It is Election Night in america. Much of america. In new jersey, Chris Christie reelected to a second term as governor. We are awaiting a victory speech from governor christie. Likely within this hour. In virginia, nbc news project, democratic Terry Mcauliffe pulled off a narrow victory. Defeated, Ken Cuccinelli, with 96 of the vote in. Mcauliffe, has 47 . And libertarian candidate, has 7 . Nbc news also projects that Democrat Ralph Northam is winner of the lieutenantgovernor race. Political director, chuck todd is at the headquarters in tysons corner, virginia. Chuck, how did this race find its way to a Terry Mcauliffe victory and rather narrow one . Well, a rather narrow one. I think we can be reminded. Virginia is virginia. A swing state for a reason. This is as virginia goes. So goes the nation. Its ben that wen that way for decade. When you look at the last two weeks. You can on one hand, look at the result tonight. And say the minute, Ken Cuccinelli was nominated. He was going to have problems in Northern Virginia. Problems in suburban counties. I can tell you, i will give you two results tonight. I know Steve Schmidt will love this. And henrico county, richmond, suburban county, mcdonald won the county. 5644. Mcauliffe will win it 5239. Fairfax county. Mcdonald won fairfax county, 23009. Mcauliffe, has a lead. Not all vote is in. 5837. Ken cuccinelli could not appeal to the middle of the look tore rat, suburban voters. He came close. There is still a very strong Republican Base in virginia. He worked the base. This is his entire last two weeks of the campaign was about turning out the base. And hoping that there would be a lack of enthusiasm for Terry Mcauliffe. When you look at everall turnov turnout. When you look at the lack of money. A lot of national donors. Sat on their hands. Believing it couldnt win in Northern Virginia. So, therefore he couldnt win statewide. Which is a turning out to be true. One wonders. I have heard from one republican source. Who said, where was Chris Christie. In fact, saying, that they, made an effort, apparently some senior conservative republicans reached out to christie. And asked him to come down to virginia and campaign for cuccinelli and christie said no. So, its is going to play out. A lot closer than republicans thought. A lot of cuccinelli supporters bitter now looking at the result. Thinking what if . What if they had more money . What if the republican establishment helped them . Of course, some Tea Party Republicans are going to say, hey, our message is fine. We just didnt have enough money. Some Establishment Republicans to night are probably quietly a little concerned, cuccinelli got so close. It is not, means the tea party might not receive the message, that the establishment in the inside the Republican Party hoped they would receive after tonight . Chuck if you add to cuccinellis vote, the third party vote for the libertarian. You get a majority vote for conservative, two conservative candidates there in virginia. If you take out the libertarian candidate. Does cuccinelli win this race . Its hard to say that. Because in our polling. We looked at this very carefully. In the first 5 of the sarvis vote. It looked to us in our polling, it was a protest vote. More than anything else. And in fact, if you talk to both campaigns, they were quietly not sitting there saying, sarvis is hurting. Cuccinellis Campaign Never said that either. I think there is one specific area of the state where, sarvis did hurt cuccinelli. Coal country. Top west part of the state. Had to do with the specific issue that folks down there didnt like. The Attorney Generals Office dealt with. They are never going to vote for mcauliffe. There is evidence of protest votes in Northern Virginia too. About folks that werent thrilled with Terry Mcauliffe. On the democratic side. I have not seen the evidence. I have looked at a lot of the polling. I dont think that you can make that case. Nbcs chuck todd. Thank you for joining us on this Election Night, chuck. You go out. Joining me now, crystal ball, former virginia congressional candidate herself. Msnbc analyst, Steve Schmidt, msnbc analyst, National Affairs editor for new york magazine. And author of a book you might have heard of. Double down. Which is just everywhere. He is also an msnbc analyst. Msnbc analyst. David axelrod, former Senior Adviser to president obama. Steve, what is your read of the virginia outcome . Everybody thought it was a blowout. Would be called. And that was not the case. Had it not been for the decision to pick the nominee at a convention, if republicans had an inclusive process, let voters determine it. It almost certainly would have resulted in a nominee who would have been the governor elect of virginia as we sit here at this hour. And the bottom line is the wrong message will be received by the tea party in the sense that, it will once again be a conspiracy on the part of the establishment, where they have been screwed and wronged and, its not the fact that this was a person fundamentally out of step idea logically in a state that republicans could win. I do thing it is true that when you look at the depth of Terry Mcauliffes difficulties. His flaws as a candidate. And you look at the spending patterns. Had there been an investment of money. Cuccinelli may have been able to pick them off. If you are a democrat. You have to look at this in the context of the difficulties with the obama care rollout which had been a dominant story sup plaplanting the government shutdown. Hard to till if that had an impact on the race. I think it is one of the things that will drive conjecture, a lot of discussion, and we continue to see a a trend, a lot of volatility in the political marketplace. A lot of downward pressure on the president , the democrats and republicans. David axelrod, should democrats score virginia as a win or was it just something that the republican kicked away . You have the democrat sitting in the Governors Mansion. And where i come from that is a win. And, well take it. Look, it is the first time in decades and decades that virginia is actually elected has elected a governor of the same party as the president. Certainly, i agree with what steve said. That if the Republican Party had nominate aid differed a differe. They would have had a greater chance here. That is the essence with the Republican Party right now. You have Chris Christie up in new jersey who, who tried to build a broader coalition. And had a good night. And then you had the republicans in virginia, who ran a narrow ideological campaign. And they lost. And so that the lesson should be clear, i agree with steve, i am not sure that people will, will draw the right lesson from it. Crystal ball, exit polls on women. 50 more mcauliffe. 42 for cuccinelli. Women are key to the victory here. I think the suburbs as chuck todd was pointing out. One thing that was remarkable in the polls too. 20 of voters said that abortion was their number one issue in this race so obviously cuccinelli is very far right extreme views on abortion were of concern here. What republicans were handed. They had historical trend. Virginians like to hand the Governors Mansion to the party that is out of power in the white house. They have done so since 1973. They have offyear demographic election trend going for them. In off years, it its not the coalition by and large that shows up to vote. It tend to be more republican leading electorate. They also had in Terry Mcauliffe. A relatively weak candidate. That they could have picked off. They had on the republican side. The lieutenantgovernor. Much more moderate. Much more mainstream candidate. If they elected him. If they had nominated him. I think there is a very good chance that he would have won the governorship. The Tea Party Republicans need to realize they were handed all of these advantages going into this election. And they managed to squander them all by choosing some one who was fundamentally out of step with the virginia electorate. On the virginia race. If ive were a democrat. You have Ken Cuccinelli. As bad as a candidate as mcauliffe was. A horrible candidate. But, he was still, what these results show tonight. Is that the lieutenantgovernor candidate, we could say. 41 in the race. If there had been late spending for cuccinelli. Not cuccinellis fault. Think of the Northern Virginia vote. Chris christies take. Keep talking. Huge number of government workers in Northern Virginia. Terry mcauliffe found his margin of victory. If it hadnt been for the shutdown. Cuccinelli may have won the race. The first speech of the Christie Campaign is about to occur in new jersey. We will go to it. Obviously, when he begins. Steve schm idt . You look at the Republican Party. There is two nedin expanding mo. You look at the numbers with hispani hispanics. Women voters. Africanamerican voters that turn out. A conservative governor. Prolife governor. A resounding mandate delivered from one of the bluest states in the country. This does offer a template to a party that is in very deep trouble. Nationally. He is using a Stevie Wonder song. At his event. And instead of a bruce springsteen. The first surprise of the night. How about this, new jersey . [ cheers and applause ] tonight i stand here as your governor. And i am so proud to be your governor. Born in nuclear. Rai born in newark. Raised in livingston. Made my wife from pennsylvania, a real jersey girl. And raised our family right here, right here in this amazing state. I love just as much as my mother and father raised me to love it. You see, what people have never understood about us is that i need the dont need all of the introduction to you, because i know you, i am one of you. First and foremost. I wanted to say, thank you, new jersey for making me the luckiest guy in the world. And the only greatest honor and privilege that being a one term governor of new jersey is to be a two term governor of new jersey. You got to meet my kids tonight. Mary pat and i are proud of them. I love you all. Andrew, patrick, sarah and bridgette. I love you all. And over the last four years, but especially this year, new jersey got to know what a special first lady they have. I love you, mary pat. [ applause ] and i spoke to senator buono a while ago. No, no, she congratulated me and was very gracious. Very gracious in her congratulations. I thank her for a Spirited Campaign and for her 20 years of Public Service to the state. [ applause ] now, we came to office four years ago. We stood behind a podium like this and said that people were tired of politics as usual. They wanted to get things done. And we promised we were going to go to trenton and turn it upside down and i think we have done just that. The people of new jersey four years ago were downhearted and disspirited. They didnt believe that government could work for them anymore. In fact what they thought, what they thought was that government was just there to take from them, but not to give to them. Not to work with them, not to work for them. Well, four years later, we stand here tonight. Showing that it is possible to put doing your job first, to put working together first, to fight for what you believe in yet still stand by your principles and get something done for the people who elected you. The biggest thing i learned over the last four years about leadership is that leadership is much less about talking than it is about listening. About bringing people around the table, listening to each other, showing them respect. Doing what needed to be done. To be able to bring people together and to achieve what we needed to achieve to move our state forward. Now, listen i know that if we can do this in trenton, new jersey, maybe the folks in washington, d. C. Should tune in their tvs right now. See how its done. Listen, we are new jersey. We still fight. We still yell. But when we fight we fight for those things that really matter in peoples lives. And while we may not always agree. We show up. We show up everywhere. We dont show up just in the places that vote for us a lot. We show up in the places that vote for us a little. We dont just show up in the places where we are comfortable. We show up in the places where we are uncomfortable. Because when you lead, you need to be there. You need to show up. You need to listen. And then you need to act. You dont just show up six months before an election. Y you know up four years before one. You dont take no as an answer, you keep going back and try more. When i was elected four years ago, i wasnt elected just fby the people who voted for me. I was the governor of all the people. And tonight overwhelmingly those people have said, come on board, its fine here, lets have more people support the governor. And now we have a big, big win tonight. What people have told me over the last four years is more than anything else they want the truth. They want the truth. You know we dont always agree with each other. New jersey. Some folks dont agree with some of the things that i do. Certainly they dont agree with some of the thingi izs i say so times. But they know, they know they never have to wonder. They never have to wonder when they walked into the voting booth today, they didnt say hey i wonder who this guy is. What he stand for. What he is willing to fight for. What he is welling to d willing the chips are down. You can agree with me or disagree with me. But i will never stop leading the state i love. People across the country ask me how it is we have been able to do what we have achieved. I am reminded of aster th steor pastor told just one week ago today. On the one Year Anniversary of hurricane sandy. He called what happened in new jersey the last year the spirit of sandy. He spoke about people coming together. He said when the lights went out, no one cared what color your skin was. He said, when you didnt have any food, no one cared whether there was a republican or a democrat offering you the food. When you didnt have a warm place for your family because of what happened in the storm, you didnt care if it was someone who thought that government should be big or small. At that moment, the spirit of sandy infected all of us. He prayed the spirit of sandy would stay with us well beyond the days that the recovery will take. I pledge to you tonight, i will govern with the spirit of sandy. [ cheers and applause ] a true new jerseyan, all the people that live here are ready to live that way too. As your governor it never mattered to me where some one was from, whether they voted for me or not, what the color of their skin was, or their political party. For me being governor has always been about getting the job done first. Now that doesnt mean that we didnt have principles. We have many of them. And we have stood and fought every day to cut taxes, to reduce the size of government spending, to reform pensions and benefits, to reform a broken education system, and to make sure that we create opportunity again for new jerseyans. For the next four years, we will fight to make those changes permanent. And we will fight to make them bigger. I did not seek a second term to do small things. I sought a second term to finish the job, now watch me do it. I want to thank a few people in addition to my family before we go tonight. I want to till you that i over the last year have had the greatest Campaign Team any governor could ever ask for. They ran a flawless campaign. I thank them for it. I want to thank my cabinet and my senior staff who especially over the last year have worked tirelessly with me to help bring back bring back the great state of new jersey from the second worst National Disaster to ever hit this country. [ applause ] i want to thank the second woman who said yes to me when i asked. New jerseys great lieutenantgovernor, lieutenantgovernor kim pagano. I used to tell folks all the time that i had the greatest job in the world. That for a jersey kid to be elect gufd ned governor of stat you were born and raised is the greatest job you could ever have in your life, i loved it. Every day i would get up and know that i had a chance to do something great. I didnt do something great every day. But i had a chance every day to do something great for people that i would probably never meet and certainly never know. But on october 29th, the last year. That job changed. It is no longer a job for me. It is a mission. You see, a mission is different than a job. A mission is something that is sacred. It is a sacred trust that was thrust upon me and you. On october 29th of last year. And that mission that mission ties make sure that everyone, everyone in new jersey whose a fekt who is a fekted by sandy is returned to normalcien their life. I want to promise you tonight. I will not let anyone, anything, any political party, any governmental entity, or any force get in between me and the completion of my mission. You see for those for those veterans out there tonight. You know, you know how sacred a mission is. Sacredness of the mission of a soldier. And that no one ever is left behind. No one is ever left behind on the battlefield. And on the battlefield that sandy turned this state into. New jerseyans will never leave any new jerseyan behind. Im resolved to complete this mission. Not because of me. But because of you. For the last year i have had a lot of people ask me for hugs. A lot of people. Youll get your hug later, brother i could tell you this i guess there is open bar tonight, huh . Welcome to new jersey. People ask me for hugs to comfort them. People ask me for hugs to make sure i wouldnt forget them. People ask me for hugs just to know that the leader of the state cared about them. And people came up to me all the time in the aftermath and said to me, governor, where did you get the energy. Where did you get the energy, day after day after day to do that. And i told them you dont understand, do you. Those hugs gave more to me than i could ever give back to them. They gave me hope and faith and optimism for our future. The people of new jersey have given me much more than i could ever hope to give back to them. They have given me hope. They have given me faith. And they have given me their trust. And its with that hope with that optimism, that faith and that trust that we together confront the next four years of opportunity for our state. I know that tonight, a disspirited america, anythigry their dysfunctional government in washington [ cheers and applause ] looks to new jersey to say is what i think happening really happening . Are people really coming together . Are we really working, africanamericans, hispanics, suburbanites, and city dwellers, farmers and teachers. Are we really all working together, let me give the answer to everyone who is watching tonight. Under this government, our first job is to get the job done. And as long as i am governor, that job will always, always, be finished. I think tonight most particularly and i know my dad and my brother and sister who are here tonight with me share this same view. I think tonight most particular low ly about my mother. All of you who have heard me over the last four years, know that she was and still is the dominant influence in my life. As i said on the video [ applause ] as i said on the video, my mom used to say to me all the time, christopher be yourself. Because then tomorrow you dont have to worry about trying to remember who you pretended to be yesterday. Powerful words from a woman who i miss every day. But tonight, tonight i know that my mom is looking down on new jersey. And saying to me i can feel it. She is saying to me, chris, the job is not done yet. Get back to work and finish the job for the people of new jersey. Thats exactly what i will do. I love you, new jersey thank you very much. [ cheers and applause ] how did that speech sound to republican president ial primary voters . Look, see all the promise and peril of Chris Christie in that speech. You see the rough diamond. All the political talent on display. You see a little bit over self reverential. You know, there that i am not sure that, that plays out. You see the necessity for world class speech writing. As you make the transition into a president ial campaign. Certainly if you look at, you know, him through the prism of whats going on in washington you know the Republican Leaders on, on the National Stage, you look at that speech, you look at his dynamicism with enthusiasm and optimism. David axelrod, in new jersey of the voters who elected Chris Christie tonight. If he faces Hillary Clinton on a president ial ballot in new jersey, Hillary Clinton would get 50 of the vote. Chris christie would get 43 of the vote. So democrats may have to contend with Chris Christie down the road on the president ial stage. But at the moment, the polling is stronger for Hillary Clinton. Well i think she is a very strong candidate. He could be a very strong jen ram election candidate too. The question is can he get there . Whether the Republican Party will nominate a candidate who gives the kind of speech he gave tonight. That speech more broadly than to the base. One thing that was striking about the virginia race, Terry Mccaullife won self described moderates by 25 of the vote. The Republican Party lost moderates by some 12 of the vote. 14 of the vote in the 2012 election. Christie is sfpeaking to the people in the middle of the electorate. Can he keep spoking to the middle of the loelectorate. Thats what we have to wait and see. We are joined by our senior new jersey political analyst, and the host of up with steve kornackie. It is striking on how many important issues new jersey disagrees with their governor who they just reelected. Was this a personality win in new jersey . In large part it is. One thing that is important to keep in mind there, i think we can say, sandy effectively ended the election a year ago. Chris christie won by the margins tonight because of candy. I think before sandy. Because of his perceived response . Strength of leadership. The guy who rose above politics. Willing to work with president obama. The reason why Chris Christie will get 60 of the vote. Even before sandy his Approval Rating in the face of doing things, Union Pension bill, canceling the tunnel project, the, you know tunnel rail project. Even in the face of that. Approval rating was over 50 . The parts of new jersey where Chris Christie has won back democratic voters. Voters who made it a democratic state. You are looking in a lot of cases at the bluecollar voters. Middlesex county, new jersey. Around the mid doueadowlands yo. Put a poll up there, showing christie, versus hillary. In 2016. Thats interesting. If he had to make Hillary Clinton sweat for new jersey. The real threat i see in the number. Chris christie gets, nationally. A state like pennsylvania. A lot of crossover between the voters he won back to the republican calm in new jersey. And the voters, if republicans could get 3 , 4 more in state of pennsylvania. They could win the state. The real promise of christie in the numbers. Did we just see the first scene of your third volume about president ial elections and, and if thats christies first move in the president ial campaign what does he do next . It was a very this has been a cliche for the last week. That on Election Night tonight. We will begin, christie, 2016. I seem to, wrap that bear hug around that cliche with the speech. With his call out to washington. Basically saying lack at ook at sending a message. The innovation of sandy. Really two moments on the National Stage. One, giving governor romneys keynote address at the Republican Convention in tampa. Did that did not go that well. Not only did steve said. Did him a lot of good, politically in new jersey. Elevated on the National Stage into a plausible president ial candidate. The interesting thing. The governors often say, take, two term pledges and break them. He didnt take a two term pledge. On the speech. He kept talking about how he was going to serve new jersey to the end. Stay until his mission was completed. Sets of timer running on when his mission will be completed. He announces. We can fast forward to a year from now. The year that all sandy victims are back in their homes. I think he will declare mission accomplished. He has a pretty clear timetable for when that will happen. Cory booker one of the pledges too. They all break the pledges. He didnt make a pledge. One year, right. Of a runway where he is going to be pretty much able to keep his head down and focus on new jersey. And, and try to make good on some of the rhetoric in the speech. But once we get past mid terms of next year. He is going to have to be running flat out if he will run. Dont think there is any one in republican politics. He has an advantage, he has been under a National Media spotlight. Also under the new york media spotlight, very intense. Local media. Thats very good training for president ial media level which becomes yet a whole another level of scrutiny. It is. Democrats missed a chance in the race. Not that they had an opportunity to win it. But they could have test run a couple of messages against hem to see how they could potentially build a case against Chris Christie. If we are going to see him again in 2016. So i think that was a missed opportunity. Barbara buono did that. I dont think she had the money to get it out there. Didnt have support from the local state level elected official for from the national elected. So there was really no opportunity, for her to get anything going. But if you look at christie here, i mean, christie didnt really run on an ideology. We talk about him as a moderate republican. In terms of his message. You heard it in the speech. Much more about leadership. And telling you the truth. Also way being forth right with you. That is much more of his message. If you can connect with voters on that level, then you are able to gloss over a lot of the ideological differences which he has with voters in his state and which he will have with the republican primary electorate. Go ahead. I would say something. What crystal said, a little harsher terms. What democrats didnt do. They didnt muddy Chris Christie up. The truth is. There is a lot of stuff. I wont do a book plug. Well do this tomorrow night. There is stuff in Chris Christies record that has not gotten that much scrutiny in new jersey. Democrats did not mess him up. You think about, muddy him up very much. Think about the last republican, every election, and ran up a big margin like this. Democrats failed to muddy up. George w. Bush. That was the model bush followed in 1994. I would say in 2009. A lot of the stuff out there about Chris Christie they did throw at him. If we had this conversation four years ago at this time. There wasnt a democrat in new jersey. A democrat nationally said they didnt have the goods on Chris Christie. They would take him out in 2009. One thing to keep in mind. The reason Barbara Buono was the candidate in the race. I dont mean to take a shot. The reason she was the democratic nominee. You are going to have to defer to the mayor elect of new york city. Bill de blazio. Bill deblasio. My fellow new yorkers, today you spoke out loudly and clearly for a new direction for our city. United by a belief that our city should leave no new yorker behind. Were proud of what we have accomplished on this campaign. And were hum bummed by it. And let me say to all of you from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for all you have done. Thank you but let me be clear, our work, all of our work is really just beginning. And we have no illusions about the task that lies ahead. Tackling inequality isnt easy. It never has been and it never will be. The challenges we face have been decade in the making. And the problems we set out to address will not be solved overnight. But make no mistake the people of this city have chosen a progressive path. [ applause ] and tonight we set forth on it. Together as one city. [ speaking spanish ] [ speaking Foreign Language ] [ speaking Foreign Language ] to everyone who knocked on doors, made phone calls, persuaded your friends held house parties or even tweeted about this campaign. This victory is yours. Thank you so much for what you achieved. There are so many inspiring individuals and organizations, so many friends, who made this victory possible. If i mention each by name we would be here all night. But you know who you are, and you know i wouldnt be here without you. I do want to acknowledge two Close Friends who guided and advised me at every turn even when the polls didnt look so hot. Please give it up for ambassador Patrick Gaspard and nick balding. I want to say how grateful i am to bill hyers and emma wolf and the best Campaign Team this city has ever seen and a special thank you to two people who have helped me for my first run for city council here in this neighborhood. Give them a round of applause. But the people i am most grateful to, and most grateful for, are standing right next to me. [ cheers and applause ] my partner in life, my best friend in the world, she is brilliant and every bit as compassionate as she is tough. The love of my life and out of everything i have to feel fortunate about, i am most lucky, most blessed, to be the father of two extraordinary children, kiara and dante they make me proud every single day. And my fell low new yorkers, they are very stylish. Tonight, i feel the deepest appreciation for generations of my family. Including those no longer with us. And a special thank you to my joined now by joy reid and Hunter Walker on the new york city mayors race. Joy reid, this this victory speech being held in brooklyn which is a statement in and of itself. Isnt it . Absolutely. And this morning, i think both candidates cast their ballots in brooklyn. Really a great statement of, the dramatic change from the manhattancentric mayor of michael bloomberg. Something that speaks to the boroughs, regions, parts of new york that kind of felt left out in a city that has really become far more focused on servicing the welltodo. Deblasio ran a liberal campaign hearkening back to david did dinkins. Dramatic victory for progressive politics. Hunter walker, what was the blmbe bloomberg effect . When there is a long serving incumbent, the voters have the governing style in mind when they go to the polls in choosing a successor. Absolutely. Though bloombergs Approval Rating isnt actually that low. Polls showed 70 of new yorkers want him to go. And all just shy of 70 think he paid too much attention to the wealthy. This race was a change election. Deblasio, through out cast himself as antibloomberg candidate while others rand more toward the center. And to their detriment. We are going to be hearing from Terry Mcauliffe in virginia soon. You are a new yorker, watching this race from the start. Brooklynit teche. They want to your turf. Once bill deblasio got altitude in this race he never looked back. He never looked back. You look over to his right. And look at his, his son dante. The ad that they ran. If you look at the movement when they ran. Deblasio in the democrat prcarc democratic primary. It gave him altitude over them. It is true. I mean his numbers skyrocketed in the span of a short period of time in the primary. And he, basically was able to avoid the runoff that would have, would have, might have led to a different outcome in terms of who the Party Controlling city hall was. Could have ended up with a different candidate on a democratic side. A much closer race. He just soared. Its really a real testament to, to the bloomberg, i think the bloomberg. The third term, when the race was much closer, people forget how governor, Matt Bloomberg with the huge financial advantage in the third term. There is a change in virginia tonight. We will hear from governor elect Terry Mcauliffe. Terry. Terry. Terry. Thank you. What a great night. You know, over the past few months i have started speeches thanking a lot of political figures. But i am so glad that tonight that the person introducing me is my best friend and my wife dorothy. I want to know just a few week as go we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. When we decided to do this campaign, we decided together because we understood that it was a journey that we were all going to have to take together. And dorothy, i could not be happier than to have you standing at my side tonight. Thank you. And to our five children who have been involved in the campaign from day one. I want to thank, dorie, jack, mary, sally, and peter for all of the work that theyve have done. All seven of us are incredibly grateful to the most amazing volunteers and team leaders ever assembled in the history of a governors campaign. Just as i walked up here, they gave me the file numbers since january you have knocked on 2. 5 million doors in the commonwealth of virginia. I mean you have to pause for a second to comprehend such a large number. Truth is that i got a lot of energy from seeing you all work sowing har ing so hard. When i cam e to campus. It fired me up. And kept me going 100 during the 16hour days. Thank you, we love you. And you are spectacular. I know all of you gave up tomb from your family. Because you believe this election was so important. And thank you so much and i want all of you here who work so hard since this Campaign Began to give yourselves an enormous round of applause. I want to thank i didnt have word to really express. But i want to thank my extra ordinary Campaign Staff particularly the field team for what they did to break records all over virginia. Give yourselves a campaign, and campaign a great round of applause. Let me say this. I also want to thank the absolutely historic number of republicans who crossed party lines to support me. You were powerful mess messenger our mainstream campaign. Thank you. Most importantly i want to thank the voters of virginia who went out and voted for us today. From lee county to Virginia Beach to winchester thank you for what you did to help us get elected the governor of the commonwealth of virginia. This is a hard fought race. Part of that is the nature of politics. Part unfortunate it was that the attorney general and i had some very big differences on some very important issues. And let me say this i think every Single Person in virginia is glad that the tv ad are now over. I know passions are high. I think it is important to recognize that while the attorney general and i have a lot of differences, he is a principled man who has sacrificed an enormous amount of time, away from his family. I thank Ken Cuccinelli for his service and dedication to the commonwealth of virginia. Virginia and am serica have see contentious races before. Every time we end up coming together to pursue the common good. One particularly famous virginian confronted a very bitterly divided electorate. After the president ial election in 1800. Thomas jefferson dedicated much of his first inaugural address to bridging partisan divides. He said but every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different nails, brethren of the same principle. 213 years later, the truth is is that our differences of opinion are still often not a difference of principle or goal. Over the next four years most democrats and republicans in virginia want to make virginia a model for pragmatic leadership that is friendly to job creation. A model for strong schools that prepare our students for the jobs of tomorrow. A model for welcoming the best and brightest scientists and innovators no matter race, gender, religion or whom you love. And a Transportation System that reduces gridlock for our families and our business. But all this is only possible possible. It is a view that i share with the next lieutenantgovernor of the commonwealth of virginia. Ralph northam. There are a lot of proud democrats here, and arent we proud, folks. I am also particularly proud to welcome all of the republicans who are here tonight. Give them a great round of applause. The truth is that this election was never a choice between democrats and republicans. It was a choice about whether virginia would continue the mainstream bipartisan tradition that has served us so well over the last decade. At a time when washington was often broken, just think about what virginia has been able to accomplish when we Work Together. Under governor mark warner, we preserved our triple a bond rating and he made the single largest investment in k 12 education in virginia history. Under governor tim kaine, we were honored as the best state to do business, the best man in the state, he prudently gaded us throuus guided us through the great recession. And let me say this under governor bob mcdonald, our unemployment is one of the lowest on the east coast. And we passed the first transportation funding in 27 years with bipartisan support. Now, during the next four years it will be my obligation and honor to continue that tradition and to get started over the next three months i am going to work hard to reach out to every single republican in the general assembly. I want to listen to them. I want to work with them. So we can advance our shared goals. The economic challenges facing virginia are daunting. Sequestration for another year. And more federal budget cuts on the horizon. But for those of you who know me well, i believe that a daunting challenge is always a great opportunity. Working together we will protect the jobs we have but we well work to diversify our economy. First is work force training. For me the best part of this campaign i was able to visit every single all 23 Community Colleges in the commonwealth of virginia. You meet people of all ages who are gaining new skills for a new economy. And finding opportunities to simplify and do what we need to do to make sure that we have those jobs of the 21st century. They are our true engines of work force development, and we have reduced funding over the last couple years by 40 . We need to make sure we are investing in our education system. When you take average virginia pay, average virginia pay, we win 50th out of 50 states. We need to Work Together to pay our teacher when out they deserve in the commonwealth of virginia. When 80 of the brain is developed between birth and 3 years old. We need to make sure we are investing in Early Childhood development. But also, the passage of a funding bill is only the first step in addressing the critical