Ralph Northam rose quickly to become governor of Virginia. He could fall even faster

Written by Trip Gabriel and Alan Blinder (reports by Sarah Mervosh and Hawes Spencer)

The night of his election in 2017 as governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam spoke of the US racial fault lines, which he said were exacerbated by the White House and ignited his own fight.

"Virginia told us to put an end to divisions, not to tolerate hate and fanaticism – and to end the politics that tore this country apart," he said, adding, "It will take a doctor to resolve our differences ".

Northam's personal past opened his wounds this weekend, threatening to end his tenure as governor 15 months after a decisive victory.

The governor denied having posed for a racist photo published in the directory of his medical faculty and refused to resign despite intense pressure from his own Democratic party.

Northam, 59, currently occupies a prominent position at the top of a political scale that he has climbed in 10 years, aided by his pediatrician, army officer and senior officer biography. Virginian rural in a state where Democrats have little strength outside cities and suburbs. .

His discreet attitude, which during the election campaign had been rebaduring for a doctor, had appeared to oppose Northam at a press conference Saturday at the Executive Mansion in Richmond, suggesting a kind of forgetfulness. At one point, he seemed about to show Michael Jackson's moonwalk – which he'd already done in a dance contest by wearing waxed shoes to darken his face – until his wife, Pam, who was standing next to him, whispers: "Inappropriate Circumstances."

Northam was recruited into politics in 2007 by Levar Stoney, then leader of the Democratic party and currently mayor of Richmond. He gave Northam the nickname "blue crab" because of its roots on the east coast of the state, center of the crab and oyster fishery and agriculture. Stoney, an African-American, was one of the Democratic leaders who called on the governor to resign.

Northam was raised in a Bay of Chesapeake Bay, son of a judge and heir to a long line in the county of Accomack, which is racially diverse. Today, Onanbad, the small town where he grew up, pbades past cotton fields, barns with collapsed roofs and rusty rails of a moribund railroad. Antique shops and real estate agencies line Market Street's handful of commercial blocks.

The governor attended the Virginia Military Institute for his undergraduate degree and then the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk.

At the medical school – where the 1984 yearbook included the photo that now threatens Northam's career – the future governor sometimes seemed "a little lacking in security," recalls Dr. Rob Marsh, a roommate on Saturday.

Marsh, who has lived with Northam for two years, said he had no memory of the image or any event that might take it. It shows two people, one dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member and the other in blackface, and appears on the personal page of Northam's personal directory.

"I do not remember this event, this image or anything about this image," said Marsh. "I'm stunned by that. That makes no sense to me: he has never made racist comments, ethnic insults or even jokes. "

Northam first acknowledged that it was him on the photo during his first appearance on Friday, but he reversed the course the next day stating that after examining it more closely, he had concluded that it was not him. He also revealed that he had darkened his face for the Michael Jackson costume the same year after entering the army.

Northam served for eight years as an army doctor, including treating the wounded of the Desert Storm operation at a medical center in Germany, and was a chief resident of the Johns Hospital. Hopkins in Baltimore.

He then returned to Norfolk to raise two children with his wife and start a career as a pediatric neurologist, particularly interesting in epilepsy. He has also been a volunteer director of a children's hospice.

Democrats who urged him to stand for election in 2007 ignored his past two-time voting for George W. Bush as president and, as an elected representative, Northam has always been a liberal, often leader, on issues social.

In the Virginia Senate, he led an effort to ban smoking in restaurants. He then stood up in front of the Senate to explain that a Republican bill requiring an ultrasound before an abortion would subject women to invasive "transbadl" probes. This phrase provoked many criticisms and mockery of the bill, which Republicans adopted after revising it to allow the choice of an external ultrasound.

Both problems raised Northam's profile. In 2013, he was elected Lieutenant Governor on a ticket led by Governor Terry McAuliffe, a more flamboyant and nationally known personality.

The 2017 election season brought the bitter and never-buried racial history of the state to the fore. White nationalists carrying torches flocked to Charlottesville to protest the withdrawal of Confederate monuments. After the violent death of a counter-protester, President Donald Trump said that there were "very good people" on both sides.

Northam then used his medical skills to badess the president's psychiatric condition.

"Being a pediatrician taught me to listen carefully," he said in a primary advertisement that began with a video clip showing a boy's stethoscope exam and ending with the following statement: He is a narcissistic maniac. "

In presenting himself as governor, Northam learned that his ancestors owned slaves. "The complex story of my family is similar to Virginia's complex history," he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "We are a progressive state, but we used to have the largest number of slaves in the union."

Northam Republican opponent Ed Gillespie closed his campaign by raising fears of violent Latino gangs and accusing Northam of supporting "sanctuary" cities. He lost 9 percentage points, which was widely perceived as a repudiation of the Trump era 's strongly racialized politics.

The governors of Virginia, who can not claim consecutive terms, often go to the US Senate or consider presidential elections, but it was thought that Northam had reached his highest office well before the current scandal.

He nevertheless achieved the main goal of Democratic policy to expand the benefits of Medicaid, which had eluded McAuliffe during his four years in office. Northam also helped attract Amazon to northern Virginia, one of two sites in its second headquarters, which will generate thousands of high-paying technology jobs in the region.

And from this weekend, his long-time medical practice always mentioned him among its suppliers.

Asked Saturday at the end of the press conference about the potential impact of the scandal on his medical practice, especially with patients of color, Northam responded: the same way. No one has ever thought me or accused me of being racist, and if and when I practice again, I will continue in the same direction. "