Virginians showed up in record numbers for Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary, leading a national wave of strong voter turnout that analysts said is all about defeating President Trump.
Roughly 1.3 million Virginia voters cast ballots, about 21 percent of the electorate, according to unofficial results. That’s up from the previous record of about 986,000 votes and 18 percent of the electorate in 2008, when Barack Obama was challenging Hillary Clinton for the party’s nomination.
Back then, voters sensed history in Obama potentially becoming the first African American nominated by a major party. Tuesday’s turnout was different.
Exit polling showed that most voters were seeking a candidate — any candidate — to defeat Trump. Virginia, which has undergone a dramatic blue shift since Trump’s win in 2016, responded more eagerly than any other state. Its turnout represented a 69 percent increase over the 2016 primary, compared to an average jump of 33 percent across nine Super Tuesday states in which the vote count is complete or has been projected by Edison Media Research.
The second-biggest increase was 60 percent in Texas.
“The interest . . . in defeating Donald Trump is so intense that it’s almost unprecedented,” Richmond political scientist Bob Holsworth said.
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