Virginia voters head to the polls in governor's race seen as referendum on Biden and Trump
CBSN
Former Democratic Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin are locked in a tight race for Virginia governor, and the end result may provide signs for both parties on what it takes to win in the post-Trump era, as well as during Mr. Biden's first year in office.
A Republican hasn't won statewide in Virginia since 2009, one year into former President Obama's first term, when Republican Robert McDonnell won the governor's race by 17 points. For over 40 years, the party in control of the White House lost Virginia's governor's mansion the next year, but McAuliffe broke that streak in 2013.
Throughout the summer, McAuliffe maintained a single-digit lead over Youngkin in public polls, though Youngkin put campaign advertisements on the airwaves weeks before McAuliffe.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.