A "Republican" who has previous run as a Democrat and has voted for Democrats in all recent presidential elections. This says less about any shift in the electorate than it does about the extremism of the Seattle left.
No incumbent governor of Virginia can run for the office, for terms may not be consecutive. In fact, few who have been elected governor of Virginia have ever run again. There were questions raised about the legality of McAuliffe's running.
And I'm not sure that anyone has ever been terribly inspired by Terry McAuliffe.
Phil Murphy ran for governor of NJ essentially on the promise of legal recreational weed. He did so beating out the NJ Democratic Machine, lead by the Norcross family.
Knowing that weed was Murphy's #1 campaign promise, the NJ Democrat machine did everything they could to bring it to a halt. That was lead by Senate president Steve Sweeney. Eventually weed was legalized via referendum, but they're still slow walking dispensaries. And I'm guessing weed was not the only thing they slow walked him on.
As a result, Murphy's election was painfully close, and Sweeney lost to this guy who paid $153 for his campaign.
I think you're underselling the accomplishment. Most people tend to vote party lines regardless of how bad their candidate is. I've seen it personally with family members and friends, even if they are under investigation for corruption. Usually in deep red/blue states the other party is normally very moderate.
This is probably reflective of the two parties' lock on the election mechanics and the appeal of a candidate at an alternative end of an Overton Window.
Reminiscent of 1991 Edwards vs Duke, "Vote for the Crook, It's Important" LA governor election (without casting either Seattle party as the crook or the wizard).
You ever go running with an energetic medium-large dog? Sometimes they are just so excited they want to sprint away, much faster than you can possibly bring yourself to go. It's not that you wouldn't love to go that fast, you just can't, and you have to pull the younger, more dependent dog back to a tolerable pace for you. You're still running, just at a pace that doesn't cause injury. You're also making sure that the dog doesn't get off the leash and cause any harm or get unintentionally harmed.
NJ and Virginia governorships were both supposed to be easy wins for incumbent Democrats. So far, one has lost and one is too close to call.