answers: Ralph Northam
context: election, defeating Kim Guadagno, with 55.6% vote to 42.3%. Governor Terry McAuliffe won election with 48% of the vote in 2013. McAuliffe was term-limited in 2017. Virginia is the only state that prohibits its Governor from serving consecutive terms. Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam was the Democratic nominee for governor. Northam defeated former U.S. Representative Tom Perriello in the gubernatorial primary in June 2017. Former chairman of the Republican National Committee and 2014 United States Senate nominee Ed Gillespie was the Republican nominee for governor. Gillespie defeated State Senator Frank Wagner, and Chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors </s> took place during the first term of President Donald Trump, a Republican who won the 2016 presidential election. Democrats fielded a larger number of candidates than usual in hopes of defying Trump. While 17 Republican delegates' districts backed Clinton, none of the Democrats' districts backed Trump. For this reason, Democrats focused more on picking up seats than on defending seats. Early on, it was expected that Republicans would hold the majority, but Democrats became more optimistic following the unexpectedly close result in Kansas's 4th congressional district special election. Likewise, after Jacqueline Smith won the election for Prince William County Clerk </s> by the fact that governors are barred from serving consecutive terms, a constitutional provision that distinguishes Virginia from any other state. After decades of Democratic rule in the Virginia General Assembly, Republicans took control around the turn of the 21st century and promptly redistricted to protect their incumbents. In 2005 Tim Kaine, Warner's lieutenant governor, won the governor's office over Jerry Kilgore and "independent Republican" state senator Russ Potts. In 2006, Jim Webb narrowly defeated George Allen in the wake of the Macaca slur incident. The electorate's reaction to Allen's gaffe demonstrated the changing sensibilities of the region's citizens; prior
question: who won the virginia governor race in 2017