WASHINGTON — Donald Trump won the battle for Virginia in a close Republican primary contest with Marco Rubio Tuesday while Hillary Clinton cruised to an easy victory in the Democratic race.
Clinton garnered 64 percent of the vote to Bernie Sanders’ 35 percent, according to unofficial election results.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who had suspended his campaign, won less than 1 percent of the votes with 99 percent of precincts reporting statewide.
Trump, the GOP front-runner, won with 35 percent of the vote. Rubio, the senator from Florida, wasn’t far behind with 32 percent statewide, according to unofficial results.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz came in third place with 17 percent of the vote and Ohio Gov. John Kasich had 9 percent of the votes. Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, who has suspended his campaign, garnered less than 1 percent of the votes cast.
Rubio won Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties plus the City of Alexandria. He also won Henrico County, the City of Richmond and Chesterfield County — the Richmond suburb is the largest Republican jurisdiction in the state. But Trump swept up most other communities throughout the state.
Trump’s win in Virginia allotted him another 17 delegates and gave Rubio 16, according to the state party.
The GOP race was expected to be very competitive, said John Whitbeck, chair of the Republican Party of Virginia.
“Who wins the primary is less important than what we’re seeing in terms of the enthusiasm … testing our candidates to see if they can win in a state that is going to be ultra important for Republicans to win in November,” Whitbeck said.
And interest in the race was high among Republicans, the state party reports that more than 1 million voters who took part was a record for Virginia. Another 776,000 voters took part in the Democratic primary.
In the D.C. suburbs, Arlington and Fairfax counties reported turnouts higher than 40 percent. One voter in Alexandria tweeted at WTOP that the line was around the block at one west end polling site with just 15 minutes left before the polls closed.
Earlier in the day a precinct in Arlington County ran out of Republican ballots. But few other problems were reported at the polls in Northern Virginia.
Democrats were pleased with Clinton’s win. Clinton was banking on a successful night in Virginia where state officials lined up to support her, led by Gov. Terry McAuliffe. She campaigned and bought advertising in the state whereas Sanders spent little time or money here.
“We think that the path to victory here in Virginia started tonight,” said Susan Swecker, the state party chair.” We are on a good trajectory to turn Virginia blue again for the third time in a row.”
According to exit polling by CBS News, Republican voters in the state are angry and want a candidate who is an outsider and who can bring about change. But Democrats are looking for a candidate with experience.
Forty percent of Democratic voters would like to see President Barack Obama’s policies continued but 42 percent would like to see more liberal policies enacted, according to the exit polls.
Republican and Democratic voters were about equally concerned about the economy but were a bit divided over just how important they view the threat of terrorism. Just 10 percent of Democrats said that terrorism was the top issue for them, but 19 percent of Republican voters felt it was the most important issue this election season.
Black voters overwhelmingly went for Clinton, 80 percent, versus 20 percent for Sanders. Clinton also won more votes from college graduates than Sanders.
Rubio received the most support from voters who decided in the last week for whom they would vote — 38 percent. But Trump was performing well among the most demographic groups including men, women and conservatives, exit polls show.
WTOP’s Michelle Basch contributed to this story.
Local Results
| Candidate | Alexandria* | Arlington* | Fairfax* | Loudoun* | Prince William |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hillary Clinton | 69.7 percent | 67 percent | 63 percent | 58.6 percent | 64 percent |
| Martin J. O’Malley | 0.6 percent | 0.35 percent | 0.53 percent | 0.66 percent | 0.74 percent |
| Bernie Sanders | 29.7 percent | 33 percent | 36 percent | 40.7 percent | 35 percent |
| Donald Trump | 19 percent | 16.8 percent | 25 percent | 27.9 percent | 33.1 percent |
| Marco Rubio | 47 percent | 49.7 percent | 40 percent | 40 percent | 33.5 percent |
| Ted Cruz | 7.6 percent | 8 percent | 12.9 percent | 14.9 percent | 17 percent |
| John Kasich | 23 percent | 23 percent | 17.6 percent | 11 percent | 9 percent |
