citizen to serve.

“I’m ready to hit the ground running and get to work alongside Terry McAuliffe, [Herring], and all of our Democratic candidates. I will work everyday to make sure that YOU, Virginia families, have a seat at the table, instead of being on the menu,” said Ayala in a Twitter thread Tuesday night.

Herring of Loudoun County defeated Del. Jay Jones, and will next take on Republican Del. Jason Miyares in the race for the commonwealth’s top legal officer.

McAuliffe has been campaigning for weeks against Youngkin, nearly ignoring his Democratic opponents. He dominated in fundraising, besting Carroll Foy 3-1 and claiming the advantage in name recognition and endorsements. That also came at the expense of State Sen. Jennifer McClellan. Along with Carroll Foy, she had the chance to be the first female Black female governor of any state — and political analysts say they would be front runners again in 2025.

They argued on the campaign trail that McAuliffe was part of the old establishment of Virginia politics and that the commonwealth needed a new direction, but the relatively low number of voters who turned out for the primary said otherwise.

Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Del. Lee Carter, a self-declared democratic socialist, trailed far behind. Carter also lost re-nomination to his House of Delegates seat to Michelle Maldonado. Carter tweeted, “This job has made me miserable for the last 4 years. I made a lot of people’s lives objectively better, but the constant assassination threats and harassment were terrible for my family and my health. I’m relieved to say that I’ve done my part, and now it’s someone else’s turn.”

In his last term, McAuliffe framed himself as a dealmaker, bringing jobs and traveling overseas to attract employers to the commonwealth. Now he says he can move the state forward even more on education and jobs with a Democratic General Assembly, something he didn’t have his last term. And he framed his next term as critical as the commonwealth emerges from the pandemic.

“The road ahead is going to be on it’s going to be tough,” he said. “The remnants of COVID are gonna be with us for a long time. We have to build back a better stronger Virginia. And that’s the challenge that we face. We cannot be complacent. We cannot be satisfied. We got to build a better education system, the best economy in the country. But, complacency is not a word that is in my vocabulary.”

If McAuliffe wins in November, he’d be among the few to serve as governor twice. Governors cannot serve consecutive terms in Virginia, the only state not to allow it. Among the others who have served multiple terms: Patrick Henry in 1776 and 1784 (though the rules were much different then), William Smith who started his terms in 1846 and 1864, and Mills Godwin who served as a Democrat in 1966 and a Republican in 1974.

“McAuliffe clearly doesn’t have a popularity problem w/ Virginia Democrats — he’s winning in a romp. The question is whether he has an enthusiasm problem. Despite spending $10M and universal statewide name ID, not a lot of Dems cared enough to turn out,” tweeted Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report.

More than 486,000 Virginians turned out for the Democratic primary, down from 2017 when about 543,000 people voted in the primary, when votes surged in response to Trump. The 2021 totals were higher than 2009’s primary, a more similar year.

Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, said McAuliffe had more universal appeal than the other candidates.

“For those who are concerned that the Democrats have lurched too far to the left, and that creates an opening for the Republicans, well, then you have Terry McAuliffe,” Rozell said last month. “He’s always ran as a center-left candidate… he’s always had appeal to the more centrist wing of the Democratic Party, which I think is still very strong in Virginia.”

“So he does tend to have that sort of cross-appeal ideologically within the Democratic Party from the more middle and right stage of the party all the way to the middle left and wing of the party,” he added.

The outlines of the gubernatorial race to come have already become clear: McAuliffe has tried to tie Youngkin to former President Donald Trump, while Youngkin and Republicans have accused McAuliffe of being a career politician beholden to the left-wing of the Democratic Party.

“Glenn Youngkin is not a reasonable Republican,” said McAuliffe. “Reasonable Virginia Democrats and Republicans believe that the most important issue facing Virginia is building a great economy. Glenn Youngkin believes that the most important issue facing Virginia is a conspiracy theory about the 2020 election.”

“Virginia Democrats have nominated a career politician with a record of broken promises, who is intent on dividing our Commonwealth. Eight years ago, then-Governor Terry McAuliffe spearheaded the leftist liberal policies that have made Virginians less safe, made Virginia more expensive to raise a family, and squashed economic opportunity,” said Virginia Republican Party Chairman Rich Anderson in a statement.

Local races

Locally, Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson won the Democratic primary 57-43 in a second bout against former mayor Allison Silberberg. John Taylor Chapman, Alyia Smith-Parker Gaskins, Amy Jackson, Canek Aguirre, Sarah Bagley, and Kirk McPike won nominations to the Alexandria City Council. In Arlington County, incumbent Board member Takis Karantonis defeated Chandra Choun 67-33.

There were several upsets in races for seats in the House of Delegates.

Del. Ibraheem Samirah, who famously interrupted then-President Trump during a speech in Jamestown, appears to have lost to challenger Irene Shin, 52-48, with about 300 votes separating the two. About 1,800 votes still need to be counted. The 86th District seat is near Reston.

In Prince William County, Carter, a self-proclaimed socialist who was also running for governor, lost a three-way race to Michelle Maldonado by about 200 votes.

In Alexandria, Elizabeth Bennett-Parker upset Del. Mark Levine, who also lost the lieutenant governor’s race, by a 59-31 margin.

Del. Alfonso Lopez easily defeated Marishma Mehta with 71% of the vote in the Arlington area. Del. Kaye Kory beat challenger Holly Hazard in the Falls Church area with 62% of the vote. Del. Elizabeth Guzman, who dropped out of the lieutenant governor’s race, won re-nomination to her Prince William County-area House of Delegates seat in a three-way race. Del. Kathleen Murphy bested Jennifer Adeli in the Potomac-area race. Del. Ken Plum beat challenger Mary Barthelson in the Fairfax County-area district.

The original version of this story misstated the results of the Alexandria City Council primary election. It has been corrected.